WITH Ireland sending just 20 athletes to the European Junior Athletics Championship in Novi Sad in Serbia this week the fact that two of those athletes are from Kerry clubs is remarkable in itself.

Given the dominance of Gaelic games in the Kingdom, and that track and field athletics is far stronger in many other areas of the country, the fact that Claire Fitzgerald ( Tralee Harriers) and Eilish Fitzpatrick (Gneeveguilla AC) were on the flight from Dublin to Serbia last Sunday cannot be overstated.

What is even more remarkable, perhaps, is that Fitzgerald, a shot putter, and Fitzpatrick, a sprinter, have both qualified for these European Championship with a year to spare.

And while that probably means that both girls may struggle to get into the medal positions against competitors a year older, it is nonetheless an indictment as to the skill and dedication of these two young athletes.

In Fitzpatrick's case, she qualified for these Championships with a run of 11.89 seconds for the 100 metres in Cork earlier this year, and while the 18-year old from Newmarket in north Cork was confident she could go under the qualifying time of 12 seconds at some stage this year, the fact she reached that mark so early in the season came as a surprise to all concerned.

Well, almost everyone. Killorglin native Gerry Horgan is a former discus thrower who in more recent times has worked with the Kerry minor and U-21 football squads, working on their physical conditioning and core strength.

Four years ago, while coaching athletics coaches Horgan was asked to cast his critical eye over a young Eilish Fitzpatrick, and for the past three years he has worked with her as part of an elite group of about 20 athletes he takes for specialised coaching.

"Her big improvement has been in her strength. She is a very slight girl but we have had huge success in improving her strength, which is essential for a sprinter.

"Initially, when I saw her first, she had been doing multi-events, sprinting, jumping, throwing, but we decided that she had to specialise if she was to move up in standard and speed was her thing," Horgan says.

The coach makes no secret of the fact that Fitzpatrick, who lives quite a distance from the main facilities and support units she needs to train, has benefitted hugely from the group sessions she undertakes with Horgan, and the evidence of those collective sessions with similarly talented athletes is evident in her progress.

In 2007 she ran 12.34 at the National Finals, while last year her season best was 12.08 seconds. That she shaved another twotenths of a second off her time early this year marks significant and rapid progress by the sprinter.

Indeed, last year she was national title holder at 100m, 200m and 300m and was named Irish Underage Sprinter of the Year.

The expectation for Serbia this week is that Fitzpatrick's time should get her into the semi-finals, and anything after that would be seen as a bonus.

Fitzpatrick's qualifying time for the Europeans also qualifies her for the World Junior Championships in Canada next year, and Horgan expects 2010 to be a significant year for her.

In October she will take up a scholarship in NUIG, where she will come under the coaching expertise of Gary Ryan, and Horgan is confident that we are only seeing the start of a very successful sprinting career, with qualification for the London Olympics in 2012 being seriously talked about.

For Claire Fitzgerald, the sky is the limit, so to speak. Juggling the three throwing disciplines of shot putt, discus and javelin, Fitzgerald – who has just completed her Leaving Cert in Presentation Tralee – is an athlete for whom there is huge expectations.

Indeed, the 17-year old set new Under-19 records in the shot and discus this year, and has accumulated numerous schools and national titles across the disciplines throughout her teenage years.

Fitzgerald, who trains under Sean Whitney in Limerick, will compete in the shot putt event at the European Championships this week and she easily exceeded the qualifying standard of 13.80 metres when she threw 14.35m in Castleisland earlier this year.

Her father Martin, who is in Serbia this week supporting his daughter, said Claire has good expectations of throwing well but said that the Eastern Europeans have the strongest tradition in the throwing events and the Tralee Harriers athlete will face some very formidable opposition from the Russians, Belarussians, Germans and Hungarians.

While Claire is still just short of the qualifying standard for the World Championships next year, she embarks on a scholarship in Manhattan College in New York where, like Eilish Fitzpatrick, she will benefit hugely from the expert coaching and facilities not readily available to her in Ireland.

For Gerry Horgan it is a massive week, where he hopes to see one of his students reap the benefits of his coaching, but whatever happens this week in Serbia's second largest city of Novi Sad Horgan realises that athletics will always be well down the pecking order in a GAA dominated county.

"It's difficult to make the ordinary man in the street appreciate just what Eilish and Claire have achieved already in their athletics careers," Horgan says.

"In GAA if you make the local team you are good and if you make the Kerry senior squad you are a god. But if you say to the lay man on the street that you're coaching this athlete straight away they will ask if she will make the Olympics. That's all they are interested in.

"Now, to make the Kerry team you have to be in the top twenty players in the county, but to make the Olympics you have to be in the top twenty in the world, so it's totally unfair."

Nevertheless, the work continues by a small number of dedicated athletes and coaches and this week, through two of them, that dedication has paid off.

No matter when happen in Serbia this week Claire Fitzgerald and Eilish Fitzpatrick – products of Kerry's small but hugely dedicated athletics scene – are two athletes for the future, who will continue to uphold the Kingdom long-standing and highly successful history on the track and on the field.