Lombard must repay less than €3,000

SHAMED former Olympic hopeful Cathal Lombard can only be made pay back a fraction of the State sports grants he received before he was banned for a doping offence.

The Irish Sports Council is to write to the 28-year-old runner seeking the return of less than €3,000 of approximate €20,000 paid to him over the past two years under the "International Carding Scheme", the council's financial support programme for elite athletes.

Scheme regulations state that only money paid after the commission of the offence can be recouped. Lombard tested positive for the banned performance enhancing substance, EPO, following a test in July by which time he had already received three quarterly instalments of his €11,500 annual grant for 2004.

A Sports Council spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that the runner had received three payments of €2,875 each, totalling €8,625, by that time, and only the third instalment could be demanded back.

Council chief executive John Treacy referred to the council's plans when he updated the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sports and Tourism yesterday on the ongoing review of Team Ireland's performance at the Athens Olympics.

Mr Treacy said doping would continue to be an issue for the Sports Council. "Any time you have money in sport, there are always drugs somewhere on the periphery.

"We will do our utmost but we always need to be vigilant. The temptation is always there and we will be tested on the issue," he said.

On the performance of Irish athletes at the Athens games, Mr Treacy said the results had to be put in perspective and that common comparisons with the success of similar sized countries such as New Zealand, which bagged three gold and two silver medals, were unrealistic.

"You can't compare us to New Zealand, which has had a high performance training system for its athletes for 25 years, when we are starting from scratch. We have said all along it will take 15-20 years to catch up. It's a long road to travel."

He added Ireland's achievements would always be modest in comparison with larger countries. "We are never going to come back with a truckload of medals. That's not realistic. If we come back with two or three medals we will be doing exceptionally well."

The Athens Review is being carried out by British sports consultancy, Wharton Consulting, under the chairmanship of former Enterprise Ireland chief executive Dan Flinter.