The aim of the five Irish representatives in the B World Championship road race at Punta del Esta, near Montevideo in Uruguay, on Sunday is to get a man to finish among the top seven nations to qualify Ireland for one place in the Olympic road race line-up at Sydney next September.

Sunday's race is over 10 laps of a testing circuit of just over 10 miles, and the leading 30 countries in the world rankings are excluded from the opposition which faces Ciaran Power, Tommy Evans, David McCann, Eugene Moriarty and Michael McNena.

According to Tony Allen in the ICF office, Ireland is ranked 40th of the 59 nations classified following the latest points earned by Power in Australia, so at least one of the team should gain a sufficiently high placing.

Egypt, who had a team here in the Ras this year with their top men 11th and 12th, head the line-up: they are ranked 31st. But Power was a stage winner in the Tour of Egypt in March. Next then will be Luxembourg, Finland, Yugoslavia, Mexico, Japan, Hungary, Uzbekistan and Croatia, along with Uruguay, Peru, Brazil and Argentina.

New York-based Deirdre Murphy goes in the women's race, and must finish in the top three for Olympic qualification.

Robin Seymour, who was sixth in the final qualifying mountain bike race at Memphis, Tennessee, last Sunday, has already assured one place for Ireland in that event at the Olympics. He is 53rd in the world rankings and the top 100 have earned inclusion in the Sydney line-up.

Seymour reverts now to cyclocross and goes for his ninth win in a row in the championship at Lurgan on December 4th.

At a special ICF board meeting last week Eamon Lawlor was co-opted to fill the vacancy as chairman of the sporting committee, so his name has been withdrawn from the nominations for the five positions to be filled at the Malahide a.g.m. tomorrow week.

This means there will be elections only for the presidency, between Mick Lawless and Paddy O'Callaghan, and for the position as controller of mountain biking affairs, with Peter Purfield challenged by Denis Middleton of Mayo.

Paddy Doran remains in charge of coaching, Tommy Campbell switches from leisure to head the development committee and Liam Leahy of Midleton takes over the leisure responsibilities. With Jack Watson staying on as secretary, he and Campbell will have the remarkable distinction of being involved as officials at the top level of Irish cycling from the 1960s through to 2000.