Ankrom is in for the long haul

Kevin Ankrom’s first contract as Athletics Ireland’s high performance manager expired last night as the first bars of Auld Lang Syne kicked off and, though there has been no announcement about a follow-up, the American is breezily confident about sticking around.

That was the case as recently as last month when he took in the announcement at the Westbury Hotel in Dublin that the Government was allocating extra funding for a number of sports as they fine-tune preparations for next year’s Olympics.

This was, after all, the same day that Ankrom and 17 others were named as team leaders for their individual sports at the 2016 Games, which is one reason why he wasn’t sweating over the fact that his contract with Athletics Ireland was due up as of midnight on the 31st.