A moment of arrival for Ciara Neville, packed into 11.33 blissful seconds of blazing speed, which passed by in a bright, brilliant blur.

Scintillating, thrilling and full of potential - Ciara Mageean has moved considerably closer to Sonia O’Sullivan’s long-standing Irish women’s mile record by carving three-and-a-half seconds off her lifetime best in Monaco, in a race where the vintage world record was smashed by Sifan Hassan.

A key test, passed with flying colours. For a golden generation of young athletes, Saturday’s National Junior and U-23 Championships proved a low-key but high-intensity examination of their fitness as they prepare to take their talents to a bigger stage.

Ireland’s Leon Reid has finished sixth in the men’s 200m at the Diamond League meeting in Rabat.

When the dust has settled, the medals safely stowed away, the question is not so much about what Irish athletes achieved at last weekend’s European Indoor Championships, but how they did it.

A strong Irish team of 16 athletes have been selected for next month's European Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow.

Phil Healy and Ciara Mageean starred internationally with good early season form while there was a host of championship best performances at the Irish Life Health U20 & U23 Championships in Athlone over the weekend.

On a day that celebrated the past, it was hard not to look to the future. Yesterday’s National Athletics Awards in Blanchardstown may have brought together many current and former greats, but it wasn’t a nostalgic reflection that left a strong sense of optimism.

Medals have a habit of distracting attention, bright and shiny as they are, so to get a feel for the current state of Irish athletics after the European Championships in Berlin you have to step back from Thomas Barr’s brilliant bronze and look at the week as a whole.

Ultimately the exploits of Les Bleus won’t solve political tensions in France, says Tommy Martin

As weekends go, this was as good as it gets for Irish athletics: Two medals, five athletes, and one bright future ahead.

Limerick sprinter Ciara Neville (18), from Monaleen, is already the joint seventh fastest Irishwoman in history and was seventh in the European junior 100m final last summer. Today she is hoping to maintain her unbeaten record in the Irish Schools T&F Championships where she will be competing, for the last time, for Castletroy College, four days before she starts her Leaving Cert?

They stayed in their lanes, didn’t get disqualified, and at an event that threatened to descend into farce at one point, there’s something to be said for that.

The success or failure of the Irish team at the World Indoor Championships was always going to be decided by one athlete, and given Phil Healy managed something no Irish athlete had done since 2010, it felt a lot like the former at the close of play in Birmingham last night.

Latest: Phil Healy has become the first Irish athlete for eight years to make progress at a World Indoor Athletics Championships, writes Will Downey.

There won’t be any medals, that’s for sure, and we’re unlikely to see any Irish athlete make a final, but that’s not to say we should stick a skewer in the IAAF World Indoor Championships before they’ve even begun.

Athletics Ireland has announced four athletes for the 2018 World Indoor Championships.

Here’s a prediction: the next great Irish athlete, the one we take a hiatus from work to watch challenge for an Olympic medal, will not be a distance runner.

Amy Foster has equalled the Irish indoor 60m record to qualify for March’s World Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham, writes Will Downing.

Ireland lie seventh after the middle day of the European Athletics Team Championships in the northern Finnish city of Vaasa, with Brian Gregan scoring the only Irish victory of day two, alongside eleven top-six finishes.

An early deluge didn’t prevent some outstanding performances at the Irish Life Health All Ireland Schools Track and Field Championships in Tullamore on Saturday.

Tullamore will witness a rare family feat on Saturday.

One of longest standing records in the history books could go today at the Irish Life Health/Munster Schools T&F at Cork IT if 16-year-old Darragh McElhinney maintains the brilliant form he has shown this season.

Irish athletics faces some challenges after a difficult European Indoor Championships in Belgrade but there were some green shoots with Ciara Neville gaining valuable experience at her first senior championship.

Ciara Mageean made it through to this evening’s European Indoor 1500m final but it was far from pretty.

Ireland has one realistic medal chance as 567 athletes from 49 countries line up for the 34th European Indoor Championships, which start tomorrow in Belgrade.

Ciara Neville (Emerald) kept her cool to clinch gold after a poor start in the women’s 60m while Phil Healy (Bandon) secured the European standard for the 400m on a weekend full of back stories and close finishes at the Irish Life Health National Indoor Championships in Abbotstown, Dublin.

Ciara Neville’s life in the fast lane seemed to be running on fumes long before the Castletroy teenager had even gotten into top gear but a hard edge and support now sees her on the cusp of her first senior international championship.

Michaela Walsh once again ensured the field events took centre stage at the GloHealth National Junior and U23 Championships in Tullamore on Saturday, the Swinford thrower scoring a double in the junior women’s shot put and hammer.

Pessimism may be a tempting and often appropriate outlook when it comes to Irish athletics these days, but in Tullamore on Saturday, even the most cynical of souls couldn’t but be swayed: the future remains bright.

GloHealth All-Ireland Schools Track and Field Championships

Ciara Neville won gold yesterday in the 100m final at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Cold and damp conditions ultimately put pay to Kevin Mulcaire’s record-breaking ambitions but nothing could stop Ciara Neville lighting up the track at the GloHealth All Ireland Schools Track and Field Championships in Tullamore on Saturday.

There was double joy for Robert Heffernan (Togher AC) at the 50km race walk in Dudince, Slovakia on Saturday where he finished fourth in 3:48:44 to qualify for the World Championships in Beijing this summer and a record fifth Olympic Games.

Emerald’s Ciara Neville announced herself as a star of the future at the GloHealth National Indoor Championships in Athlone as current stars Mark English and Kelly Proper continued their dominance.