Ireland's golden future

HAS Irish athletics taken a dramatic turn for the better? That was the question on everyone's mind - if not lips - in the Spanish capital yesterday as the ramifications of Saturday's golden track double begin to sink in.

Few will forget the Palacio de Deportes Comunidad de Madrid when David Gillick swept to victory in the men's 400m final at the European indoor championships. While he was being presented with his gold medal, Alistair Cragg, draped in the Tricolour, was doing his lap of honour after a runaway victory in the 3,000m final. There have been double gold medal performances at major championships in the past - Marcus O'Sullivan and Frank O'Mara did it at the world indoor championships in Indianapolis in 1987 and Sonia O'Sullivan did it back to back at the world cross-country championships in Marrakech and the European track and field championships in Budapest in 1998.

But never before was there such a raid on the bullion on the same day, and the fans who travelled enjoyed it as much as the athletes themselves.

Irish athletics has been taking a hammering in recent times but this could be just the boost it needs to turn things around. The sport has grabbed the attention of the nation and now the aim must be to keep it.

Alistair Cragg has promised much since he declared for Ireland, and he wore the vest and carried the flag with pride on Saturday and again at the medal presentation yesterday. Now he wants to do more than win medals. He wants to inspire others to do the same and singling David Gillick out as a perfect example of what can be done in Ireland.

"After the Olympics there was a lot of fear amongst athletes - fear of the media and fear of what people were saying," he said. "I heard about this group of 400m runners who were doing well and then I watched him run that race and saw there was no fear from him. Mark (Carroll) and myself were screaming him on from the warm-up area. You could see from 150 metres out that he had the race won.

"Three years ago you would never have said David was going to get a gold medal at the European championships, but it shows that we have juniors not far away from the world's best. They may not have the fast times of some athletes but they are out there and they need to be recognised and encouraged.

"I disappeared from the sport for three years and then I stopped running for seven months before John McDonnell picked me up. That's why I give everything to (Arkansas-based coach) McDonnell. He put me back, but it shows that you never lost too much. You never fall off the train if you have the ability.

"I am not a professor in the sport but I know that if you have that ability to compete and the confidence to do it you are almost there."

His proud parents were track-side on Saturday night draped in two Irish flags to watch Cragg win his first international gold medal. His mother's grandparents came from Killarney and Dublin - his father's from Belfast but now they live in London and can't wait to come to live in Ireland.

"Alistair has had his Irish passport since he was eight. We always wanted him to compete for Ireland," his father, Raymond, said. "Myself and his mother (Jill) were very proud when he declared for Ireland. It was what we always wanted."

400m hero David Gillick has promised himself a busy summer after his stellar display. But yesterday he was still soaking in his first major international success.

"I think about that lap of honour with everyone cheering and clapping and it makes me want to do it all over again. It is the stuff you dream about as a kid.

Gillick also urged the Irish sports authorities to invest in the future of athletics in this country. "The Sports Council should be looking at grassroots - that's where the talent has to be nurtured. You reap what you sow. I was running world class before I came here but if I bombed out in the final - just one race - I would not get a world class grant. And it is time we took a look at facilities. People are blue in the face trying to get things built but nothing has happened. Yet we came out here with 16 athletes and we will leave with two gold medals. You can only imagine what we could do if we had facilities."

The Irish adventure ended in pain yesterday for 60m hurdler Derval O'Rourke, when she went over on her ankle in the semi-finals as she cleared the third hurdle. She finished the race but team doctor Dr Brendan O'Brien whisked her away to hospital for an X-ray.

Team manager Paddy Marley said: "there is bruising and swelling. She will be OK." The 23-year-old Leevale athlete had set a new Irish record at 8.02 secs in her first-round heat.