Grand Prix athletics event may be a runner for Croke Park

RUGBY and soccer have already been welcomed into the renovated Croke Park and athletics may join them in the years to come, with stadium chiefs actively considering the possibility of hosting a Grand Prix event.

Athletics meets are no strangers to a venue which hosted the Tailteann Games on numerous occasions in the past but, with Lansdowne Road getting ready to reopen its doors, Croke Park will be looking elsewhere for business.

Whether the pitch area is large enough to accommodate an eight-lane athletics track is open to question but Jarlath Burns, chairman of the GAA’s 125 Committee, believes the idea is a runner.

“If you look at what is on the pitch at the moment – the big claw for the U2 360 tour – after that, anything is possible because the pitch is going to be relaid in four days,” said Burns.

“Putting in a running track that would be slightly smaller would be nothing to the Croke Park management, especially someone like Peter McKenna who is so ambitious for the stadium and wants to see it used as much as it possibly can be.”

Burns’ committee has already made sure athletics will play its part in the Association’s 125th anniversary celebrations by organising a unique sprint relay event during the half-time break in the All-Ireland football semi-final on August 23.

Derval O’Rourke, David Gillick and Paul Hession have all been pencilled in for the shuttle-style relay down the centre of the pitch and they will be joined by a number of former Gaelic football stars.

Who they are remains to be seen, but the participants will be divided into four provincial outfits with two male athletes and two females competing in a race with Micheál O Muircheartaigh commentating.

An initial idea to end a 1,000-athlete 6km road race in the stadium during the interval was abandoned due to logistical considerations but Burns was anxious that an athletic event of some sort be included.

“Maurice Davin was a champion athlete of his time. Michael Cusack loved athletics as well and the whole idea of the GAA when it was founded was as much about athletics and taking it away from the elite and bringing it to the ordinary people. For us it was important to get back to our roots.”

Ireland’s athletes will be competing at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in the week leading up to the occasion but will be able to fly back to Ireland just in time.

“It’s going to be good fun,” said Hession. “When I was given the opportunity to run it I thought about running in front of, what, 85,000 Irish people and it was hard to say no.”