Carroll gives Sports Council tongue-lashing
Carroll, returning to the scene of his only marathon to date in 2002, was one of five high-profile Irish athletes along with Peter Coghlan, James Nolan, Gareth Turnbull and Karen Shinkins, to lose grant funding from the ISC earlier this year and the 33-year-old multi-national record holder said Treacy told him the decision was taken because he was past it.
That came in a telephone conversation back in February and has given Carroll further incentive to break Treacy’s Irish marathon record of 2:09.15, set in Boston in 1988. Carroll clocked 2:10.54 to place sixth on his debut in 2002.
“I’m all for supporting up and coming runners, I think it’s very important. However, our system, if you’re going to call it a system, is that you reward people who have already done well. The grants have been very good to me over the years but I’m just baffled. They’re basically telling guys like James Nolan and Gareth Turnbull, at 27 and 24 years of age, that they won’t be supported any more.
“I got a call from John Treacy which I hope he stands by and acknowledges, when he said that there comes a point where you realise you no longer can win it. Maybe that’s John’s opinion and maybe that’s the Sports Council’s opinion, but I’ll make my mind up when it’s time to retire and I’m not going to let John and the Irish Sports Council decide that for me.
“This has actually fuelled me and now I’m more determined than ever to take the Irish record off him. Maybe not here in New York but on a faster course in the spring. If it is their opinion that myself, Gareth Turnbull and James Nolan have had their day with the Olympics then we have to do what we can to prove them wrong.
Carroll said the decision had been particularly hurtful because it had come from a former elite athlete.
“I’m actually terribly disappointed with John. I think he knows better, he knows how hard it is for an athlete to survive in this day and age and also how hard it is to achieve an A standard.”
Carroll suggested a longer-term approach for Irish athletics.
“Maybe the answer isn’t in giving grants but in providing proper facilities,” he said. “Maybe we need an Olympic training centre, to develop our Olympic athletes. I’ve said it
before but I hear from the Olympic Council every four years when they ask you where you want to fly from, give you your blazer and then off you go. That’s it. Where’s the Olympic development? Where’s the facilities?
“We need a bigger plan. All we hear is Beijing, Beijing but that’s in three years’ time and what makes them think the athletes are going to bring back a haul of Olympic medals from Beijing? We need a master plan for 12, 16, 20, 24 years down the road. So that the kids toddling around at the moment will have the opportunities.”
Carroll said he would welcome the chance to talk through the issues with Treacy and Olympic Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey face to face but that athletes voicing opinions was not always well received.
“If you start to point these things out you just get shut down,” Carroll said.
“I’d be more than happy to sit down with John or Pat Hickey and knock this stuff out but they won’t go for that. There are other athletes like Peter Coghlan and Karen Shinkins who would have a lot to say on this but our voice doesn’t really carry too much.”
Carroll and fellow Irishman Vinny Mulvey are part of a European challenge that includes English duo Jon Brown and marathon debutant John Mayock. They face, as always, a dazzling and deep array of African talent topped by defending New York champion Hendrick Ramaala, world record holder Paul Tergat, Boston winner Hailu Negussie, London winner Martin Lel and two-time New York winner John Kagwe.
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