Sonia O'Sullivan has, as expected, been nominated by the BLE to defend her 5,000 metres title in the World Athletics championships in Athens next month. A meeting of the association's Management Committee in Dublin last evening considered a letter from O'Sullivan requesting selection for both the 1,500 and 5,000 metres championships.
Since she had already achieved qualifying standards in both events, her nomination became a mere formality, but O'Sullivan is still likely to wait to see how she progresses in training over the next week before committing herself to a final decision.
The squad contains another established chamionship contender in Nick Sweeney, but at this point there are genuine doubts if the invitation to join the travelling party will be accepted.
Sweeney will notify the selectors within the next week as to whether he feels that his damaged knee is sufficiently strong to justify his participation in the discus championship. He is due to have knee surgery at the end of the season, but is still clinging to the hope that he can compete well in Athens.
"He has informed us that he will only go to the championships if he feels that he is capable of throwing 65 or 66 metres and we have selected him on that basis," said a BLE spokesman.
TJ Kearns, whose programme in the 110 metres hurdles has been severely restricted by business and personal commitments this year, has a qualifying time from last summer, but has not responded to an invitation to travel to Athens.
The liklihood is that the vacancy will go to the young Crusaders hurdler, Peter Coughlan, who has a B qualifying standard for the event.
Mark Carroll is the only nomination for the 5,000 metres but Cormac Finnerty may yet be selected if he achieves the requisite standard at a meeting at Hechtel in Belgium this evening.
In spite of his failure to get into the first three in the 400 metres National Championship, Eugene Farrell retains the confidence of the selectors. There is also recognition for Niall Bruton and Shane Healy at 1,500 metres.
As a gesture of recognition for improved sprinting standards and the work of national coaches Paddy Fay and Ciaran Coakley in recent years, Ireland will be represented for the first time in both relay events.
In addition to Farrell, Neil and Gary Ryan, Tom McGuirk, David Matthews, Kevin Cogley, Tom Comyns, and Paul Brizzell have been selected to make up two formidable relay formations. An invitation to the Ulster runner Bryan Forbes to join the squad went unanswered.
Ireland will have three representatives in the women's 5,000 metres championship. O'Sullivan will be joined by Una English and Valerie Vaughan on the start line.
Ireland will be looking to the middle-distance events to sustain them in today's Nestle-sponsored quadrangular schools international meeting at Santry Stadium.
England, Scotland and Wales are all fielding strong teams in a competition which will be officially opened by the President, Mrs Robinson, at 2.0 pm. Irish officials believe that the host country is capable of delivering a credible challenge for the team award.
Those hopes are based in part on the premise that Michael Wilcox from Kells CS can win the 800 metres and that Anthony Doherty (James's Street CBS) and Joe McAlister (St Malachy's, Belfast) will produce big performances in the 1,500 amd 3,000 metres events respectively.
Jamaican Olympic silver medallist James Beckford has been barred from competing for three months after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Beckford, who finished second in the long jump in the 1996 Olympics, tested positive for Ephedrine at an IAAF Grand Prix meet in Paris on June 25th.
