Last chance saloon for Olympic hopefuls at National Athletics Championships

On Sunday, Leon Reid will compete in the men’s 200m, where his biggest rival is Marcus Lawler, and with three days until the qualification window closes for Tokyo, both will be eligible for selection. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

For a large swathe of Ireland’s top athletes, this is a make-or-break weekend, the final opportunity to seal their spot in Tokyo. And as is now almost customary at a pre-Olympics national championship, there’s a flicker of controversy, one that could ignite in the days ahead.

That all depends on what Athletics Ireland and the Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) choose to do in the case of Leon Reid, the 26-year-old sprinter who is eligible to compete over 200m at the Tokyo Olympics, positioned well within the qualification quota with World Athletics.