Qualification for places at the Olympic Games next year will be the main focus for the six-strong Irish team at the Canoe Slalom World Championships at Seu D'Urgell in Spain over the next four days.
The one realistic Irish hope of a medal at the championships is kayaker Ian Wiley in the K1 class, although his ranking has now dropped to 15th in the world. An outside chance also rests with Galway woman Eadaoin Ni Challarain, who made tremendous progress in the women's kayak this year and gained seventh place in the World Cup race in Slovenia.
The World Championships are the sole method of qualification for the Olympics, but qualification places are given out on a complicated basis. About 80 per cent of the places available are set aside on a one-boat per nation basis (in Wiley's case, for instance, the number here is 17), and the rest (in the K1 five places) are distributed to the "next best" boats from the top nations up to a limit of two from each nation.
Ni Challarain and Canadian Singles competitor Tadhg McIntyre compete for the first time today in a qualification round for finals on Saturday. Both would hope to gain places in Sydney - the Olympic places for them are the top 13 and top 11 respectively with five and four "top-up" places respectively.
Wiley, along with Aidan Rheinisch, Eoin Rheinisch and Neil Caffrey, will take part in a qualification process tomorrow hoping to qualify for the K1 final on Sunday.
