We're lucky to have such a great bunch

On Athletics:The Sports editor likes to describe these gigs as a "labour of love" and after a week in Osaka it's hard to argue with that. Despite the 17-hour working day in a shirt constantly plastered to my back with sweat there is something special about the World Championships, not just because they encapsulate all there is to love about athletics.

Being in Japan at this time of year is an experience in itself, even if the city hasn't quite warmed to the championships the way previous hosts have done. Crowds have been somewhat disappointing, but that's probably more to do with a local culture where sporting interest is clearly quite minimal.

That's not to say Osaka has not been a wonderful host city. The unfailing politeness and friendliness of the place has been infectious, and while we like to measure a person by the strength of their handshake, here it's the depth to which they lower their head when bowing. And there's been some very low bowing.

Any local who has bothered to go along to the stadium can hardly have been disappointed either, in that the quality of athletics has been up there with any other championships. Truth is you'll find more fans than journalists in the press box here, rather than the other way around. For my first championships in Seville in 1999 I barely qualified as the latter, more part-time than freelance, but was a huge fan, and those hot afternoons down by the Guadalquivir river were heavenly.

Seeing Michael Johnson run his 400-metre world record of 43.18 seconds still wasn't as good as seeing Haile Gebrselassie beat Paul Tergat in the 10,000 metres and I still think Hicham El Guerrouj winning the 1,500m in 3:27.65 was his greatest race of all.

Seville was also memorable for the hot nights in P Flaherty, a bar next to the city cathedral, where bottles of Cruzcampo lasted about three sips, and the Irish athletes would often drown their sorrows after an early elimination. There were one or two highlights, like Ciarán McDonagh making the long jump final, but it seemed back then that precious few Irish athletes could actually compete at this level.

As Sonia O'Sullivan headed into the twilight of her career that became a growing concern.

Two years later in Edmonton, this time as an experienced journalist with an expense account to match it, the Irish success was even thinner on the track. Without a single finalist there was plenty of time to explore the beautiful countryside of Alberta.

Paris in 2003, however, at last created a podium story when Gillian O'Sullivan walked 20km with amazing determination. Her silver medal was comfortably the highlight, and still most of the conversation in the bars around the Gare du Nord was about what was going wrong for the Irish. The distance runners were struggling and the sprinters, as far as we knew, were simply out of their depth. O'Sullivan, like her namesake before her, had covered up the cracks in the system of Irish athletics, and repairs were still some ways off.

So when in Helsinki two years ago Irish athletics reached something of an all-time low no one was really surprised. All this is a roundabout way of saying that the achievements of the Irish athletes in Osaka this week reached an unprecedented level. Even without winning a medal, the depth and range of performances, coupled with the exciting potential for further improvement, clearly indicates that Irish athletics is at its strongest ever footing, which going into an Olympic year is something to be very grateful for.

The Olympics still holds the ultimate sporting reverence, with athletics still very much at its centre, and to have a team of Irish athletes competing for finals in a range of events is arguably better than one big star single-handedly carrying a medal hope. At least that's the way it should be.

Paul Hession in the 200 metres, Joanne Cuddihy in the 400 metres, Eileen O'Keeffe in the hammer, and Róisín McGettigan and Fionnuala Britton in the steeplechase are, based on Osaka, all contenders for a place in the Olympic final. And of course David Gillick in the 400 metres and Derval O'Rourke in the 100 metre hurdles won't be far off either. It's hard to re-hype Alistair Cragg at this stage but if he can get his act together again then he's a potential finalist too. And we have a world-class walker in Robert Heffernan.

There's something else that has made these athletes stand head and shoulders above previous Irish teams. The way they carry themselves through the mixed zone - that walk of either love or hate for all athletes - has been nothing but impressive. Their post race comments have also been both thoughtful and engaging, leaving us with the sense that they aren't just athletes, but athletes that care deeply about their sport, how it is perceived, and most of all that they're representing their country with real pride. They are unquestionably a great bunch of athletes and we're lucky to have every one of them.

The only problem with being here, of course, is missing my other "labour of love". But a week in the mixed zone talking with these Irish athletes, as they reveal their highs and lows and loves of the sport, could hardly compare with the 30-words-an-interview of the All-Ireland press nights.