Cuddihy to take US trail

Athletics/News: Ireland's best 400-metre woman, Joanne Cuddihy, is to follow the example of Ireland's best 400-metre man, David Gillick, and base herself overseas in preparation for next year's world championships in Osaka, Japan. It's another disconcerting move at a time when much apparent effort is being made to improve training facilities and sports science at home.

Cuddihy intends taking a year out, starting next March, from medical studies at UCD, and spending time at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), linking up with the US sprint coach Dan Pfaff.

Last month, Gillick moved to Loughborough University, England, where he now works under English coach Nick Dakin.

"Last summer did go brilliantly," explained Cuddihy, "so the challenge now is to keep it going, run even faster. I won't be happy unless I go faster next year, and get under 51 seconds anyway. After that I'll set another barrier.

"I'm not sure yet how long I'll stay, but it will be like a training camp. I won't be changing everything I'm doing, but it's just about getting to a higher intensity. It's not that I really felt I had to go away, but I didn't want to be staying here just training, without going to college. I don't think that's possible."

Cuddihy was speaking at the launch yesterday of Athletics Ireland's 2007 international programme - the highlight of which is the Osaka games, which run from August 24th to September 2nd. Cuddihy is one of only five Irish athletes with A standards - she ran 51.09 seconds to make the European final in Gothenburg last August.

In the past Athletics Ireland have also sent athletes with B standards but will from now on do so only at the discretion of the selectors.

"The world championships is the big one," added Cuddihy.

"I got to the European final, so getting to a world final is the next step. I'm hoping my own coach, Paddy Fay, will come out to UCLA for first few weeks as well, and hopefully the move will help me improve the way I want to next year."

The four others with A standards for Osaka are Derval O'Rourke (100-metre hurdles), Alistair Cragg (5,000 metres), Róisín McGettigan (3,000-metre steeplechase) and Paul Hession (200 metres) but Athletics Ireland are expecting to send a team of around 10.

"If we do manage to get 10 athletes to qualify for a world championships I think that will be a fantastic achievement," said AAI chief executive Brendan Hackett. "But I certainly don't think we should be expecting all or any of them to win medals. If we're sending a soccer team or a rugby team to a World Cup we don't expect them to win, so I think people forget that just getting these athletes to qualify is a success in itself. We certainly make a big deal about the soccer team qualifying for the World Cup and it should be the same with our athletes.

"The reality is it's getting more and more difficult for any nation to win medals at the world championships but we're still punching very well for our weight. We're also doing exceedingly well at European level and indoor level, which shouldn't be discounted so easily either."

The main indoor event of 2007 will be the European championships in Birmingham from March 2nd to 4th - where Ireland will have two defending champions in Gillick and Cragg, and also O'Rourke, the reigning World Indoor champion.

The changing face of world athletics was also illustrated by the fact Ireland will probably send only two runners - the winners of the men's and women's national titles - to the 2007 World Cross Country in Kenya - an event once seen as appropriate to our strengths.

Next month's European cross-country in Italy, however, is the highlight of the season, Ireland sending full teams in all races, with US-based Martin Fagan and Mary Cullen already announced as pre-selections.