On Athletics: A recent feature of the National Track and Field Championships has been the introduction to the crowd of winners from 30 years previously. It serves as a tribute to their achievement and a reminder of the many great champions of the past.

In fact many of the 1977 champions to be presented in Santry tomorrow afternoon will require little introduction. Just take the distance-running champions - names like Eamonn Coghlan, Ray Flynn, Neil Cusack and the late Noel Carroll - and their legacies go well beyond national titles. Not that winning the title did not mean a great deal.

Other champions from 1977 are also assured of their places in Irish athletics history, and none more than Michele Walsh, who later became Michele Carroll. It was 30 years ago when she won the first of an incredible 15 national 100-metre titles and the first of a dozen national 200-metre titles.

Walsh was also four times the 400-metre champion, which brings her tally of national track titles to 31 - unbelievable as it sounds.

In the field events there were also several notable champions in 1977, including the Ireland international Pat Moore, who won a sixth national javelin title that year, and Mick O'Flynn, who won the triple jump and later became the Kilkenny senior hurling trainer.

Their introduction in Santry tomorrow serves another purpose. While the 2007 champions are being crowned around them it will be obvious that in many disciplines Irish athletics has evolved. And yet in several others it will be seen to have regressed. And that's a worrying scenario for any sport.

One of the first titles to be decided this afternoon is the men's 10,000 metres, a race won 30 years ago by Neil Cusack in 29:07.0.

Cusack was a world-class runner; he had won the Boston marathon in 1974 and would win the Dublin marathon in 1981; he also represented Ireland twice at the Olympics.

There is no one in today's race who would touch Cusack in his prime, and it will be something of a miracle if the winner beats his time of 30 years ago.

The 5,000 metres in 1977 was won by Eamonn Coghlan, his time a tactical 14:04.5 and the first hint of his potential over the distance.

There will be several in tomorrow's equivalent capable of beating that time, starting with Alistair Cragg. But again, put Coghlan into the mix at his prime and it's hard to see anyone touch him either.

Strangely, Cragg also runs over 5,000 metres in Belgium this evening, returning to Santry early tomorrow in an effort to win his first national title at the distance. He may yet find himself in a battle with Mark Carroll, who at 35 is chasing a record sixth win in the event.

With the exception of Carroll, Irish 5,000-metre running has not evolved a whole lot over the past three decades.

Ray Flynn's 1977 winning time over 1,500 metres, 3:47.8, would put him in with a fair chance this weekend. If he reproduced his Irish record of 3:33.5, which still stands from 25 years ago, he would be in a class apart.

And another example: Gerry Deegan won the 3,000-metre steeplechase in 1977, clocking 8:48.9, and that time would guarantee him the gold medal this year.

As we move down distances there are at least some hints of evolution. Noel Carroll's 800-metre victory in 1977 was his fifth in all, but the time was a fairly pedestrian 1:52.35. Carroll would find it hard going against the two main contenders for this year's title - David Campbell and Thomas Chamney.

Just last weekend in Italy, Campbell knocked almost a second off his best to run 1:46.05, with Chamney just behind him in a best of 1:46.46.

Chamney took the national title last year when edging out Campbell, but with only tomorrow's winner sure of a place at next month's World Championships in Osaka, they could both go quicker again.

While many of the sprints this weekend will be much faster than those of 30 years ago, the men's 400-metre champion of 1977, Fanahan McSweeney - with a best of 46.3 and an unconquerable spirit - would have proven fair opposition for the favourite, David Gillick.

At least Paul Hession has brought pure sprinting right up to date in Ireland. His recent national records of 10.18 for 100 metres and 20.44 for 200 metres have come a long way from 30 years ago, when Joe Ryan won a sprint double in 11.03 and 21.65.

Hession is looking to repeat that feat this weekend, and no one in Irishman in history would stay with him.

It's a mostly different scenario in the women's events, where the evolution of times and performances has generally outpaced that among the men.

Michele Walsh still holds the championship best over 100 metres with her 11.52 from 1978. But gunning for that title tomorrow will be Derval O'Rourke, who by the time she goes to the blocks in the flat sprint will surely have collected a fifth national title in the 100-metre hurdles - and likely also have improved her own championship best of 12.95.

A year ago Joanne Cuddihy won a 200-metre/400-metre double in 23.33 and 51.28, the latter some five seconds quicker than Mary Fleming's 1977 winning time, 56.23.

And while it's still unclear whether or not Sonia O'Sullivan will run tomorrow's 5,000 metres, her championships best of 15:20.11, from 2002, could well stand for another 30 years.

Who can say how the national champions of 2007 will compare with the national champions of 2037? All we can say is that the efforts of the champions of 1977 are certainly holding up admirably well to this day.