Talent is there but must be fast-tracked

Athletics/European Championships: Ian O'Riordan takes stock after a week that hinted at great potential for further Irish success

Whenever there are TV crews and photographers to welcome home an Irish athletics team it suggests a successful trip. Derval O'Rourke's silver-medal run in the 100-metre hurdles alone ensured that, but what happened for her team-mates in Gothenburg last week was an even mix of highs and lows, sprinkled with lots of promise from the younger, emerging athletes.

How well that promise is nurtured over the next four years is what could make for an even more successful Irish involvement at the European Championships in Barcelona in 2010.

With 29 of the 49 competing nations managing to win at least one medal in Gothenburg, O'Rourke's silver left Ireland in joint 23rd - which indicates just how many nations are competitive at European level.

When top-eight placings were taken into account, Ireland ranked 29th. Russia headed both lists by a distance. Sweden were sixth on the medal table - ahead of such traditional athletics powers as Portugal (eighth), Italy (ninth) and Britain (10th).

Anyway, the fact three of Ireland's five finalists were competing in their first major championship reflects the above-mentioned promise: 22-year-old Joanne Cuddihy (400 metres), 23-year-old Liam Reale (1,500 metres) and 24-year-old Deirdre Ryan (high jump) could well be challenging for medals in four years' time.

Elsewhere, 23-year-old Mary Cullen improved her best by 16 seconds in the 5,000 metres, run as a straight final. And the women's 100-metre relay team - which included 22-year-old Ailis McSweeney and 23-year-old Anna Boyle - improved the national record. That's definitely promising.

O'Rourke, who has become expert in getting the best out of herself when it matters most, has her own ideas on the issue of developing promise.

"I always felt the European Championships is a place a lot of Irish athletes can make a breakthrough," she says, "maybe qualify for a final, or whatever. It is a lot harder at World Championship level. Even just to qualify.

"And I reckon a lot of Irish athletes have come here and shown great potential. The likes of Deirdre Ryan and Liam Reale. And Joanne Cuddihy was phenomenal. Making that 400-metre final was a huge step-up. And the fact she's a little disappointed with the way she ran just shows how hungry she is.

"So I do think we need to look again at how we support our athletes and not just wait until people get medals to help them out. I think we need to put a little more faith in them. It's two years to the (Beijing) Olympics, and six years to London. We can't have this attitude that we're just not good enough, because we are good enough."

Of course there was disappointment as well, and clearly O'Rourke felt for the likes of David Gillick, who looked so good in his 400-metre heats but dropped off the pace in his semi-final.

"David Gillick has a European indoor title," adds O'Rourke, "and I know he can build on that, and he will build on that, if he's given time. People just need to get all the support they can. We have that new Institute of Sport coming down the road, and hopefully that will help. I don't know the ins and outs of it, so we'll see. But I just think we can do a whole lot more."

The only touchy subject as the Irish team left Gothenburg yesterday was whether Alistair Cragg had erred in keeping his Achilles injury quiet going into Sunday's 5,000-metre final. It was clearly bothering him for some weeks, and it might have been better to mention the problem rather than repeatedly talk up his tactics and chances.

Team manager Patsy McGonagle, however, reckons Cragg made the right decision - not just in running through the pain for as long as possible but also in keeping quiet on the injury.

"We decided to keep it under wraps," he revealed. "We were sharing the same hotel as the Spanish and the British, and there was no point in giving them any ups on this. And at least that worked out well.

"But he wanted to have a go, and he had a go.

"It was a big blow to the team, but most of all for the athlete himself. But there'll be other days for him."

At 26, Cragg's immediate goal will be to give the injury time to heal.

There is a European cross country championship in Turin in December to aim for, but in his heart Cragg will know that no matter what happens there, the only thing that will compensate for Gothenburg is going to Barcelona in 2010 and winning gold. For him and several other promising Irish athletes, the countdown starts now.