Olympic targets set for Irish athletes after IAAF meeting

Irish athletes now know exactly what they need to do to qualify for next year’s Rio Olympics – and some of the standards are tougher than anticipated.

The IAAF are staging their 2015 council meeting in Beijing this week, where they have now agreed the official Rio qualifying standards.

Unlike recent Olympics, where there was an A-standard and a less difficult B-standard, there is now only one mark across all events.

Rob Heffernan has already walked well inside the 50km walk standard of 4:03.00 this year, but it is the marathon standard that arouses most Irish interest. The IAAF has set the men’s standard at 2:17 (2:18 was expected), while the women’s standard is 2:42 (2:44 was first mooted).

Last Sunday, in Rotterdam, Dublin’s Mick Clohisey was the best Irish finisher with his 2:17:43, in his marathon debut – although that now falls short of the required 2:17.

Another go

Only two seconds adrift of Clohisey was Thomas Frazer, who clocked 2:17:44, while Gary Thornton ran 2:18:22, and Sean Hehir 2:19:24. All those will now need to give it another go.

No Irish woman has yet put themselves in the mix for marathon selection, although Fionnuala Britton is certainly capable of running inside 2:42, having run 2:31.44 in her debut at the distance, when finishing 10th at the European Championships in Zurich last summer.

Mark English, with an outdoor best of 1:44.84, should have now problem beating the 1:45.80 standard that has been set for the men’s 800m.

The men’s 1,500m is set at 3:36.0, again similar to recent A-standards, and certainly within the capabilities of Ciaran Ó Lionárd and Paul Robinson, both of whom made the final at last year’s European Championships.