Nolan forced to pull out of Lisbon meet

The Irish team for this weekend's World Indoor Championships in Lisbon was reduced to five yesterday with news of James Nolan's withdrawal from the 1,500 metres after he failed to recover from a dose of the 'flu picked up last week. It is disappointing for the UCD athlete, who was fast approaching the sort of form that saw him take silver at the European Indoor Championships in Gent this time last year. But after missing training for the last seven days, and then withdrawing from his final warm-up race in Germany at the weekend, Nolan had a brief consultation with his coach, Brendan Hackett, and decided to skip the championships.

Last month, Sinead Delahunty and Breda Dennehy-Willis pulled out of the 1,500 and 3,000 metres respectively through injury. Paul Brizzell was also selected for the 200 metres, but he has decided to by-pass the indoor season, as has Tomas Coman, who was originally selected in the 400 metres.

Definitely travelling will be Mark Carroll (3,000 metres), Daniel Caulfield (800 metres) and Peter Coghlan (60 metre hurdles), as well as Sonia O'Sullivan (3,000 metres) and Karen Shinkins (400 metres). Despite some media reports over the weekend, O'Sullivan did return to her London base at the weekend after her winter training in Australia, and will travel to Lisbon tomorrow.

All five Irish athletes will be in Friday's opening sessions of the championships. O'Sullivan and Carroll are in the early morning heats of the 3,000 metres, followed by Coghlan in the hurdles, while the afternoon session will feature Shinkins and Caulfield.