Excellence in athletics is measured in one of three ways. Each in its own right is the badge of success. In the 12 months just ending, regarded as a valley year by athletics people in the approach to the World Championships in Seville and the Sydney Olympics beyond, there were compelling examples of all three avenues to greatness.

Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco and Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie took route number one by establishing world records for two of the most competitive events for men - the 1,500 and 10,000 metres events respectively.

Then, there is the athlete who throws off the disappointment of the occasional erratic performance to deliver on the days it matters most - in championship competition. Sonia O'Sullivan made that point well in 1998.

Finally, there is the barometer of consistency, the person who achieves a high level of performance and succeeds in maintaining it over a long period. Judged by that yardstick, Catherina McKiernan also deserves to rate with the best in any evaluation of international athletics.

Having abandoned the track and made only the occasional concession to her first love, cross country running, McKiernan has now found fulfilment as a road runner of enormous potential.

Eighteen wins from 19 starts in '98 testifies to the impact she has made in her new career, a point acknowledged by the influential US Track and Field magazine which put her in seventh place in the list of the year's outstanding female athletes.

In terms of prestige and financial reward, it's light years removed from the days when - four second placings in the World Cross Country championship notwithstanding - she failed to impose herself on the sport.

At her side throughout has been the re-assuring presence of her coach Joe Doonan. From Leitrim, Doonan doesn't fit the accepted image of the passionate sports enthusiast. By his own admission, it requires an exceptional sports event to entice him away from home when he's not working. An accomplished fiddle player in any of the neighbouring counties holds more attraction for him than any sporting personality.

Yet, judged on the success of his achievements with McKiernan, the schoolteacher deserves to rate among the best Irish coaches in any discipline in recent years. A meticulous strategist who understands physiology better than most, his expertise has helped transform a struggling athlete into one capable of beating the world.

Although acutely conscious of the bigger, more demanding tests which lie ahead, Doonan is happy to reflect on the upward sweep of McKiernan's career in 1998.

"After a heavy training schedule towards the end of '97, we were looking to two cross country races in January, the first in Durham, the second in Dunleer, to provide the evidence that we were ready to go into marathon mode. We got the answers we wanted.

"Conditions in Durham were pretty horrible and once Paula Radcliffe dropped out, Catherina was away on her own. Dunleer broke new ground for us, and I was delighted that we went there.

"An international half marathon in Lisbon in March was the final warm-up race for the London Marathon the following month and it went according to plan. We were ready for London."

Even in decline Liz McColgan still retained sufficient of her old power to be a danger. Accordingly, the tactics of the McKiernan camp were to stay with the Scot until the threat had been reduced and then pull away in the closing stages. In the event, McColgan never showed as a potent force and McKiernan was forced to move earlier than anticipated en route to victory in two hours, 26 minutes, 26 seconds.

The run of triumphs continued until a day in Oporto in the summer when, for the first time in 14 races, she was looking at the backs of some of her rivals at the finish line in a race over 11.3 kilometres.

Kenya's Tecla Loroupe, who some three months earlier had established a new world record of 2:20.47 for the women's marathon, and Spain's Julia Vacquero proved too good on the day.

"There was no despondency," says Doonan, "no feeling that we were no longer good enough. When you mix it at that level you've got to prepare yourself for that. We were ready to take our beating and learn from it."

Doonan acknowledges that he could have chosen an easier race for his charge. But it formed an important part of her preparations for her next full marathon.

Two 10-kilometre victories in Holland and England followed the Oporto defeat. They provided the same build-up as the races in Durham and Dunleer had done for the London Marathon. After another half marathon win, this time in Luxembourg, McKiernan was ready for her third and most ambitious run over the full marathon distance in Amsterdam.

From some way back, the feeling in the camp was that she could break Loroupe's world record in that race. Tests a fortnight before the big day, when she ran 70 minutes at world record pace, confirmed that she was in condition to scoop the £350,000 bonus on offer for a record run.

Unlike her two earlier runs, it meant attacking from the off and going with the inherent risk of blowing up in the second half of the race. For 15 of the 26 miles she was on schedule, but then, beaten by the conditions rather than her body, she slowed to drift to 2:22.23 at the finish.

The great pity was that having done everything right, she was defeated by the one thing over which she had no control, the weather.

"Unless Catherina is outrageously lucky, there will be at least one bad day ahead. But for her and me, Amsterdam provided the conclusive proof that given the right preparation and, of course, the weather, she is capable of breaking that record."