THE LAST POINT: A reminder of the essence of sport

Last weekend was one of those rarities that happen as often as a blue moon - a weekend without a Leitrim game. It has been virtually non-stop since the end of January with games from Ennis to Newbridge, Blessington to Castleconnor, Breffni Park to Tuam, Bekan, Enniscrone, Hyde Park, Kiltoom, Pearse Park and Mullingar not to mention Pairc Sean, Ballinamore, Cloone and Drumshanbo.

So what did I do with my weekend? Why I gorged myself on a remarkable weekend of sport on the TV, flicking the channels so much that I might develop Carpal tunnel syndrome if I’m not careful with my viewing as I took in the Diamond League athletics in Brussels, hurling in Limerick and Croker, soccer in Germany, a  bit of the NBA and even  tennis in Paris.

Yet it was the trip  to the track that almost hugs the shoreline of the Corrib, the NUI Galway track in Dangan, a venue generations of Leitrim athletes know all too well, that left the sports lover in me most fulfilled as the future stars of Connacht sport took to the track at the Provincial U9 to 13 Track & Field Championships.

This was far removed from what we watched in Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds for the Munster Hurling Final or at Munich’s Allianz Arena for the Nations League Final between Portugal & Spain, for this was sport at its most basic level - kids competing, having fun and having a great day.

I could have written this column on the contrasting attitudes to penalty shootout in different sports - the games in Limerick and Munich were decided by penalties, one team devastated at losing out in what we’re supposed to think is a lottery of good and ill-fortune but the reaction to what we witnessed is telling. Nobody in Munich batted an eyelid at penalties, in fact you got the sense that both teams welcomed them at the end of an exhausting 120 minutes of action.

THE LAST POINT: REGRETS AND THE BLOSSOMING OF HOPE

Back in the Emerald Isle, we’ve had the equivalent of a mass hysteria such has been the furore over the supposed callousness and unfairness of deciding a game on penalties. I’m not going to rehash old ground - if you’ve read this column in the past, you know I’m more than partial to penalty shootouts, both from a drama and fairness point of view. 

In some ways, penalties are the ultimate arbiter of grace under pressure, executing a skill of the game under intense stress and incredible viewing on TV into the bargain. I know I was standing up in the living room watching both shootouts, I can only imagine what it was like to be there in the Gaelic Grounds and the Allianz Arena!

It certainly compensated for what was, in large swathes of the game, poor fare in Limerick - the intensity was magnificent, the physical confrontations almost scary at times but the skill that is essential to a sport, that is endlessly triumphed as the game's fastest and most skillful field game, was conspicuously lacking with wide after wide after wide.

Maybe it was that  the desire to dominate the physical battle over-rode the pure skills of the ancient game but for much of the contest, as enthralling as it was, I wondered did either of the teams really want to win it! The same applied on Sunday as a desperately poor Galway summoned up a late surge to threaten a Kilkenny team who seemed to do as they wanted for almost all the game.

We've become so enamoured of hurling gladiatorial spirit that it may be in danger of losing the spark and skills that made it such a spectacle? Think not? It wasn't that long ago we were lauding the greatest era of Gaelic football  but tactical innovations, the desire to stop your opponents and the imperative of physically dominating your opponents meant the game evolved into something where winning was all that mattered and left us bored to tears. 

Hurling is not at that point yet, but neither was Gaelic football before Jim McGuinness transformed the game. Hurling is fast becoming ungovernable, particularly if we go by the reactions to the performances of the referees over the weekend but it is undeniable that the hurling championship has been somewhat underwhelming this year, even if the drama and tension of Saturday's game was awe inspiring.

Those sort of concerns were a million miles away from what I witnessed in Galway - I'll not paint some idyllic picture of a day of fun, where taking part was the most important element - you only had to watch the warm-ups and intensity of coaches around the track to know that winning, even for children as young as seven years old, seemed to be the be-all and end-all for some.

But for the vast majority, Saturday's trip to Dangan was just that - a day out with the family, an adventure with friends and clubmates and a bit of craic, a reminder of how we all started out. Brothers, sisters, mammies and daddies, grandparents too and maybe an aunt or uncle were brought along to watch the first fledgling steps of Connacht's future sporting stars.

THE LAST POINT: TIME FOR FAITH TO BE REWARDED

Some may go on to compete in the Olympics but the vast majority won't and some may not take part in organised competition again until they maybe discover the joys of running as adults some time into the future. But there was a joy in watching these young kids enjoying themselves without a real care in the world. Some  wanted to win so badly that when they didn’t, tears flowed while some were just happy to be there with their friends, having a  day out - an element of sport we forget all too often in our rush to win.

Records were set, kids fell and got up to finish races, nerves were so bad that tears were shed on the starting line and some kids just wanted to talk and talk and talk in their excitement - a long way away from the win at all costs attitude that  infects sport at all too young an age. There is a healthy debate in athletics circles as to whether there should be competition for the U9 to 11 age groups at provincial level, let alone national. 

Personally, I think it is way too soon to expose children of seven, eight, nine years of age to the stress of competition but the rush to sweep up the talent seems to trump concerns about whether this is too much too young.

But when you witness the smiles of the children at the end of their day away in Galway, see them playing and having fun as they wait for their events or the trip to Supermacs or McDs on the way home, you  realise that this is how we all started out. Kids idolise the Messis, Cliffords, Duponts and Cian Lynchs of this world and want to emulate them but having fun and making memories that will last a lifetime is the essence of sport and that is something we should never, ever forget!