European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen was the guest of honour in Tullamore on Saturday as track and field stars of the future were hailed at the Athletics Ireland Emerald Crystal Star Awards for 2016.
The annual awards are a celebration of the best juvenile athletes from all the counties in Ireland, selected by the Juvenile Committee of Athletics Ireland.
And proof of where this sport can take you came in the presence of one of the country's top track athletes, Kerry O'Flaherty, being at the ceremony because last summer she ran for Ireland in the 3000m steeplechase at the Amsterdam 2016 European Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games in Rio.
In a gathering of the award winners, President Hansen is pictured alongside O'Flaherty and Georgina Drumm, President of Athletics Ireland and John McGrath, the Chairman of the Athletics Ireland Juvenile Committee, at the ceremony at the Tullamore Court Hotel in County Offaly.
On the track, it was a record-breaking day on Saturday at the Irish Life Health National Indoor Championships in the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Dublin.
In a time of 18:50.70, Alex Wright broke race walking legend Robert Heffernan’s 5000m record and in winning her heat in 23.85, Sharlene Mawdsley broke the national junior 200m record.“It’s been a great season and I am racing a 20km in Switzerland next week. I will look to focus on one event come the world championships in London this summer,' said Wright.
The race of the day was the high-quality women's 3000m won by Ciara Mageean in 9:08.83 as she beat Olympic steeplechaser Michelle Finn and double SPAR European Cross Country champion Fionnuala McCormack.
Mageean lead in the opening stages of the race with Finn in close pursuit.
When Finn split the pack around halfway, only Mageean could hold on to the pace and she broke away to triumph by almost four seconds from Finn (9:12.61) and McCormack (9:15.58).
“I was happy with that especially with the field,” said Mageean.
Then on Sunday, Brian Gregan won the 400m in 46.59, his best time of the season, and Sommer Lecky, 16, completed the historic weekend by equalling the Irish under-20 high jump record of 1.81m.