Worlds are no place for B-standard athletes

ATHLETICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:IF MOST athletes, spectators and mascot lovers left Berlin and the 12th World Championships thinking "follow that", there could be some hard times ahead.

It may be a little premature to criticise the IAAF decision to select Daegu, Korea as the venue for the 2011 championships, but for Athletics Ireland the more pressing task of building on the relative success of last week’s proceedings begins now.

They came away from Berlin with plenty of pointers and a few difficult lessons. Athletics remains not only the one truly global sport, with 202 nations represented in Berlin, but also an extremely competitive one.

Surprisingly, and certainly against most expectations, Ireland ended up 23rd on the final placing table, which is determined not just by medallists but all top eight finishers across all events. This placed us ahead of several traditionally strong athletic nations including New Zealand, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.

Olive Loughnane’s silver medal in the 20km walk was clearly the high point, but fourth for Derval O’Rourke in the 100 metres hurdles, sixth for David Gillick in the 400 metres, and even the final ranking of 10th for Paul Hession in the 200 metres would suggest there are good times ahead.

Not necessarily so.

Ireland team manager in Berlin Patsy McGonagle has admitted there was also a big reality check in Berlin and the days of sending athletes on B standards may well to over.

“Obviously getting three of our athletes into top six positions is a very, very good achievement,” he said, “and putting things in the context of Europe we also did very well in some other events, but beyond that there was the reality check of seeing some of our athletes not progress the way we would have hoped nor indeed handle the situation particularly well. So in terms of the total team performance it would still have to be regarded as a mixed bag.”

Four of the 14 Irish athletes who came to Berlin qualified on B-standards, and McGonagle suggested that policy would have to be re-examined: “My view on leaving Berlin is that the World Championships are no place for B-standard athletes. The reality is we have tried the B-standard athletes in the last three championships and there hasn’t been any great progress, or I suppose any great surprises. This world stage isn’t a B-standard stage.

“At the same time I think there can be some exceptions to that, in the case of developing athletes, say under-23 athletes. For example, a Kelly Proper in the long jump, or a Brian Gregan in the 400 metres, would fall into that development category and would benefit from the experience. That’s only my personal opinion, but it will be the argument I’ll be bringing forward to Athletics Ireland.”

Berlin, in fact, equalled Ireland’s previous most successful World Championships, in Stuttgart in 1993, and surpassed Helsinki 1983, Gothenburg 1995, and Osaka last year, and is well ahead of Rome 1987, Tokyo 1991, Edmonton 2001, and Helsinki 2005 – where Ireland failed to get any athletes into the top eight.

However, the internal crisis which has fairly crippled Athletics Ireland in the first half of the year is still dragging on. As an association they are still without a director of athletics, a chief executive, and also a high performance manager, although McGonagle claimed this had little or no impact on performances in Berlin.

“In fairness, those issues were not raised by any of the athletes out here. Most athletes at this level are more or less on an island of their own. If they’ve got to this level then they’ve already found the support systems they need.

“But that’s not saying it’s not absolutely desirable to fill those positions as soon as possible. I would have to say that if this is allowed to drag on for much longer then we will definitely see our developing athletes start to suffer, the under-23s and junior athletes. They are the ones who need the structure and direction and leadership that these positions bring.”

McGonagle is expected to continue as Ireland team manager through next summer’s European Championships, and given the success in Berlin (both O’Rourke and Gillick were the top Europeans in their event) there is clearly plenty to look forward to there: “That I think will be an opportunity to bring a big squad, and a few more developing athletes, because obviously it’s not as hugely competitive as the World Championships.

“It will be the chance to blood some new athletes into the squad, because the squad we had in Berlin were actually quite established over the past number of years. And in fairness they have been fairly well supported by us, financially and otherwise.

“We all know times are getting tough, and we’re going to have to see what happens. But one hopes that the Irish Sports Council would be allowed to continue to support athletics on the level they have, even within their budgetary constraints. They have been proactive and positive in that regard for the past few years.”

It remains to be seen how well Daegu in 2011 matches up to Berlin, particularly when what helped make these championships so memorable were the eager crowds and successful athletes of the host nation – neither of which can be expected in Korea.

“The atmosphere and entertainment of these championship was excellent,” said McGonagle. “And it just underlines the scale of this sport. A guy like Usain Bolt has pushed the sport back to the front in a global sense. That’s been good for the sport, and at the same time we’ve seen as well how more and more countries are finding it difficult to compete.

“Particularly those in a Western society. I don’t know if it’s because people aren’t as tough as they used to be in terms of commitment and discipline and so on.”