What if we could bottle the innocence and excitement of youth?

Schools athletics is a wonderful antidote to the cynicism which has captured athletics globally at the highest level, writes Paul Rouse

You hear them before you see them. And it’s something glorious: the high- pitched, joyous, unending scream of children at a sports day.

The sun is burning the sky and over in the stand, there are kids up on the seats, jumping and yelling; along the railings, others are straining out over the track, roaring support and clapping; and, a little further away, all around the lovely ampitheatre that is the Morton Stadium in Santry there are groups of primary schoolchildren, their teachers, and a speckle of parents.