Thomas Barr heads wave of youth ready to reach for the stars

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.

Instead it was the wave of youth, a golden generation of teenage talent which has never been rivalled either in its depth or diversity of disciplines.

Just ask Thomas Barr, the European 400m hurdles bronze medallist who has again been crowned Athlete of the Year. “The sport is in a really strong place at the moment and the strength and depth in the youths and juniors is amazing,” he said.

“If we can get them pulled through to senior level we’re in a really strong position.”

For those pulling the strings of power, therein lies the rub, the performance conundrum that will determine the perceived health of the sport which, for better or worse, will be judged on the results at major championships.

After finally winning the major championship medal an athlete of his calibre so richly deserved, Barr was always a lock for the two awards he picked up yesterday, though the depth of competition he saw off spoke volumes.

There was Phil Healy, who this year became the fastest Irishwoman of all time over both 100m and 200m; Ciara Mageean, whose superb return to the top tier probably warranted the bronze medal she missed out on by just one place in the European 1500m final; Leon Reid, a British-born sprinter with Irish blood who won a 200m medal at the Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland then had a serious cut at doing the same for Ireland at the Europeans in Berlin. And that’s before we get to the youngsters, a generation gifted with an astonishing range of ability.

Barr aside, there was no individual performance in Irish athletics as strong as Sommer Lecky’s — her silver medal in the women’s high jump at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, proved as shocking to everyone else as it was to her.

The 18-year-old deservedly took home the U20 Athlete of the Year award yesterday, and given the dizzying height she cleared to win that silver medal (1.90m), the Strabane student now finds herself just inches shy of the very best seniors, with all the time in the world left to catch them.

On these pages earlier this year, I argued more investment should be channelled towards sprints coaching in Ireland, but what Lecky achieved under the stewardship of coach Niall Wilkinson shows that jumpers — so often underfunded and overlooked — possess the same world-beating potential.

But the Irish are turning into a nation where speed, not stamina, is the key identifying trait. The trend has moved that way for years, accelerated by a distance-running decline, and it was again brought home at the World U20 Championships in July.

Molly Scott, Gina Akpe-Moses, Rhasidat Adeleke, Ciara Neville, and Patience Jumbo-Gula won Ireland its first relay medal in a major outdoor championship, taking silver behind Germany in the 4x100m. In their ranks lie the bones of a team that could mature into Olympic finalists.

Even the most sceptical judge couldn’t help but raise an optimistic eyebrow at the breadth of brilliance.

Arriving on stage in her school uniform yesterday — whisked straight from class at Holy Child Killiney — was Sarah Healy, whose feat in winning double gold at the European U18 Championships may well prove just the early embers in a career that could blaze on the biggest stage.

That, of course, is an unnecessary look to the future during a year in which athletics has a right to feel positive about the present.

As Barr put it yesterday: “For a year where there was so much going on elsewhere in sport, athletics was still at the forefront and getting coverage in national papers. It was really put on the map from youth and junior all the way up to senior. It’s in a really good place.”