Ireland bidding to retain First Division status

IRELAND’S top athletes will join forces this weekend in Budapest in an bid to retain First Division status at the European Team Championships.

They qualified for the First Division when they finished second behind Lithuania in last year’s Division 2 competition in Banska, Slovakia. This time the men and women will combine as a single point-scoring team when they go in against Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Turkey.

The team suffered a blow with the defection of 400m record holder, Joanne Cuddihy, who went over on her ankle while walking along the street last weekend and will miss both the individual 400m and the women’s 4x400m relay while Brian Gregan will be an absentee from the men’s 4x400m relay team.

“Joanne will be a huge loss to us,” admitted manager Patsy McGonagle.

“It was an unfortunate accident and there is nothing can be done about those things. We had hoped she might be able to compete this weekend but she needs another couple of days to recuperate.

“But look, we have David Gillick, Paul Hession and Derval O’Rourke competing for us this weekend and their presence will make us very strong on the track. The women’s 4x100m relay team set a national record last weekend and they could make a big impact at the European Championships in Barcelona next month while we expect a big run from the men’s team as well. However, it’s not going to be easy and it never is because we are always fighting either to gain promotion or to avoid relegation. This is very competitive and that, in itself, is very good for our athletes. The fact that we are so limited in the field events is a problem that is not going to be resolved in the near future.”

Thomas Chamney, who has returned smart times over 1,500m and 800m in recent weeks, is named at 800m – he was fifth fastest European over the latter distance last season – and will contribute valuable points.

Double paralympic gold medallist, Jason Smyth, will represent Ireland in the men’s 100m after smashing the Northern Ireland 100m record in the NI and Ulster Athletics Championships with a 10.32secs run that took 0.3secs off Paul Brizzel’s 2003 record and earned him his place on the Northern Ireland team for this year’s Commonwealth Games.

He has also qualified for the European Championships in Barcelona alongside Paul Hession, who has qualifying standards for both sprints.

Meanwhile a number of Ireland’s brightest and most promising young athletes have been brought to a training camp in Romania by the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Several sports, including athletics, boxing and cycling, are represented in the group which left Dublin yesterday.

“As part of the Olympic Solidarity movement, Romania have opened up this training camp,” OCI spokesman, Jack McGouran, said. “Basically this is to get them into the Olympic frame of mind – bringing all the sports together under one roof, as it were.

“The addition of a girls U17 hockey team means that we will have quite a big team at the first World Youth Olympics in Singapore later this year but this camp is aimed not just at this year but at the future.”