Athletes rue funds rebuff

While the recent funding of £262,725 has been welcomed by the national governing body BLE, several elite athletes have been notably left out of this year's government handouts, causing some consternation within the sport.

Dublin City Harrier sprinter Kar en Shinkins, who ran 52.81 seconds for an Irish 400 metres record in the Europa Cup in Lithuania last month, did not receive any funding from the Irish Sports Council.

Others left out include hammer throwers Paddy McGrath and Roman Linscheid and discus thrower John Menton, all of whom are in the BLE elite squad which is looking towards the Sydney Olympic games in 2000.

Shinkins, perhaps, is the biggest surprise omission, as the funding arrived in the wake of the 21-year-old breaking Patricia Walsh's 11-yearold record. The Newbridge runner knocked almost one and a half seconds off the original record when she finished second in the 400 metres in the Europa Cup. Her time qualified her for this month's European Athletics Championships in Budapest.

Shinkins had achieved some success at 400 metres during the indoor season, setting an Irish record during the quarter-finals of the European Indoor Track and Field Championships in Spain and winning a silver medal in the Scottish Indoor Championships.

Linsheid, who has represented Ireland on many occasions, including the Atlanta Olympic games in 1996, recently threw 74.01 metres to rank him third in the all-time rankings of Irish throwers behind Declan Hegarty and Conor McCullough.

Linscheid's best before he went to Atlanta was 72.38 metres.

McGrath and Menton are paying a coach in New York $100 per week to work with them and would clearly have benefited from funding.

This is the first year of the new carding scheme, which grades athletes according to their standards and their potential.

One of the reasons proffered for knocking back Shinkins, Linscheid, Menton and McGrath is that they gained their best marks after the applications had been made.

Another obvious omission from the list of recipients was marathon runner Catherina McKeirnan, who did not apply for assistance, presumably because she is one of the most highly rewarded long-distance runners in the world.

Sonia O'Sullivan received £12,000, half the amount she was entitled to according to her status as a World Class 1 athlete.

An agreement is in place with national governing bodies that athletes who earn more than £50,000 per year receive only half of their entitlement.

Canoeist Ian Wiley, who has been consistently a medal contender, is the only athlete of the 170 listed on the full maximum grant.