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There are some sports successes that need to be discussed at the same time, those that we want to track with one hand and move away from each other.
Because no one claims that the U-18 European Championships are a little more than a stepping stone to what lies ahead. And there is no more perilous journey in the sport than what awaits us for the young athlete.
It's still impossible to ignore Gyor's events in Hungary right now, while 17-year-old Sarah Healy bravely finished the first half of an average distance double with a win. at 3000 m. She escaped, as we said. Patience Jumbo-Gula was still laying a marker of what was coming, even finishing outside the 100m medal. This is the taste of the new generation and for more than one reason.
They have been here before. Jumbo-Gula is only 16 years old and has already made a name for himself by winning the bronze 100m at the Youth Olympic Games last July, where Healy also won the gold medal on the 1500m – and up to now, the two young athletes at the right time.
Jumbo-Gula will also have gained a lot of experience from her 100-meter final, a poor start on the wet track costing her a medal since she finished fifth. After breaking a record of 11.59 in the semifinal, faster than the gold medal of 11.87, there is clearly more to gain.
What they also remind us of is that nothing triggers a faster sports debate than about nationality. And sometimes what we know and think we know can be two completely different things.
Healy, in both looks and name, is clearly a product of the Irish environment and athletic system and yet just like Jumbo-Gula, who was born in this country of Nigerian parents, and has never known or considered anything other than an Irish athlete.
She is not alone either. Rhasidat Adeleke, who runs with Tallaght AC and is still only 15 years old, is another medal hope live in the 200m at Gyor, and on Sunday he will race with Jumbo-Gula as part of the Sprint Medley Relay. .
Adeleke beat Jumbo-Gula in the 100m Irish Schools Championship in Tullamore last month, and they immediately kissed afterwards, a sign of mutual respect and connection. With names like Sophie O 'Sullivan in the mix it's nothing but a sweet taste of the new generation.
And Ireland, remember, also has the Under-20 World Under-20 Champion, Gina Akpe-Moses, who won the gold medal at Grosetto in Italy last year. Next week, Akpe-Moses will compete at the Under-20 World Championships in Tampere, Finland. Her heart is already set to represent Ireland at the Tokyo Olympics, now just two years away, and until now, she is also hitting all the good stepping stones.
Hard Work
Jumbo-Gula and Akpe-Moses began running at St. Vincent's School in Dundalk, with Akpe-Moses showing the way, but with mixed results at first. Already 15 years old, and already the star athlete of her school and club, Blackrock AC, she was quietly dismissed by Fintan Reilly, one of her club's mentors, and politely said that she was the only one in the world. she had to be more disciplined with her training. Talent, he tells her, would only take her to this point. The rest is summed up in hard work and dedication.
Part of the problem was that Dundalk did not have a race track (and that's another story), and the parents of Akpe-Moses, who had emigrated from Lagos to Nigeria when she was three years old, she had neither the time nor the resources to drive her across the country to appropriate races and training places.
Reilly therefore put him in touch with sprints coach John Shields in Dublin, and his older sister Joy took her twice a week by train or bus to the Morton Stadium for seek the necessary improvements.
Akpe-Moses was determined to do it, and still is. Two years ago, the family moved back to Birmingham, and although she's now coaching with Birchfield Harriers, she still competes for her Irish club, and once again has never known or considered as something other than an Irish athlete.
Their progress has been remarkable, of course, and not just because it is a springtime event where, in the past, most Irish athletes have had to settle for ransom. But in many ways, Ireland is just catching up with the rest of the world, many of the World Cup teams in Russia in recent weeks another reminder of this, although some people still struggle to decipher the difference
Asylum seeker
Although for those who manage to compete on the international scene, one must never decide by something as narrow as the spelling of their name or their name. color of their skin.
Nationality, in the sporting or other context, has never been decided in strictly fixed terms, and even less so today.
According to the last census, nearly 60,000 people identified their Black or Black Irish ethnicity, when 20 years before that figure was just 4,697. It does not stop there; Efrem Gidey, of Cheile Tyrrelstown, in the west of Dublin, has been spared in several distance races since the beginning of summer, less than a year after arriving in Ireland as a asylum seeker.
Gidey made history in Leinster 5000m schools by scouring the field, and last weekend won the Irish junior title on the same distance. It was only one of the 41 unaccompanied minors who arrived in Ireland from Calais as part of the Irish Refugee Protection Program (IRPP), after spending several years in refugee camps .
Gidey may only represent a matter of time before Ireland is represented on the international scene, and if, or when he does, he will also be an all-Irish athlete.
Healy's favorite event, meanwhile, is the 1500m, and she's already qualified for Sunday's final, having run 10 seconds faster than anyone else her age this year. Even at this rate, this new generation can not grow fast enough.
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