Aga Khan puts Irish in saddle for Athens
A nail-biting finish to the RDS spectacle saw Ireland eclipse favourites France and end a four-year trophy drought.
Billy Twomey was the Irish hero, producing the only double-clear round of the prestigious competition.
President Mary McAleese was among the first to congratulate the team, which also included Cian O’Connor, Marion Hughes and Jessica Kurten.
Meanwhile, athlete Maria McCambridge’s Athens dream is also back on track after a dramatic U-turn yesterday by the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI).
After an emotional rollercoaster week, the 5,000 metres runner was added to the Irish Olympic team after making a personal appeal to OCI president Pat Hickey.
The Dundrum club member only achieved the A standard required for Olympic qualification last Saturday - after a July 20 deadline set by the OCI.
In her appeal, presented at the OCI’s headquarters in Dublin yesterday, Ms McCambridge said she had been unable to secure a quality 5,000m race to achieve the required A standard within the OCI’s recently extended closing date period.
McCambridge said last night: “Since the Belgian win last Saturday, I’ve experienced every emotion over the past week ... and throughout it all, I always held out hope of achieving my goal. The Olympic Council came up trumps.
“The last week, in terms of support, was overwhelming but now I have to refocus on my goal - Athens.”
In announcing McCambridge’s selection, the OCI president took a swipe at the national athletics body.
Mr Hickey said: “It’s very clear that the Athletics Association of Ireland were not very focused on their athletes’ endeavours. Maria was not included in the appeal presented by them to the OCI which resulted in the recent extension of the cut-off date.
“When requested to forward possible team qualifiers prior to the pre-team registration meeting of April 28, Athletics Ireland failed to notify our chef de mission of Maria’s potential. Consequently, her name was not included on the Athens Olympic Games registration system.”
