Double Irish role for Chamney as rival Campbell misses out

THOMAS CHAMNEY is named on the Irish team in both the 800m and 1,500m for the world athletics championships in Berlin, ruling out arch rival David Campbell, who had been hoping for the 800m berth.

Chamney had B standards for both events going into Sunday’s national championships in which he successfully defended his 800m title at the expense of Campbell who went on to win the 1,500m.

Both athletes had B standards for 800m from the Golden League meeting in Oslo, where both recorded personal best performances, Chamney third and Campbell fifth.

Chamney represented Ireland in the 800m at the Olympic Games in Berlin last year, while Campbell was a member of the team at the world championships in Osaka two years ago. Despite the fact he has been training for the 1,500m this year, it was highly unlikely that Chamney would pass on the 800m this time.

“I am pretty confident I can get out of the first round in the 800m and get to a semi-final,” Chamney said.. “I am ranked 27 in the world and I have run four of the five fastest times by an Irishman this year. I’ve taken over a second off my pb. I think if you can run 1:45 two days on the trot you can make major advances and I know I can do that.”

He said Sunday’s championships were never going to produce fast times because of the rivalry between himself and David Campbell.

Chamney went to Sweden on Monday to train and is due back in Limerick on Friday to complete his preparations before joining the team.

Patsy McGonagle, the Chair of High Performance and Team Manager for Berlin, has availed of the opportunity to enter Campbell at 800m in the event of something happening in the meantime.

Athletics Ireland has announced a squad of 14 for the championships which take place from August 15-23. There are notable absentees including Olympian Martin Fagan, who had standards for both 10,000 and the marathon.

Fionnuala Britton, who won the steeplechase at the championships and also competed in Beijing last year, said she would not be ready for the world championships and will now focus on the SPAR European Cross-Country Championships in Dublin.

Joanne Cuddihy (400m) has also opted out. She has focused on her final medical exams and, with those behind her, she is currently en route to Australia to commence work and training at the Australian Institute of Sport. She is hoping to be back on the start line for the European Outdoor Championships in Barcelona in 2010.

There was good news as well. Paul Hession, who withdrew from the final of the men’s 100m on Sunday complaining of a head cold, has been given a clean bill of health as has Derval O’Rourke, who could not defend her 100m hurdles title because of a chest infection.

Racewalkers Olive Loughnane and Robert Heffernan, who finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in Beijing last year travelled to Spala in Poland last night to complete their preparations. Both were ultra impressive at the national championships last weekend after spending a stint of altitude training in Spain.

“I was very happy with Spain, everything went well,” Heffernan said. “I am just looking forward to it right now. I will train twice tomorrow and will then have a tough 8 x 2k session on Thursday. I have Friday off, a 20k on Saturday and I will train only once a day after that.”

While he turned in what he described as a solid performance on Sunday, his training partner Francisco Fernandez, 2004 Olympic silver medallist, was disqualified at the championships in Spain while all the other championships were slower than his.

Olive Loughnane trained in Quadix with Robert Heffernan and Fernandez in the lead up to the national championships. They are coached there by Montse Paseor, whose late husband Manuel coached Fernandez up to 2004.

Eileen O’Keeffe who, like Robert Heffernan, finished sixth at the last world championships in Osaka, showed a return to at the national championships where four of her throws were over 68m and one just nine centimetres short of 70m. After knee surgery, that provided her with the boost she needed ahead of Berlin.

The team also includes Olympic steeplechase finalist Róisín McGettigan, who has been struggling with her form since returning from altitude, two 50k racewlakers, Jamie Costin and Colin Griffin, and high jump record holder Deirdre Ryan.