Athletics Ireland announce team for European Cup

Athletics Ireland have announced their team to compete at the European Cup in Vaasa, Finland on June 22 and 23.

The team includes double European Indoor Champion David Gillick and World Indoor Champion Derval O’Rourke.

O’Rourke will complete in the 100m Hurdles while Gillick is set to race in the 400m.

O’Rourke recently made her return to action taking third in the 100m at a meet in Norway. Gillick was in superb form as he smashed the 400m Irish record in Geneva last week and will be looking to continue this excellent progress in Finland.

The Irish Team will compete in League One, the top tier of the European Cup competition. The men’s team will be up against Holland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, UK, Finland, Slovakia and Switzerland. The women’s team will face Slovakia, Finland, UK, Norway, Holland, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Team manger Patsy McGonagle believes it will be a good test for the athletes.

"The European Cup is always a special occasion in particular for those who step up to this level of competition for the first time.

"Our main objective is to retain our League One status and remain in the top group of European athletics and all the athletes will be battling hard for every point to ensure we do this", McGonagle said after the announcement.

Athletics Ireland’s new High Performance manager, Gareth Devlin, is also optimistic.

"To compete at this high level of competition against Europe’s top nations is always a challenge for both our top athletes and our developing ones. It gives some of our developing athletes an excellent opportunity to gain top level experience while it is also good preparation for those with eyes on the World Championship in August", Devlin said.