Slow progress but Ankrom remains positive about future

Athletics Ireland high performance director Kevin Ankrom believes the association are fronting up to the challenge of turning talented underage athletes into senior performers.

Rob Heffernan’s gold medal heroics aside, the Irish performances at the World Championships in Moscow were pretty tame, but Ankrom claimed the year has been a positive one overall.

“All those guys were development with it being their first or second championships,” said Ankrom with regards the age profile and experience of emerging talents such as Paul Robinson and Mark English.

“We have 12 medals on board, 29 top eights [placings] of which 17 are top sixes. Across the board we are seeing improvements.

“We had such a drop off post 2012 which you can’t legislate for. No one holds a magic wand about predicting medals but we try to maximise our chances.”

The American accepts the European Championships in Zurich next summer are crucial in testing the waters ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

“We should have a team of about 50 athletes for the Europeans and the standards will reflect what our outcomes are. For the Europeans we need to maximise and see where there are gaps. No one is in a position to say what exactly we will achieve. We do need to be getting out of the first round though, and getting into semi-finals and finals. If we don’t then we aren’t going to be in a position to do so in 2016.”

Coaching is the true crux of the matter, with Athletics Ireland having finally employed one full-time coach in Chris Jones. Ankrom believes money remains the main stumbling block.

“We have money going to coaching education and then one budget with Chris,” he said. “It’s not fast, it’s snail pace. Give us €2 million and we’ll get four coaches and a €100,000 budget each.”

Ankrom’s lucrative six-figure contract runs until 2014 with delivery of results paramount. It is a cut-throat system with athletes suffering the consequences if they don’t perform.

“Funding will not come from the [Irish] Sports Council if I don’t do my job.It affects everybody from the athletes to the hotels we’ll stay in at competitions to people’s jobs. I’ve to make sure I’m investing in the right people or they will find someone that will.”