Loughnane ruled out of Belfast meet

OLIVE LOUGHNANE has been forced out of this weekend’s Woodies DIY Irish indoor championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast with injury.

The world silver medallist was the star billing for Saturday’s opening session of the two-day meet but has been troubled by a pain in her hip which was subsequently diagnosed as a nerve problem.

Loughnane said: “It came to a head at the start of the week and Mary (physiotherapist, Mary Gleasure) advised against competing in Belfast. I’m still training but I am only operating at 60 or 70% and that would not be good enough for the weekend.

“I have not been able to do the hard work so I could not expect to be competitive. There would be no point going up to Belfast just to go through the motions. The European championships in Barcelona at the end of the year are the priority and I will begin my season with the first race in the world series in Portugal on April 10.”

Loughnane has changed coach in recent weeks and had her first meeting with Stephan Platzer in Dusseldorf on her return from the warm weather training camp in The Algarve.

Platzer is husband of husband of Norway’s Sydney Olympic silver medallist, Kjersti Platzer, and is a former German international 800m/1,500m runner.

“It was a very good meeting and I came away with a lot of positives,” she said.

Robert Heffernan (Togher) who set a national record in Belfast in 2008 returns for the men’s 5,000 walk along with fellow Olympian, Jamie Costin (West Waterford).

Kelly Proper who set a new Irish long jump record and qualified for the world indoor championships last month defends her title while Kildare man, David McCarthy (Le Cheile AC) who posted his qualifying standard for the worlds in Doha with a 1:48.29 run in Vienna on Tuesday night will line up in the Men’s 800m.