Ireland reaching for the next level

ATHLETICS IRELAND is in the process of drawing up a plan that will get more athletes front line of battle, more finance in the war chest and — if not bigger booty in the treasure chest — certainly more finalists at major championships, at the end of what promises to be five dramatic years.

While the centrepiece of the High Performance plan will be the National Indoor Athletics Training Centre (NIATC) at Abbotstown, which is scheduled to be up and running by 2012, the federation won’t be waiting around for the official opening of that vital facility.

By that time, they will have already moved on an extensive programme that will drive Irish athletics into a new era. A High Performance Centre will be set up at a revamped Morton Stadium and will be complemented by an endurance centre at DCU, Limerick or Cork; they will have identified locations for a network of five regional development centres, a series of 600m grass training tracks and there will be year-round access to highly successful warm-weather training camps, as well as an altitude training camp.