Juniors seek more funding

ATHLETICS: Athletics Ireland will be seeking additional funding for junior athletes on the back of Sunday's European Cross Country championships in Germany. Although the junior men's team won silver medals - the best ever Irish placing in that race - not all of them are guaranteed funding under the Irish Sports Council's carding scheme.

The Sports Council's current criteria awards juniors with a top-15 finish in the European Cross Country with a maximum of €1,600 per athlete.

Four athletes scored on Ireland's medal winning team, led by Mark Christie in fifth.

Andrew Ledwith (seventh) and Danny Darcy (11th) will also qualifying for funding - although Jamie McCarthy, who was the fourth scoring member in 31st, doesn't get the same benefit.

Yet, the Sports Council are now reassessing their entire elite athlete funding and carding scheme, with a major overhaul expected in the near future.

In the meantime they will be considering development plans submitted by the high-performance managers of the various governing bodies, which will allow for athlete funding that is not criteria based.

According to Liam Hennessy, international secretary of Athletics Ireland, a new highperformance plan - shortly due to the Sports Council - will be requesting additional funding for junior and other development panels, although that would go to specific programmes rather than directly to the athlete.

"That is something we are already actively pursuing," he said, "and we will now be seeking an allocation of funding that is not criteria based, and which would allow athletes such as our juniors additional support. And in putting together our new high-performance plan we felt we needed to make a provision for competitions at the lower level. In other words, that we need to come down a level or two."

The Sports Council's carding scheme has been criticised in the past for rewarding excellence, rather than nurturing it. Among the development events where Athletics Ireland will be seeking additional athlete funding will be the European Youth Olympic Festival, which takes place in Italy next July.

Up to now, the Sports Council funding has been based largely on athletes attaining qualifying standards for major championships, but many of those targets continue to get more difficult.

The IAAF have announced their standards for the World Championships next August in Finland and qualification for several events will be even more difficult than the Athens Olympics.

The men's A-standard in the 400 metres for Helsinki is now 45.43 seconds, compared to 45.55 for Athens - and the 800-metre time has dropped even more significantly from 1:46.00 to 1:45.40. Qualification in six of the men's field events and seven of the women's is also made more difficult.

Very few events have gone the other way, although the men's marathon is now 2:18.0 compared to 2:15.0 for Athens, and the men's B-standard for 5,000 metres now 13:28.00 (previously 13:25.40).

"In a way the new standards are indicative of the way events have gone," added Hennessy. "But the important thing about Helsinki is that we will be sending B-standard athletes.

"And at least we know exactly what we have to run in the relays, unlike the limited number of teams allowed in Athens.

"But certain other things have become very restrictive, such as where exactly you can qualify in the walking events."