ATHLETICS: For one particular Irish athlete, the distribution of the 2007 high performance grants was perfectly timed. Liam Reale attended yesterday's announcement to hear he'd been awarded €12,000, and with that cheque in his back pocket, he left for Dublin airport to join the rest of the Irish team headed for Birmingham and this weekend's European Indoor championships.
In reality, that money will be distributed over the course of the year, but it was still an ideal boost for Reale heading off to Birmingham, where he runs the 1,500 metres along with James Nolan and Gareth Turnbull.
He's probably the least-known of this trio, although he was Ireland's only 1,500-metre finalist at the European outdoor championships in Gothenburg last August, and his eighth place finish in that event effectively moved him into the international class of grant aid, worth €12,000.
At 23, Reale is very much a name for the future, and this grant aid, he says, will allow him to train full-time and hopefully make further progress in the coming years.
"This is my first year of real funding," he says, "having been bumped up to €12,000. I'm also part of the Institute of Sport development squad, which has additional funds. So essentially this means I can train full-time now. It does give me enough to do that, which basically means running is now my job.
"When you're a full-time athlete a lot of it still boils down to the money really, because without that support you can't go away training, do everything you need to do, and without that you're at a disadvantage to other Europeans. But the institute has already been very helpful to me this year. Greg Whyte is in there now as sports science director providing good back-up, and someone of his expertise is also a huge bonus."
Reale's career reached a crossroads last year. Having spent four years on scholarship at Providence College, the Limerick athlete knew he needed to make a breakthrough, and the 3:38.65 he ran last summer to qualify for Gothenburg was the first stage of that.
The next stage begins this weekend: "I have stepped it up since Gothenburg," he says, "putting in more 100-mile weeks, lots of tempo runs, and I'm definitely stronger now than I've ever been. The way the 1,500 metres has gone now means you have to train like a 5,000 or 10,000 metre runner over the winter, build up a lot of strength, and then bring in the speed work as well. Hopefully, I'm getting close to conquering to that now.
"But I have raced sparingly this winter. I ran 3:43.92 in my first race, and I'd done a minimal amount of speedwork. But I decided, along with my coach, not to race a whole lot, and stay fresh for the championships. And then at the 800 metres at the national championships I felt magnificent (running 1:51.19), the best I felt in a long time, and it did feel very easy. I felt I was able to change gears easy.
"So making the final this weekend is the least of my ambitions. If I don't do that it will have been a failure. And once you get to the final, I'll have a right crack at it."
On current form he is well capable of coming through Saturday's heats and securing a place in Sunday's final.
Five Irish athletes are in action in the opening sessions of the championships tomorrow, including the main medal hopes, David Gillick and Alistair Cragg. Cragg arrived in from his base at Arkansas yesterday, and is joined in tomorrow's heats by former 3,000 metres champion Mark Carroll, now aged 35, and the talented young Mullingar athlete Mark Christie.
