Seven Irish athletes are currently sitting in a quota qualification spot in advance of Sunday’s cut-off date for the Paris Olympics. This weekend’s National Championships at the Morton Stadium in Santry also presents the last chance to reinforce that position, before World Athletics announce the final list of Paris qualifiers next Tuesday.
In addition to the 10 Irish athletes with automatic qualification times, plus the women’s and mixed 4x400m relay, Luke McCann and Cathal Doyle (1,500m), Sophie Becker (400m), Nicola Tuthill (hammer) and Eric Favors (shot) are all still just inside the athlete quota in their events, which 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).
Thomas Barr, who last week in Bydgoszcz fell just a step short of automatically qualifying for his third Olympics in the 400m hurdles, his time of 48.79 seconds just outside the Paris standard of 48.70, also moved into a quota spot this week, and another victory on Sunday would surely keep him in that mix.
Kate O’Connor, who last weekend finished second in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting in Ratingen, Germany, has also moved back inside her event quota, ranked 22nd of the 24 available spots for Paris, her 6,244 points at the weekend just off her Irish record of 6,297 points.
Barr, who turns 32 two days before the Olympics begin, is still likely 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 earlier this month, running the third leg.
For O’Connor, the 23-year-old who two years ago won a Commonwealth Games silver medal for Northern Ireland, qualifying for her first Olympics would represent further significant progress in her event.
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), Andrew Coscoran (1,500m), Brian Fay (5,000m) and Mark English (800m).
English sealed his qualification for his third Olympics in Turku, Finland last week, his 1:44.69 dipping inside the 1:44.70 required for Paris, before he bettered that Irish record again in Madrid last Friday night, running a brilliant 1:44.53 to finish fourth at the Continental Tour meeting.
The 31-year-old is entered to race the 800m at the weekend, Coscoran likely to move down from the 1,500m to test his speed in advance of Paris.
Adeleke has entered the 100m only this weekend, where she is likely to face Lavin, who last summer also broke the Irish 100m record to go with her 100m hurdles record. Adeleke’s 100m best of 11.31 was set in 2021, Lavin improving the Irish record to 11.27 last year, although Adeleke did clock a wind-assisted 10.84 seconds in April.
Mageean has decided to withdraw the championships, as the recently crowned European 1,500 champion is training at altitude in Switzerland, and still recovering from her gold medal performance in Rome.
“After careful consideration and consultation with my coaches and support team, I have decided to withdraw,” she said. “This decision was not made lightly, but it is crucial to prioritise my recovery at this time. Following the European Championships, I have been dealing with fatigue and have not recovered fully. At this time, I need to focus on getting back to full health to ensure I can put in the hard training sessions necessary to compete with the best in the world.”
That likely leaves O’Sullivan and Healy to battle it out again for that title, Healy just edging it last year.
For the 1,500m in Paris, there are 45 entry spots, McCann currently in 37th spot, with Doyle 43rd. They’ll go head-to-head for the National title on Sunday, which also comes with those last ranking points which may further improve their position.
Doyle once again lowered his lifetime best to 3:34.09 to finish just ahead McCann in Turku, Finland last week, before McCann won in Geneva last Saturday, running 3:35.71, having run his lifetime best of 3:33.66 in Stockholm earlier this month
Becker, part of the women’s 4x400m relay which won silver in Rome, is holding 46th spot in the women’s 400m, with 48 to qualify; the 20-year-old Tuthill is in 31st spot in the hammer, with 32 to qualify, while Favors is in 29th spot in the men’s shot, with 32 to qualify there too.
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