Athletics

Five more Irish athletes seal their places for the Olympics in Paris

Luke McCann, Cathal Doyle, Kate O’Connor, Nicola Tuthill and Eric Favors make the quotas after the cut-off point

Athlete Nicola Tuthill. Photograph: Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Athlete Nicola Tuthill. Photograph: Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Ian O'Riordan
Tue Jul 02 2024 - 16:35

Five of the seven Irish athletes in a quota qualification spot for the Paris Olympics have held their position after Sunday’s cut-off date, ensuring they will join the 10 Irish athletes already qualified automatically, along with the two relay teams, the women’s and mixed 4x400m.

Thomas Barr has dropped just two places outside the 40-athlete quota in the 400m hurdles, but still has a good chance of making the cut after the final list of qualifiers is published by World Athletics this Sunday.

Likewise with Sophie Becker in the women’s 400m, who has dropped four places outside the 48-athlete quota in her event. Jodie McCann has also moved within five places of making the 5,000m, where 42 women will compete.

With Paris now just 24 days away, these quota qualifications make up the final Paris event numbers on top of those with the automatic qualifying marks (with a maximum of three entries per event for each country).

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For the 1,500m in Paris, there are 45 entry spots, with Luke McCann now qualifying in 37th, and Cathal Doyle in 43rd, and they will join automatic qualifier Andrew Coscoran.

Kate O’Connor has also met the highly competitive qualification in the women’s heptathlon, ranked 23rd of 24, as did 20-year-old Nicola Tuthill in the women’s hammer, ranked 31st of the 32-athlete quota in that event.

Eric Favors will also be competing in his first Olympics in the shot, qualifying in 30th of the 32-athlete quota, making for two field event, and one multi-event specialist for Paris.

All national athletics federations now have until midnight July 4th to accept or reject the places, before World Athletics then publish the final Road to Paris list this Sunday. It is a complicated process for a variety of reasons, not least the fact some athletes qualified in two or more events may opt out of one.

Barr, who turns 32 two days before the Olympics begin, is still set to travel to Paris as part in the 4x400m mixed relay having played a key role in the gold medal performance at the European Championships in Rome last month.

The 10 Irish athletes with the automatic qualifying marks for Paris are Rhasidat Adeleke (200m and 400m), Sharlene Mawdsley (400m) Ciara Mageean (800m and 1,500m), Sarah Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan (both 1,500m), Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles), Fionnuala McCormack (marathon), Coscoran (1,500m), Brian Fay (5,000m), and Mark English (800m).

Adeleke will only opt for the 400m, but it appears Phil Healy will miss out, as she needs 12 places to clear ahead of her to make the 200m cut.

The women’s and mixed 4x400m relay selections will be confirmed by Athletics Ireland later this week, with two men’s places in the mixed event still up for grabs, Jack Raftery doing his selection chances a huge favour by winning first senior 400m title on Sunday in 45.95 seconds, ahead of Chris O’Donnell (46.07), Callum Baird (46.20) and Cillín Greene (46.85).

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan is an Irish Times sports journalist writing on athletics