ATHLETICS:Kenenisa Bekele will probably dominate the field in Edinburgh but the day will lose something in the absence of a rare Irish talent, Drogheda's Keith Kelly, writes Ian O'Riordan

PAT O'SULLIVAN was our maths teacher back in the old school days at De La Salle Churchtown. Pat was a man of frightening intellect. His unassuming wisdom and philosophy went way beyond the subject of maths and I often wish I'd paid more attention.

"Listen now, lads," Pat would tell us, as his class frequently shifted from lesson to sermon, "if it won't come easy, it won't come at all."

This was one of his many favourite expressions - along with "when the manure hits the fan" - and while he may have been referring to the theorems of Pythagoras, it clearly had universal application. When it comes to athletics - be that running, jumping or throwing - what doesn't feel easy, or at least feel right, will rarely come at all.

Some people still believe hard work and dedication is the only path to sporting success. Well I've got news for you: it's not going to happen. Without what we loosely term talent, or that innate ability to excel where others struggle, all the training and willpower in the world won't turn you into a champion.

Take Kenenisa Bekele from Ethiopia. Now here's what I'm talking about. Bekele is possibly the most naturally gifted athlete on the planet, not because he runs most long distances faster than everyone else, but because he makes it seem easy.

Before the cynics raise eyebrows here's a story about the first time I saw Bekele run.

At the 2001 World Cross Country in Ostend, Belgium, a group of us were walking the far sections of the course before the senior races when suddenly this ridiculously relaxed runner came sweeping past. He was leading the junior men's race by a considerable margin, as if jogging, and duly ended up winning by a record 33 seconds.

Someone pointed out this was Kenenisa Bekele, who apparently had also finished second in the senior men's short-course race the day before (which he had, losing by a mere two seconds). This was only the second or third time he'd been outside Ethiopia, yet here he was, a tender 18, already dominating his sport with consummate ease.

Bekele took to distance running the way Jimi Hendrix took to guitar and Rudolf Nureyev took to ballet.

The following year, when Leopardstown hosted the event, Bekele won both senior races, long and short, helping himself to two team silver medals as well. He retained those titles every year up to 2006, which brought his individual gold medal total to a record 11, and his combined total, team medals included, to 25 (15 gold, eight silver, two bronze).

By then, Bekele's record on track and country had him considered by most as the "greatest of all time" - rivalled only by his Ethiopian compatriot Haile Gebrselassie, who in fact would not touch him in cross-country.

Even the most insanely talented athletes are, however, only human, and at last year's World Cross Country in Kenya, when the event reverted to the winner-takes-all long course, Bekele was finally undone, dropping out and surrendering his title to Zersenay Tadese from Eritrea.

Inevitably, talk of Bekele's demise began. He is known to enjoy the good life and is no stranger to the nightclubs of Addis Ababa. When his fiancée died tragically in 2005 he was close to quitting, but when you are as brilliant as Bekele, it's a little easier to endure those setbacks. Last November, he wed the Ethiopian film star Danawit Gebregziabhar.

He's now a very wealthy man, by any standards, and admits the temptations of that wealth are hard to resist, as suggested in this excerpt from a recent Track and Field News interview (and pardon his English): Q: What is your favourite ice cream flavour? Bekele: "I like to eat ice cream, but sometimes I don't want to have it: farts and so on and so on. That's why I don't prefer that one. And I don't want to eat too much ice cream and become a big person (gestures with hands and smiles)."

Tomorrow afternoon in Edinburgh, Bekele intends to regain his world title, and this is one great distance race not to be missed. Victory would bring him a record sixth individual senior long-course title, surpassing the five he shares with the Kenyans John Ngugi and Paul Tergat. I believe he will win.

There's a list of Irish athletes with great natural ability, similar to Bekele's, and they hardly need recounting here. One I would always put on that list is Keith Kelly, who may be vaguely familiar to some yet is now largely forgotten by many.

Kelly won the national junior cross-country title in 1995 and 1996 and also won the 1996 senior schools title in the colours of St Mary's, Drogheda. His loping stride and effortless efficiency were awesome to behold and earned him the nickname "the white Kenyan".

His ability earned him a scholarship to Providence College, Rhode Island, and eight years ago he claimed the ultimate honour in US collegiate distance running when winning the NCAA cross-country title. This race represents the definitive goal of every college athlete in America and is damn hard to win. Neil Cusack remains the only other Irish-born winner of the men's race, in 1972, and John Treacy famously finished second in 1979, despite being the reigning World Cross Country champion.

Since then, however, Kelly has endured what can only be described as a nightmare series of injuries. Stress fractures, hernias, muscle tears: you name it, he has had it.

He's still based in the Boston area and I'd practically forgotten about him too, although our paths did briefly cross as I pushed my way toward the front of a Coldplay concert at Marley Park a couple of summers ago.

Then, earlier this month, Kelly was named on the Ireland team for tomorrow's race. So I sent him an email, looking forward to recounting his return to competition, and got this replay: "Ian, I just hit a major roadblock. I just tore the medial meniscus and damaged the medial cruciate ligament during a long tempo run. I am most certainly off the team and I am getting surgery at the weekend. It is the latest setback in what seems to be a never-ending cycle of injury. Best, Keith."

He recently turned 30, and while it's hard to see him returning to the international stage, he at least has one thing on his side: when Kelly runs it comes easy, and that's still good enough for now.