Irish Olympic team likely to be our smallest

IRELAND could have its smallest team in years at next year’s Olympic Games in Athens as the race for qualification gathers momentum.

The sport of athletics is set to suffer from the decision of the Olympic Council of Ireland to accept only A standards and to set June 30 as the cut-off point for achieving those standards.

“As it stands we have only eight athletes qualified,” Liam Hennessy, the international secretary of the Athletics Association of Ireland, pointed out. “And between now and June 30 there are very few opportunities for athletes to achieve standards.”

So far the list of athletes who have qualified is headed by Ireland’s silver medallist at the world championships, racewalker Gillian O’Sullivan, and she is joined by two other racewalkers, Olive Loughnane, who finished 12th in Paris, and Jamie Costin who also competed at the world championships.

Paul Brizzell, who posted his A standard for 200m at the world championships is the only athlete with no Munster connections amongst the current crop of qualifiers.

Mark Carroll (marathon) is from Cork, Gillian O’Sullivan, a graduate of UCC, and Olive Loughnane both have their training bases in Cork, while Jamie Costin is a member of West Waterford AC.

Derval O’Rourke, Ireland’s newest hurdling sensation is one of three athletes from the Leevale club who have posted standards. Cathal Lombard, who competed over 10,000m at the world championships has his Olympic standard at 5,000m.

The other qualifier is, of course, Olympic silver medallist Sonia O’Sullivan, who has been shouldering Irish medal hopes at major championships since the European championships in Split in 1990.

The big losers could be the members of the 4x400m relay squad. They went to the world championships in Paris depleted as a result of injuries to Tomas Coman and Rob Daly and would have been hoping to get a ranking before the cut-off point.

Martin Burke, Olympic Council of Ireland’s sports director, will meet the National Governing Bodies over the coming weeks to ascertain who has qualified and to see what opportunities are available for qualification.

At the moment it would appear as if clay target shooting (Dick Burnett) has qualified. Cycling has qualified two for the road race, while Ray Clarke claimed a place on track and Robin Seymour is close to qualification.

Equestrian will have a team and Heike Holstein has qualified for the individual dressage.

The oarsmen claimed their places at the world championships in Milan where Sam Lynch and Gearoid Towey won the bronze medals in the double sculls.