Mills to decide on appeal

Joanna Mills has questioned Athletics Ireland's plans for the sport in Ireland after it was confirmed that she had lost her place in the Irish Women's 4 x 400m relay team for the Olympics.

Mills has said that she needs to decide whether or not to she will appeal the decision, but has not ruled out an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the Olympic Council of Ireland panel decided to uphold Catriona Cuddihy's appeal and re-instate her in the squad ahead of Mills.

Cuddihy was initially named in a six-strong squad for the Games ahead of Mills, whose seasonal best was better than Cuddihy’s, leading to Mills successfully appealing the decision.

But Cuddihy’s original selection was based on a number of different criteria, including experience at major championships, and her appeal against Mills’ inclusion at her expense was upheld by an Athletics Ireland Appeal Panel in Dublin yesterday.

The Ballymena teenager and her coach, Ian Neely say that they will meet with their legal advisors this afternoon when they will decide whether or not to lodge an appeal.

Mills said in a statement: "At 21.45 last night I received word that the appeals tribunal had upheld the appeal of Catriona Cuddihy, and that Catriona had been reinstated on to the Irish Women's 4x4 relay squad.

"The reasons for their decision was based on the fact that the Athletics Ireland appeal panel went beyond their scope and remit as an appeals panel when considering my original appeal on the 7th July 2012.

An Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) statement earlier today read: “The Appeal Tribunal found that process for the original selection by the AI High Performance Relay Selectors had been carried out in a fair and proportionate manner.

“The AIAP in reaching its decision differed with the interpretation of the selectors in the application of two of the eight selection criteria for the women’s relay team on the grounds that their application had been too narrowly applied.

“The Tribunal in reviewing the selection criteria and the AIAP decision found that it did not agree with the AIAP conclusions. The Tribunal found that the selectors did follow and apply the selection policy outlined in the Relay Programme and did so with diligence and acumen.

“Based on these findings the Tribunal upheld the appeal of Catriona Cuddihy, and her original nomination to the OCI as an athlete on the Women’s 4 x 400m relay is reinstated.”

Joanna Mills said: "A strong emphasis seems to have been placed on commitment to the relay team by the High Performance Director of AAI when making his final considerations for the relay team. He seems to have not considered that I tried to contact and set up a meeting with him regarding the relay in December 2011, and that when he finally did contact me in May 2012 I made a full commitment to the team by changing my plans for the rest of the season and particularly my preparations for the World Junior Championships by attending the European Championships and participating fully in the relay practices.

"The High Performance Manager and Relay Coach seem to have taken a very narrow perspective and I wonder what their long-term athlete development plans for Irish athletes are?

Mills said that she has shown "great commitment" to Irish athletics and cited her past performances at Youth Olympic, European Junior Championships, where she finished fourth, and also the World Junior Championships.

She said: "I also felt that my experience as part of the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games 4x400 relay team in Delhi 2010 would have stood me in good stead for any future relay teams.

"Performance seems to have been lost in this process, as I felt that I had shown a consistency of performance both in my achievements last year and so far this year to warrant a place on the team without the need for arbitration.

"The fact that Athletics Ireland upheld the original appeal indicates to me that I had an extremely strong case from a performance perspective and that I have lost my place for what seems to me to be purely procedural reasons".

Mills said the decision has not diminished her enthusiasm for watching the London Olympic Games.