Athletics Ireland announce Marathon and 50k walk nominations...

The Athletics Ireland Selection committee met this morning to consider the nominations for Olympic selection in the marathon and race walking events. Following the meeting, the athletes nominated for selection are:

50km Race Walks: Rob Heffernan, Brendan Boyce, Colin Griffin
Men’s Marathon: Mark Kenneally
Women’s Marathon: Linda Byrne, Ava Hutchinson; Caitriona Jennings

 Athletics Ireland Director of High Performance, Kevin Ankrom explained their stance. "There is a nomination policy there and we went through the process of looking at each girl and making sure she met with the criteria. As a group of selectors this is what we came up with. It was a good decision and a lot of thought went into the nomination process. We were very fortunate to have four girls who competed and performed at a high level. If that happened in every event we would be happy but this was not a win-win situation because someone was not going to be selected. I accept that people may want to focus on the one who did not get nominated but I feel that’s unfair on the other girls. It’s a no-win situation, but let’s focus on being positive and get behind the girls who have been nominated. It’s the biggest ever team with ‘A’ standards."

This brings to an end the debate about which three of the four Marathon women should go. Maria McCambridge who had the slowest Marathon time is now likely to concentrate on the 10,000m for the European Championships or to try and achieve the Olympic 'A' standard of 31:45.

Someone suggested in a comment to an earlier post that if Maria were to reach the Olympic 'B' standard of 32:10 then she should be sent. She did after all reach the 'A' standard for the Marathon. That decision I would guess would be in the hands of the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Newspapers.....(updated 22nd May)

1) McCambridge gutted after missing out on Olympic Marathon place...Irish Independent...
2) McCambridge won't appeal decision...Irish Times...