ON July 27, 2012 the attention of the world will focus on a multimillion pound stadium in Stratford.
Sportsmen and women from across the globe will don their national colours, wave to the crowds and carry with them the hopes of their respective nations.
Every opening ceremony of an Olympic Games is crammed with hope but sometimes even the most realistic of expectations can end in tears.
As the countdown to London 2012 continues in earnest, the next few days could go a long way in telling us if our track and field athletes have any hope of transforming those expectations into hard medals.
The European Athletics Championships, held every four years, this week touches down in Barcelona and Irish medal hopes are higher than they have been for some time — but we’ve been here before only to return with empty pockets.
It’s simply imperative that we take at least two medals home from the Catalan capital or else what hope can we have of achieving anything in London?
Two years may seem a long time but in terms of preparation for an Olympic Games it’s the equivalent of the blink of an eye.
Perhaps our best hope of a medal in Barcelona belongs to the ultra-determined racewalker Olive Loughnane.
The 34-year-old from Galway won a silver at the World Championships in Berlin last year and speaking ahead of the Europeans says she’s hell-bent on finishing in the top three again.
She said: “Anyone who beats me will have deserved it because I’m going to give it everything. I’m in good shape, and having won the silver in the World Championships I feel more experienced. That’s the big thing.
“It’s going to be my ninth major championships in a row, bar the year I was out on maternity. It’s the confidence of sitting back and doing your own thing, while at the same time not sitting back too much. I’ll still need to attack.
There will come a point where I will push. Then it’s like ‘come with me if you’re hard enough’.
“I’ve put everything into these championships, because I believe winning medals is what it’s all about. I could fall on my face, but I’m still going to say that. It’s not going to be from want of will or effort if things don’t go my way. I’m there to die. To kill, or be killed.”
Fighting talk from Loughnane, but exactly the kind of belief that’s needed if Ireland are to return home with something. By the time most of you pick up this week’s Irish Post, Loughnane may already have crossed the finishing line, her 20k walk race getting under way at 7.05am on Wednesday morning.
Another genuine medal hopeful is 400metre runner David Gillick, who is currently ranked second in Europe at this distance.
The Dubliner was twice European indoor champion over 400 metres (in 2005 and 2007) and he finished sixth at last year’s World Championships.
If he can run sub 44 seconds then he may take some beating. Gillick should easily reach the final of his event which will be held on Friday at 8.25pm.
Others to keep an eye out for in Irish colours include Derval O’Rourke (European silver medalist in 2006 and fourth at last year’s World Championships) who runs in the 100metre hurdles, Paul Hession in the 220metres and the lively Thomas Chamney from Clonmel in both the 800 and 1,500metre events.
Chamney was also keen to play up his chances in the build-up to Barcelona, saying: “I’ll be sick into my cornflakes if I don’t make the final, I feel I have the weapons to do some real damage. I’ll be primed like a lawnmower baby!”
Let’s just hope that our track and field athletes are primed more like Formula One cars than lawnmowers in two years’ time.