DAVID MATTHEWS broke an Irish record. But in fairness to David, it was Sarajevo's day.

It was perhaps the most moving and emotional happy occasion this city has seen since Bosnia's war began. Five Olympic gold medallists were among 80 athletes who performed in front of 50,000 delighted Sarajevans yesterday for no fee.

It was an occasion that the athletes will remember long after the fee paying ones have faded into a blur. People shouted thank you's to the winners and losers who did laps of honour after each event.

The gratitude of the locals, in this city of sports enthusiasts that hosted the winter Olympics just a decade ago, was obvious in their reaction to every athlete who waved to them.

The poignant centrepiece of the simple opening ceremony was the appearance of about 100 three and four year old girls, all war babies, dancing joyously in the centre of the stadium to new folk songs entitled Peace and Freedom and Sarajevo My Lode.

Overlooking the stadium were mangled tower blocks. Behind them were the hills from which Bosnian Serb gunners had pounded the city, including the stadium, close to ruin. Beside the stadium also was a large graveyard, the old gravestones vastly outnumbered by hundreds of simple white crosses marking the graves of those who died during the siege.

On the giant screen at one end of the stadium, images of the event, flashbacks to the lighting of the Olympic flame in the 1980s, and images of the city at war were projected, flashing back to the dancing little girls after each. It's always a cliche and sometimes a downright lie, to say that sport isn't about winning and losing, but playing the game. Yesterday, for once, it was true.

The meeting was sponsored by Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic. The main local impetus behind it came from Haris Siladzic, himself a candidate for the presidency in next Saturday's elections.

The shelled and ravaged stadium was rebuilt with the help of the International Amateur Athletics Federation and the International Olympic Council. Mondo, the company which made the athletics track, installed a new one in Sarajevo for no fee.

Before the athletics meeting, the 80 visiting athletes had been brought on a two hour tour of the city during which they got a crash course on Sarajevo's recent history. The previous night they had spent nine hours on what should have been an 80 minute charter flight from Milan. The plane had to approach Sarajevo twice and land once in Zagreb due to Sarajevo airport's notorious radar problems caused by the war.

The five Olympic gold medallists from Atlanta Kenya's Joseph Keter (3,000m steeplechase), Hungarian Balazs Kiss (hammer), Swede Ludmila Engquist (100m hurdles), Nigerian Chioma Ajunwa (long jump) and American Charles Austin (high jump) saluted the crowd together at the start of the meeting.

For the record, David Matthews ran the 1,000 metres in two minutes 17.58 seconds, shaving .31 of a second off the previous Irish record. He came fourth behind three strong Kenyan runners. He was more keen to talk about what he had seen in the city, however, than his exploits on the track.

"It's a travesty what happened here," he said. "We were all anxious coming here, but once we saw the suffering that had happened here, we had no problems. No city deserved today more.

Nobody complained. Ludmila Engquist was close to tears trying to describe her feelings.

"I think it's right to be here," she said. "When I arrived at the airport, I tried not to cry. When you see it, you understand more and you want to help. I know I can't help alone, but I will do what I can. The people here must know that they are not forgotten."

Austin, one of only three Americans to join the meeting after the Grand Prix finals in Milan added "It's hard to describe, so many different emotions in my head and in my heart. It's just amazing.

"What I'd like to know is what the people responsible for the fighting think now. With all the lives that were taken, what's going through their mind?

"People told me I shouldn't go, but there's a lot of things you know you shouldn't do but you do them all the same. And this was something I wanted to do."

As for his first impressions of the ravaged city, he said. "It's very sad. A lot of people have lost their lives and lost their homes. I've never seen anything like it.

"I thought if I can do what I can to make people smile and to help understanding in this country, then I'm happy to be a part of that."

Sonia O Sullivan, who had been expected to compete, decided in the end not to travel. While her decision was understandable at the end of a very difficult season, there was some criticism of other big name athletes who had stayed away.

"These people here have suffered so much," said Matthews. "Some athletes made millions out of the sport, yet they didn't come. They give nothing back."

His sentiments were echoed by IAAF President Primo Nebiolo in his speech opening the event. "They have talent but no heart," he said.