Options are unlimited for gifted McIlroy

Sean Kyle thought he'd have a chuckle in Budapest. When the media gathered around, the coach of 800 metre runner James McIlroy announced that his fourth-placed athlete in the European final was on large doses of BHW.

Red mist descended. "Is it anything like EPO?" they inquired somewhat astonished. "No," said Kyle, letting them stew a little. "BHW - Bloody Hard Work."

He laughs. "That got them jumping," he declares.

But McIlroy running the two-lap event looks anything but hard work and certainly David Matthews and James Nolan, who McIlroy has leap-frogged in the Irish rankings, aren't smiling. A 31-year-old head on a body 10 years younger, the novice seems already at ease among the best in Europe.

His work is only beginning, however. Just outside the medals in Hungary, and the Grand Prix circuit still refuses to take notice.

With streams of top class runners emerging every year from African countries and many with faster times, getting into a good meeting remains a stumbling block. McIlroy only received confirmation on Thursday evening of his run on Friday in the Brussels Grand Prix event. His sixth place and modest 45.83 time could easily have been put down to the dash to get to Brussels in just 24 hours. His 50.2 second first lap and 26-second 20-metre finish perhaps says more.

"I was hoping he'd get into something," says Kyle. "The type of times they were looking for in Brussels are 1:42.76, 1:43.03, 1:43.12. I'm just looking down the list and that's what these guys are running. All week we'd been looking at Brussels, Reiti or Berlin this week. We simply wait to see."

At the beginning of the season McIlroy set himself a target of running a 1:47, but in his first race out he ran 1:48, so he knew then the target could easily be revised.

He can now visualise himself running almost four seconds faster - if he gets the right race.

"I'd love to get a fast race because I think there is a little bit there yet," says McIlroy. "I'd like to get down to a very low 1:44.

"It's getting the race, though. If you can get into fast races then you've a good chance of doing it." But Kyle says it's chicken and egg. "You need fast races for times but you need the times to get into fast races."

At 21 McIlroy can afford to be philosophical. His latent talent is immense and already he appears to have consumed three years of experience in just three months. Now dicing with the upper end of the 800-metre market, his learning curve is streaking towards an Olympic final in two years' time. With the Kyles, Maeve and Sean, behind him, a steady hand remains on the rudder.

"He's operating on a system we've built up over the last 40 years. James is running off the same system, maybe a little bit more refined," says Kyle.

"You've also got to buy your experience little by little. While we'd like another race it's also no good racing all over the place, bleaching out at the end of the season."

McIlroy's decision to run for Ireland rather than Britain has added to the progressive feel athletics currently possesses. His Antrim roots afford him dual citizenship, but the stories at large about Britain ringing him three days after he had agreed to run for Ireland are nonsense. Britain, through the Northern Ireland Athletics Association, had studiously ignored the Irishman's times for quite some time. For reasons best known only to officials McIlroy was even omitted from the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games team. No one came knocking on his door except BLE.

But the Kyles have always held a close association with Irish sport. Maeve ran for Ireland in three Olympic games. In Melbourne 1956 and Rome 1960 she competed in the 100 metres and 200 metres and in Tokyo 1964 moved up to the 400 metres and 800 metres events where she reached the semi-finals. In her earlier days she was an Irish hockey international.

"He did exactly the right thing in deciding to run for Ireland,["] says Sean.

"There is an attractive ambience about the Irish team and Ireland is going forward in athletics at this point. I've been through the whole damn thing, Olympic squads, British squads, and the Irish set-up is brilliant. It is organised, professional, it understands and it is caring. James is entirely happy with that decision.

"And Sonia (O'Sullivan) ran in Budapest with a black ribbon on her singlet. That meant a lot to us up here. It meant a lot."

"I'll take a four-week break and then sit down and discuss the winter and early season," McIlroy says, looking ahead. "There's talk of altitude training. If you do it right it works, but I'm really not yet sure. My agent is also talking of South Africa to run and train but you can get lost in that. You know, it's just race, race, race." Whether it's Berlin or the British Milers Club event on September 5th, McIlroy has whetted appetites. His dosage of BHW has brought him from nowhere to a feeling of disappointment of not winning a medal in his first European Championships. The runner is a gem. Next season European promoters may not have to look only to the African horizon to find class athletes to fill their lanes.