ATHLETICS:These are strange and wonderful days for Irish athletics. David Gillick retains his European Indoor 400-metre title in sensational style, goes on a roaring lap of honour as if it's the greatest moment of his life, and then announces it's just a small bonus and he can't wait to get back training.

So he sat in the bath for an hour afterwards, had a couple of quiet pints later on, and woke up yesterday determined to keep it business as usual. He'll do the homecoming with the Irish team today but intends hitting the track instead of the nightclub this evening and has already planned an intensive, month-long training spell in Los Angeles starting in two weeks' time.

What happened to some good, old-fashioned celebration? Like a proper drinking session, a night or two on the town, maybe appearing on some TV talk shows?

It looks like Irish athletics isn't content with fleeting success anymore; it wants permanent respect. That's probably because it's still a sport where people like to kiss you when you're up and kick you when you're down, and no one knows that better than Gillick.

"I know now the reality is there's a major difference between indoors and outdoors," he says, "between Europeans and Worlds. To be in with a shot at anything outdoors I have to run under 45 seconds. I still have to work very, very hard and improve a lot more. But I do believe that with all the changes I've made now I can do that. I want to run to my full potential and I think there still is a lot more there."

These are also the feelings of an athlete who thought he only needed one chance to prove himself, when in fact the second chance mattered more.

Maybe that's what James M Cain meant by saying the postman always rings twice, because retaining his European indoor title on Saturday night was clearly much sweeter than winning it in the first place.

This isn't entirely disconnected from the case of a certain Derval O'Rourke, who perhaps more than any Irish athlete these days has abandoned limits. Paul Hession also entered into the spirit this weekend, the first Irish runner in a 60-metre final, where he held up well to finish seventh.

Gillick, though, endured some hard times in the two years since first winning this title in Madrid. Eventually he had to take stock: he was still only 23 but things needed to change fast.

"I'm not going to lie about it. I've got a lot more selfish. You need to be. I won't let anything step in my way when it comes to training. I've become more of an island as well. I do what I want to do, and my training is the most important thing to me, and I won't let anyone get in the way of that. A year or two years ago I could always waver a little bit, easily get distracted. That doesn't happen any more.

"I learnt some of that from Derval O'Rourke. She doesn't take any s*** from anyone. And that's the way it has to be in this sport. It's an individual sport, and if you want to make it to the top then everything is reliant on yourself. Only you can make it happen."

Gillick realised that when he bombed at the European Championships in Gothenburg last summer. He could hear the whispering doubters around him and knew changes had to be sweeping: leaving the comforts of home for the unfamiliar environment of Loughborough University in England; leaving his old coach for the unfamiliar face of Nick Dakin; and leaving behind the attitude that said there's nothing wrong with being the big fish in a small pond.

In that process the redemption and reincarnation of Gillick began. When he crossed the line here, having gunned down the fancied German Bastian Swillims, in 45.52 seconds, Gillick suddenly saw the past two years flash before him and then disappear in an instant. He reacted without inhibition.

"Oh yeah, I totally lost it. Two years of frustration does that to you. But then leaving home to go to Loughborough wasn't an easy decision. And I made it in the space of two weeks.

"Looking back now, the disappointment of Gothenburg was a blessing in disguise, because I knew I had to make big decisions after that. I was so depressed. I came back to Dublin, and just started questioning what I was doing.

"I love it over in Loughborough, but I do miss home. I just knew I had nothing to shout about over the last two years, and that's why I really wanted to win again. That's really why I lost it. Went nuts. I know I'll see that on TV again and think, 'God, what was I doing there?' But I enjoyed every minute of it. Just had to let out a lot of emotion."

And then he goes back to talking about the future, about the World Championships in Osaka next August and how that was always his main target for 2007. Exactly two years on from Madrid he's back - and this time he's even better than the real thing.