Nine athletes win appeal on funding

Irish Sports Council's Grants: With the obvious exception of Sonia O'Sullivan and nine others, there was little satisfaction among the 38 athletes who had appealed the Irish Sports Council's decisions regarding grant aid for the current year.

O'Sullivan managed to convince the three-man independent appeals committee to restore her grant aid from zero to World Class Two, worth €22,500, and now looks set to continue her involvement in competitive athletics until the Beijing Olympics.

Two more athletes, hammer thrower Eileen O'Keeffe and sprinter Anna Boyle, were also successful in their appeals, as were triathlon specialists Heather Wilson and Caroline Kearney, badminton player Scott Evans, canoeist Helen Barnes, cyclist Jamie Popham, swimmer Barry Murphy and wheelchair athlete Patrice Dockery.

European Indoor 3,000-metre champion Alistair Cragg was also added to the list, having missed the original submission date, and gets €14,325.

The other 28 appeals across 11 sports, which included several other major championship medallists of recent years, were unsuccessful, thus supporting the Sports Council's far stricter policy when it comes to handing out financial assistance to elite athletes.

Among those turned down was Athens Olympic 1,500-metre runner James Nolan, who described the outcome as "a disgrace, obviously", and Olympic rower Gearóid Towey, who said it felt like "a big kick in the teeth".

Athletics Ireland had submitted 13 appeals from athletes, most of whom made a personal appearance at the appeal hearings last Monday week, including O'Sullivan.

Among the unsuccessful appeals were Karen Shinkins, Gareth Turnbull and the Irish 400-metre relay squad, who won bronze medals at last year's World Indoor championships.

As Nolan has been training in South Africa since March he was represented by two barristers, and was particularly shocked and angry on hearing the news yesterday.

"I was told four hours before my flight to South Africa in March that I wasn't getting any funding for the last four months, or the rest of the year," he said.

"In a normal job that would obviously be unfair dismissal. I just think we should be told a year in advance, that there's a possibility you might be cut, so get your life together. I would have lined up some sort of a part-time job, or even gone back to college. Instead I've been left in No Man's Land for the rest of the year."

While Nolan did meet the criteria for at least some grant aid for 2005, he was cut under the Sports Council's new five-year rule, which effectively means athletes will be cut after five years continuous support unless they show some ability to progress in their sport over the coming year.

"I realise that," he added, "but I was running senior athletics at 17. Under the five-year rule they'd want me to retire at 22 unless I'd done something. In other words, after five years you're over the hill. That's bullshit.

"We're not going to win medals at the Olympics this way, anybody can tell you that. And still there's nothing being done to improve coaching or facilities or anything like that. And I'll be 31 in Beijing. I know that people like Marcus O'Sullivan ran his best time at that age."

Nolan was also aggrieved by a letter he received from the Sports Council last week, telling him he was still liable for drug testing:

"Basically they were saying that we can still drag you out of bed at six in the morning for a urine sample. I know they spent something like €1.3 million on drug testing last year, but they won't give us any funding.

"I got tested twice in three days the last time I was home in Tullamore. And that's ridiculous, because anybody who knows anything about athletes could tell you who they should be testing."

For Towey, the decision to drop him from World Class One in 2004 (worth €30,500) to zero in 2005 was particularly upsetting.

His lightweight sculls team-mate in Athens, Sam Lynch, stayed on €30,500, even though they both announced they wouldn't be competing this year.

According to the Sports Council, Lynch had laid out a high-performance plan for 2005, which focused on gaining weight as he moved up to a heavier division. Towey, however, claims his plans for 2005 were equally particular in terms of future development.

"I told them that I wasn't going to be competing internationally this year, that I needed to take a break with a view to Beijing in mind, but that I would be carrying on with the training and domestic competitions. I'm still only 28 and it's still my ambition to win an Olympic medal.

"It's obviously not Sam's fault, but I just don't see how they can do that. I mean, myself and Sam were a team, and came under the qualifying criteria as a team. It would be fair enough if he was competing this year and I wasn't. And I came clean with them. I could have told them I was competing, and gone along to all the trials, even though I'd no intention of competing.

"I wanted everything to be above board, but obviously that wasn't respected.

"So it's a big kick in the teeth. To me they're just saying I'm not worth it."

Among Towey's plans for the year is a trans-Atlantic row, and on Monday he ran the Belfast marathon in two hours 29 minutes.

"It's not like I'm going on a holiday for the year. But I'll have to rethink all that now, because I've been left in the lurch big time. I can't train full time and study without any funding. I hate to admit that a lot of my training is based around money, but that's the reality of it.

"I do feel if that's the way they're going to treat us then what's the point. And it doesn't send out a good message to the up-and-coming athletes either, that they're wasting their time trying to make it."

Grants Approved:

Athletics Ireland: Sonia O'Sullivan €22,500 Special Case

Eileen O'Keeffe €11,500 Special Case

Anna Boyle €4,600 Achieved Criteria

Irish Canoe Union: Helen Barnes €11,500 Achieved Criteria

Irish Wheelchair Association: Patrice Dockery €11,500 Special case

Cycling Ireland: Jamie Popham €4,600 Special case

Badminton Union of Ireland: Scott Evans €11,500 Special case

Triathlon Ireland: Heather Wilson €4,600 Achieved Criteria

Caroline Kearney €4,600 Achieved Criteria

Swim Ireland: Barry Murphy €4,600 Achieved Criteria