ATHLETICS/Cross Country: It hardly mattered that the All-Ireland Schools' Cross Country championships were staged on the coldest weekend of the year. It takes a tough kid to run cross country at the best of times, and even with the air blowing below zero this was a day for a loose-fitting vest and shorts. In cross country, image is nothing, pain is temporary, and effort is everything.

They bill this great event as a sneak preview of the stars of the future, and nowhere did that seem truer than in the senior boys race. If David McCarthy follows any sort of natural progression he can definitely make a name for himself in Irish athletics. He's already done that at schools' level, and Saturday's victory over the sports fields of DCU was merely another showcase for the most exiting talent in many years.

Aged 17, McCarthy now has the full sweep of schools titles - junior, intermediate (twice) and senior. And as a fifth year student at St Augustine's College in Dungarvan the chances are he'll add one more next year. But the really exciting thing about his potential is he's labelled a track specialist.

Yet it was McCarthy's natural strength that took him clear over the four-mile race, his decisive move coming just after halfway as the leading group of 12 emerged from a zig-zag of hills. The only real contest after that was for second place, and that went to John Coghlan of Castleknock, another track specialist (for obvious reasons), who determinedly held off Conor Flanagan of Malone College.

McCarthy, however, wasn't the first athlete of the day to claim the golden sweep of schools titles. That honour went to Sarah Treacy of The King's Hospital, who won the senior girls title with the more traditional approach to cross country running - hit the front from the gun and let the others catch you if they can.

But no one could even get close to Treacy, who just six days previously had won the inter-clubs junior title. Second best there was Sarah Neary of Belfast Royal Academy, who arrived home 19 seconds later. In third was Laura Huet, who also led Dublin's Institute of Education to a first ever team title.

Ciara Cronin of Abbey CC in Waterford had to dig deep into her reserves to finally accelerate past Charlotte Ffrench-O'Carroll of Loreto, St Stephen's Green inside the last 300 metres to win the intermediate race. There was a similar finish in the boys' race. The race was soon pared down to a leading trio of Ryan Faulkner (St Malachy's), Craig Murphy (Douglas CS) and Conor Dooney (Monkstown CBC), any one of whom looked capable of winning. But when it came to the decisive move Faulkner showed his class and eased clear to win his first schools title. Dooney, incidentally, collected the bronze medal exactly 30 years after his father, Roy, had done likewise - although Roy can't claim all the credit as Conor's mother, Greta, had also won silver in 1975.

Both junior races had run-away winners in Shane Quinn (DLS Waterford) and Sasha Hooks (Belfast Academy).

David Gillick got the news he wanted yesterday when DIT agreed to defer a college exam set for Monday week, which had threatened his participation in this weekend's World Indoor championships in Moscow.

The European Indoor champion will now try to add another medal to his 400-metre career even though he has yet to run the distance this season.