Heat is finally on for Ireland’s athletes

Athlone IT’s indoor track can make Irish athletics stand out from the crowd, writes Feidhlim Kelly

Setting foot in the new national athletics indoor arena in Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) on Tuesday night reminded me of the first day of term on a college campus — an unbridled and innocent energy full of hopes and dreams.

An indoor arena in Ireland has been promised since the late 70s — a time when Eamon Coghlan presided as ‘Chairman of the Boards’ selling out indoor arenas across North America. The likelihood of a world class indoor arena in Ireland was about as plausible as Lenny and George getting their white picket fence and colony of rabbits in John Steinbeck’s classic novel Of Mice and Men.