IF you could bottle the qualities U-19 outdoor 3,000 metre race walking champion Maeve Curley has, and sell them, you could become a multi-millionaire.

Sitting at the kitchen table, with her personal organiser and training schedule in front of her, Curley could be the poster girl for dedication and commitment. For the Craughwell Athletic Club competitor will be the first to admit she was not born with the natural talent of some athletes, but through sheer graft she has elevated herself to an elite standing.

Indeed, the bubbly 17-year-old, who turns 18 in September, says her path into race walking resulted out of the fact that she had “tried everything else” as a child, including the high jump. She didn’t meet with much success in race walking in her early days either, failing to impress in Community Games and the indoor juvenile championships but, resolved to become an athlete, she made this discipline her last stand and she set to work.

Seven years later, Curley has progressed to become a top class competitor and she is now considered one of the top junior female race walkers in the country, alongside the likes of Emma Prendiville and West Waterford’s Kate Veale, who produced the performance of her career to date when finishing fourth in the finals of the 5,000 metre walk at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games last Saturday.

Indeed, when the European Youth Olympics come around next year, it is a given that Veale will claim one of possibly two berths that Ireland has reserved for their race walkers. Curley hopes to secure the other. “That would be my most ambitious ambition at the moment,” she says.

“Kate is like a child protégé, so she will be going. She is world class, so I have kind of accepted that she has got one of the places. So, for the second place, I am up against Emma Doherty (North Belfast Harriers), Emma Prendiville (Farranfore Maine Valley) and Fiona Dennehy (St. Senan’s). We are all competing for that.”

Of all the competitors, though, Curley would seem to have made the most progress this year. Having played second fiddle in many of the national championships in 2009 – finishing third in both the Indoors U-18 Girls 1,500m and Outdoors U-18 Girls 3,000m – she turned a corner this year when she claimed first place in the U-19 Girls 3,000m walk in a time of 14.05.42 at the National Outdoor Track & Field Juvenile Championships in July.

Her time was not only a new personal best, but it also eclipsed the previous Championship Best Performance by eight seconds and took Curley within four seconds of Ann Loughnane’s club record. That was set when Loughnane was at the peak of her powers at the time of her silver medal at the World Youth Championships in 2003.

She was always likely to run a big race, though. A month earlier, Curley – kitted out in the Irish gear for the first time –produced a magnificent performance at the English AAA Open Championships in Bedford, where she took silver in the U-20 10,000m walk in a time of 52.35. Amazingly, it was only her second time to compete in a 10km race, with her time less than 90 seconds away from the qualifying standard for the World Juniors.

“I have trained really hard and worked a lot on my technique, and it has gone really well this year. I did sacrifice a lot, though. I wasn’t going out, and I don’t drink like a lot of my friends. I don’t think I will ever drink,” says the level headed teenager.

Remarkably, Curley maintains it was her disastrous start to 2010 at the Woodies DIY Senior Indoor Championships at The Odyssey Arena in Belfast back in February that helped her turn the corner. “It was the first time I was disqualified from a race,” says the 17-year-old. “I was disqualified at 2kms and when I got the third red card, I just bawled. I was very upset.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.