O'Dwyer set for Athens

AthleticsEight days before the door closes on Olympic qualification, high jumper Adrian O'Dwyer has added his name to the list of Irish athletes for Athens. The 20-year-old cleared 2.30 metres at a meeting in Algiers last night, exactly what was required for Athens.

The Kilkenny athlete improved the five-year-old Irish record of 2.29 metres, which Brendan Reilly set in Seville in 1999. O'Dwyer also made the final of the World Indoor championships this year, and will take some encouragement going to Athens knowing 2.32 won bronze in Sydney four years ago.

O'Dwyer's feat brings to 13 the number of athletes that have qualified to date, but the Irish team for Athens is certain to be the smallest since the Moscow Olympics of 1980, when just seven athletes competed. There were 36 athletes on the Irish team in Sydney four years ago, with the reduction partly explained by the stricter qualifying criteria laid down by the Olympic Council of Ireland. The standard Olympic deadline runs out on August 9th.

This evening's Dublin International meeting in Santry could finish the race for qualification for the few still in contention, possibly their last chance to achieve the times. Starting at 6.30 p.m, the qualification chase falls mainly on the sprint events.

Rob Daly, Tomas Coman and David McCarthy are due to start in the men's 400 metres. The required 45.55 seconds appears to be a little out of their reach but against opposition from England, Botswana and the Ukraine, coupled with the right conditions, one of them might just sneak it.

The 200 metres will feature Paul Brizzel, who has clocked the 20.59 necessary for Athens. Gary Ryan is confident he too can run that, and again some decent overseas competition could help him across the line. The women's race has Ciara Sheehy chasing 22.97 seconds, and the word is she is peaking at the right time.

Fittingly, the Morton Memorial Mile will provide the middle-distance highlight, and marks the first serious race of the season for Athens-bound James Nolan. After being setback with a virus earlier this year, Nolan feels he is coming into the sort of shape which saw him run 3:35.69 for 1,500 metres last summer - and thus ensure his qualification.

"I'm in decent shape now," he says, "and this is the best I've felt for a long while. When I put the foot down on the gas, there is a response there."

After tonight, Nolan goes to Prague on Monday (1,500 metres), then Cork next Saturday (800 metres) and finally Lausanne on Tuesday week (another 1,500 metres). "One of these races should got to plan," he adds, "and hopefully I can get a fast time under my belt before I go back into the final block of training for Athens."

For Sonia O'Sullivan, still targeting only the 5,000 metres in Athens, the more serious block of racing begins tomorrow when she runs the 1,500 metres at the Gateshead Grand Prix. Joining her in that race is Freda Davoren, while Mark Carroll and Cathal Lombard - both Athens bound in the 5,000 metres - drop down to the 3,000 metres.