ATHLETICS:There is an unwritten rule in sport that says if you're good enough then you're old enough, and two headline events in Belfast last weekend adhered to it, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

A STRANGER walks into the Odyssey Arena in Belfast last weekend and straightaway gets a little confused. He sees one youngster after another winning an Irish senior title. He sees one youngster beaten and almost in tears. He sees some youngsters with black ribbons pinned to their vests. He sees no fear and no envy and only the leanest of the lean. In a country littered with the wreckage of our excesses it seems they’re all natural-born winners.

Sometimes the young don’t know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation.

Actually, it was Pearl S Buck who said that, and she knew what she was talking about. We wouldn’t want to be depending on our new political leaders to achieve anything, would we?

Indeed, not all youth is wasted on the young. If last weekend’s National Indoor Championships are anything to go by, then at least Irish distance running is in capable hands. There is still nothing more common in this sport than wasted talent, and that’s part of the deal. What is certain is that the amount of young talent on show in Belfast was a little frightening – in the positively startling sense.

I certainly can’t remember the last time an 18-year-old failed to win an Irish senior title and it was talked about as some sort of massive upset.

The problem there, of course, is that Ciara Mageean has set such high expectations for herself. She came to Belfast last weekend seeking a fourth senior title in succession, having first won the 1,500 metres back in 2008, as a mere 15-year-old, knocking two seconds off the then national junior record. She defended that title in 2009, breaking her national junior record, then last year moved down to the 800 metres, and after leading from gun to tape, also improved that national junior record by a second.

That’s an impressive string of victories by any standards, so it’s hardly surprising Mageean was bitterly disappointed this time when beaten into third place in the 1,500 metres.

What should be remembered is that she was beaten by Mary Cullen, a seasoned athlete 10 years her senior, who goes into next weekend’s European Indoor Championships in Paris as defending bronze medallist in the 3,000 metres.

Mageean still pressed Cullen hard, making a bold bid for victory with 450 metre remaining, before fading to third (behind another seasoned runner, 26-year-old Orla Drumm). All the youngster really needs is a break, in terms of some time away from racing, and Mageean has sensibly opted out of Paris.

There is an unwritten rule in sport that says if you’re good enough then you’re old enough, and two headline events in Belfast last weekend – the men’s 800 and 1,500 metres – adhered to it. Mark English must be one of the most stylish and poised runners to win a senior indoor 800 metres title, and he’s only 17.

Again it was hardly surprising: last summer English won the European Youth Olympic trials in Moscow, over 1,000 metres, and a few weeks ago improved the Irish junior indoor 800 metres record to 1:48.63. Not bad for someone first spotted winning the egg and spoon race at his school sports.

English also hails from what has fast become the new breeding ground of quality Irish distance runners: Letterkenny Athletic Club. His clubmate Darren McBrearty, still only 19, finished a close second in Belfast, and having already run 1:47.87 this season, is headed to Paris next weekend.

As training partners they have a healthy competition on the track and a mutual respect off it, and, like most rivalries, appear to be bringing the best out of each other. English won on Sunday despite being in the middle of his mock Leaving Cert, at St Eunan’s in Letterkenny, and McBrearty is a first-year at DCU having decided against the once inevitable American scholarship route.

Both have also been training through what I’m told is one of the worst Donegal winters in living memory, and, like the rest of the Irish athletics community, have zero access to a proper indoor facility.

Instead, the hard work and dedication of their coach, Teresa McDaid, and the other stalwarts have helped to turn Letterkenny into one of the most vibrant clubs in the country, although they’re not alone in that.

St Coca’s in Kildare isn’t exactly a powerhouse of Irish athletics either but provided the winner of the men’s 1,500 metres in Belfast in the form of Paul Robinson.

Still only 19, Robinson made two notable breakthroughs last summer: first, when making the final of the World Junior Championships, in Canada; and second, when lowering the Irish junior mile record to 4:00.93, in Finland.

Robinson was only five when he joined St Coca’s, having been inducted into running by his father, Gerry, who still coaches there. Like English, Robinson is showing maturity beyond his years, and took the 1,500 metres title not as someone hoping to win, but knowing he would win.

There is another unwritten rule in sport that says it’s no good being talented from the neck down. Thankfully, all these youngsters have the head to go with the legs.

To be fair, Belfast wasn’t only about young distance runners: Dean Adams, Steven Colbert and Chris Russell went 1-2-3 in the 60 metres, and they’re all only 20; Brian Gregan set a championship record of 47.01 in the 400 metres and he’s just turned 21; Timmy Crowe won the 200 metres at just 19; and Kate Veale finished second in the 3km walk having just turned 17, setting a national junior record in the process. No sign of prudence among any of them either.

There’ll be further evidence of this at this afternoon’s National Inter-Club Cross Country in Santry. Last year, Siofra Cleirigh Buttner won the junior race, and was then disqualified for being too young.

Buttner doesn’t turn 16 until July, but it will be something of an upset if she doesn’t win the junior title this afternoon. Several members of the Irish under-23 team that won gold at the European Cross Country in December will also be stepping up to the senior ranks with little to fear, believing that winning is not impossible.

“That win is dedicated to Shane Bonner,” said Mark English, after his victory in the 800 metres – just one of many tributes last weekend to fellow Donegal athlete and Finn Valley club member, who died aged just 20 following a road accident in Letterkenny a few days earlier.

Bonner’s funeral took place on Monday, in his native Convoy, with a large contingent of Finn Valley and Letterkenny club athletes forming a guard of honour, still wearing the black ribbons they’d pinned to their vests in Belfast the previous day.

Obsession was always a young man’s game, and in his 20 short years Shane Bonner had developed a wonderfully passionate obsession with athletics.

He never got to live out his potential and his talents will never realise what they could have, but in the minds of his family and Donegal club mates he will stay forever young.