Athletics on track to secure unprecedented levels of funding

IRISH athletics is on the brink of unprecedented levels of funding, with Irish Sports Council (ISC) chairman Ossie Kilkenny telling yesterday’s Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) congress that the ISC is ready to respond to all objective approaches for aid now that new structures have been put in place.

More than 200 delegates attended the two-day gathering at the Ramada Hotel in Limerick Junction, where the new executive was elected. Michael Heery, who has been at the helm since the AAI was founded almost seven years ago, was elected president for another term, defeating former Honorary Secretary Georgina Drumm by 151 votes to 62. Corkman Michael Quinlan, treasurer since 1991, was defeated by newcomer Mary Coghlan 130 to 86 in the vote for chair of finance.

Ossie Kilkenny was the first to acknowledge that sacrifices had been made in the interest of the sport: “I know the pain people went through over the last 12 to 18 months in their commitment to democratise this organisation and reinvigorate it and I know it was not easy.”