Carroll gives Sports Council tongue-lashing

MARK CARROLL showed he is pumped up for tomorrow’s ING New York City Marathon by launching a stinging attack on Irish Sports Council chairman John Treacy on the eve of the race.

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.