Sonia O'Sullivan believes Athletics Ireland must develop a squad system to build on the promise shown in the European Cross Country Championships in Dublin.
Ireland came away with team gold in the men's under-23 race as Darragh McElhinney picked individual silver, while the men's under-20s claimed second place in their race.
There were also near-misses for the mixed relay team, who finished fourth, as did the Irish men in the senior race, with Brian Fay placed 10th, and the Irish women - with Fionnuala McCormack in ninth.
Sarah Healy came in fifth in the Women's under-23 event and O'Sullivan was encouraged by a lot of what she saw in Abbotstown, but insists the key is not to allow all that promise to fade away again.
"There was a great buzz and energy about the place and I think it shows you how much important cross country is to Ireland, we’re good at it," said the former world champion.
"The men’s was unexpected and I think that’ll give people a lot of motivation for the future.
"It needs to be motivation for people to do something about it, to actually use that to continue with the momentum that was going from the junior boys’ race.
"Maybe some didn’t make it as far as they needed to in terms of delivering the high result they looked like they’d get at the start but you have to build on that, go back, review and plan to be better the next time."
But the Cobh great added: "It’s not the first time we’ve seen this.
"There was an U23 team that won in 2010 and that was really exciting at the time but there was nothing ever really came of it.
"And even the U23 girls winning silver last time, I suppose Róisín and Eilish (Flanagan) were on the senior team this time so that was positive.
"But there seems to be, there’s no continuation or momentum that goes on from the positive results.
"It just peters away and then it’s like starting all over again every year.
"There needs to be some sort of cross country squad set-up so that people are in the squad and feel like they have a chance to be on the team.
"People have to be honest. If they’re picked for the team and they’re not fit enough then you shouldn’t take your place, you should give it to somebody else.
"The best team should be picked, it doesn’t matter where they’re based.
"There was evidence of that with the men’s race – Barry Keane didn’t run as good as he had been running at the NCAA Cross Country, but then he ran a fast time and broke the Irish record indoors (13:25.96 5000m in Boston) just a week later so there’s evidence there he could have been on that team yesterday."
O'Sullivan paid tribute to the run of McElhinney, admitting she was impressed with how he battled on to win silver.
"When he won a bronze at junior on the track he wasn’t very happy but he was pleased yesterday," she remarked.
"He’d have liked to win but you can’t always win.
"On reflection, he felt he did the best he could and watching back over the race, he really did fight for that silver medal and he wasn’t just going to take the bronze, he wanted to fight on even if he couldn’t win and then to help the team to win."
Sonia O'Sullivan was speaking at the launch of the Irish Life Health 'Runuary' 2022 programme which is supporting runners of all levels to run January and not let it run them. The programme offers a four week training plan to run a distance of choice; 5km, 5-miles or 10-miles on 31 st of January, helping to build the healthy habit of running in the new year. Entry is free of charge at irishlifehealth.ie/runuary.
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