O'Sullivan out of Games

ATHLETICS / News: The Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) will today unveil Stephen Maguire as their new national director of coaching, arguably one of the most important positions in the sport.

The appointment was ratified by an AAI board meeting on Monday night and full details of Maguire's responsibilities will be announced at a press conference in Dublin today.

Maguire, who had been working as interim national coach over the past year, now formally moves into one of the key positions established under the new blueprint for Irish athletics approved last December.

The appointment of a national development director will also be announced today.

A native of Strabane, Maguire will bring plenty of experience to the position, having just recently been coach to the Irish team at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow, where Derval O'Rourke won gold in the 60-metre hurdles.

He was also coach to the Irish team at last year's European Indoor Championships in Madrid, where David Gillick (400 metres) and Alistair Cragg (3,000 metres) claimed gold.

His success with a range of athletes to date was recognised earlier this month when Maguire was named Northern Ireland coach of the year, beating off 70 other candidates that included the Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte and the Northern Ireland soccer manager Lawrie Sanchez.

Filling the position of national director of coaching was one of the first responsibilities of the new AAI chief executive, Brendan Hackett.

Eight candidates, four from Ireland and four from Britain, were selected for interview, and Hackett called in the former Republic of Ireland soccer manager Brian Kerr, Niall Moyna of DCU and Liam Moggan of the NCTC to be part of the interview panel.

The main brief of the new director of coaching will be to bring the sport forward in terms of technical leadership and performance. He will be expected to help develop coaches and will have responsibility for five national event coaches, in sprints, distances, jumps, throws and walks - those positions initially to be filled part-time - as well as the five current regional coaches.

Sonia O'Sullivan, meanwhile, has seen all her efforts to represent Australia in the Commonwealth Games end in vain as the hamstring injury sustained at the weekend has, as expected, forced her to withdraw from Friday's 5,000 metres.

Despite three days of rest and treatment, the injury failed to sufficiently respond, and the Corkwoman yesterday realised there was no way she could compete.

It is believed O'Sullivan's training had been greatly curtailed for the past week or so, and even if the injury had shown some improvement it's unlikely she would have been in shape to come close to challenging for a medal.

Yet it marks a cruel ending to months of training and campaigning to get herself to the start line in the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is just a few hundred yards from her Australian home.

O'Sullivan has lived and trained in Australia for six months of the year since 1998, and the event was, almost literally, on her doorstep.

It's just over two months since she received her Australia citizenship that cleared the way for her selection, sure in the knowledge it would not impinge on her Irish eligibility.

O'Sullivan followed that with a second-place finish in the Australian trials, just dipping under the qualifying standard when clocking 15:44.24.

Even though she was then named on the Australian team, certain members of the Commonwealth federation questioned her eligibility right up until March 12th, when she was finally given the all-clear to compete.

O'Sullivan's future plans are now likely to switch to the European Championships in Gothenburg next August, possibly in the marathon.

The 36-year-old former 5,000 metres world champion and Olympic silver medallist had talked about doing a spring marathon after the Commonwealth Games but this latest injury makes that highly unlikely.