A LEADING Irish Sports Council official has lashed out at criticism from Olympic Council of Ireland’s Chef de Mission, Dermot Henihan, describing the comments as ill-timed and inappropriate.

THE Olympic Council of Ireland has left nobody in any doubt about qualification for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing by announcing the qualification standards for 13 sports.

OUTGOING president Pat Hickey is poised to lead the Olympic Council of Ireland through the Beijing Quadrennial and beyond as he is unopposed at next month’s AGM.

The opening ceremony of the 12th Paralympic Games took place this evening at the Athens Olympic stadium,with the 41-strong Ireland team gearing themselves up for a busy first weekend.

A LEADING Irish sports psychologist yesterday rejected Cathal Lombard’s claim that he took the performance-enhancing drug EPO merely to compete on a level playing field and not to boost his medal chances.

IRISH Olympic bosses insist their final preparations for Athens will not be damaged by the Cathal Lombard doping scandal.

The Winter Olympics suffered its first positive drugs test when the International Olympic Committee announced that an unnamed Belarussian athlete had turned in a positive sample for the banned steroid nandrolone.