The Irish Athletics Association yesterday moved to cover all contingencies for the Olympic Games by submitting a comprehensive list of nominations to the Olympic Council of Ireland for approval.
Although the OCI have indicated that only those with A qualifying standards will be considered for selection, the athletics body has taken the precaution of naming many athletes who currently hold only B figures.
In doing so, they state that while Olympic entries must be submitted by August 25th, the period for track and field qualification will not expire until after September 11th.
It is their contention that several athletes will achieve full qualification between the two specified deadlines and as such, the OCI should cover this eventuality by entering those in the lower category.
Countries can enter an athlete below A standard only in those events in which they have no A standard competitors, but the AAI submit that in spite of the OCI's stance, B status should not automatically preclude those seeking selection.
They point, in particular, to the claims of the national javelin record holder Terry McHugh, who was less than a metre outside the Olympic A standard of 82 metres in winning the Swiss championship at the weekend.
McHugh's figure of 81.22 metres places him in the top 30 in the world this year and would have been good enough to win the American trials at Sacramento last week.
Likewise, Ciaran McDonagh, 10th in the long jump at the World Championships in Seville last year, is just outside the A standard after returning only recently from a protracted injury.
Meanwhile, Mark Carroll is ready to threaten his national 5,000 metres record in this evening's Grand Prix meeting at Stockholm after pronouncing himself fully recovered from a muscular problem.
Carroll picked up the injury on his first European appearance of the season at Barcelona last week and at one point was considering withdrawing from the Dream Mile in Oslo.
Fortunately, he decided to gamble and was rewarded with a splendid time of three minutes 50.62 seconds to move into second place in the all-time Irish rankings list behind Ray Flynn.
It proved that his original fears were unfounded and now, suitably reassured, he will seek to improve on his career best figures of 13 minutes 3.93 seconds for the 5,000 metres, set at Berlin two years ago.
After claiming the European 3,000 metres indoor championship at Ghent earlier in the year, the graph of the Cork athlete's career has been climbing sharply. And, as he completes his preparation for the Olympic Games, he believes that the best has yet to come.
The Zurich Grand Prix meeting, a week on Friday, will provide a critical test of his expanding self belief. After that, he plans to return to Dublin for the National Championships at Santry on August 19th and 20th.
Sonia O'Sullivan, too, has reason to be satisfied with her current form after producing her best 1,500 metres time in two years in Oslo. It is a measure of the depth of quality in the Bislett field that her time of four minutes 1.70 seconds placed her only ninth, but in the context of her Olympic plans, the time was still highly significant.
