Squeeze put on leading competitors

Athletics NewsIrish athletics has been stunned by the news that many of its leading performers won't be receiving any grant aid for the coming year. Recent championship medal winners Sonia O'Sullivan, Mark Carroll and Karen Shinkins are among those to be told they're no longer good enough to qualify, while several more have also found their grants suddenly withdrawn or else cut considerably.

Full details of the 2005 high performance grants will be announced by the Irish Sports Council later today, but the figures related to athletics were seen by The Irish Times last night and will clearly upset a large section of international names still making significant sacrifices for their sport.

The Sports Council had indicated that changes in how they were assessing their high-performance grants would see many leading athletes squeezed out of the higher awards brackets for 2005. In other words they are now determined to get a better return on their investment, and plan even greater cuts for 2006.

Such sweeping cutbacks, however, have rocked Athletics Ireland, particularly as they come just days after the successful European Indoor championships in Madrid. The list of athletes set to have their grants cut off altogether has been especially hard to stomach.

As well as O'Sullivan, Carroll and Shinkins, other well-established names such as Peter Coghlan, James Nolan, Paul Brizzel and Gary Ryan don't make the initial list of 2005 grant recipients. All seven of those were either world or international class qualifiers last year, but this time around have failed to make the tougher qualifying criteria.

But the element of surprise doesn't stop there. Alistair Cragg, the new European Indoor 3,000 metres champion, doesn't make the list either because he apparently didn't submit any application.

It wasn't all bad news, and new European Indoor 400 metres champion David Gillick has been promoted to World Class 3 category (worth 19,100) as a result of his success in Madrid at the weekend. And it appears special consideration was made in the case of athletes such as 200 metres runner Paul Hession (who got €11,500) and 400-metres runner Paul McKee (who remains on 22,900). Race walker Gillian O'Sullivan has again got the top award of 30,500 despite a difficult 2004, and fellow walker Olive Loughnane also stays on 19,100.

There are numerous reasons why more athletes were squeezed out this year, one of which was the Sports Council's decision to only accept the IAAF performance list as a source of world ranking, and not the overall ranking list, which is based on the six best performances.

But in outlining the 2005 criteria the Sports Council also made it clear they would review the eligibility of athletes who'd been receiving grant aid for the past five consecutive years. The review would encompass progression over the past five years, their current status, and, crucially, their ability to progress in their sport over the coming years. The latter is why the likes of O'Sullivan, Carroll and Shinkins all suffered.

O'Sullivan also topped the grant list last year with her World Class 1 award of 30,500, while Carroll and Shinkins were both World Class 3 (19,100).

None of those athletes enjoyed the most memorable of seasons in 2004, and are now widely regarded to be in the twilight of their careers.

One of the hardest luck stories must lie with James Costin. He had the A-standard over the 50km walk for Athens, and also missed the 20km standard by eight seconds. But a car crash in Greece a week before the Games resulted in two crushed vertebrae that forced him to lie in a brace for almost six weeks.

Last year Costin received an international grant of €11,500 but his award for 2005 was cut to €8,600. He's already spent almost 10,000 since Athens in rehabilitation and medical costs and had hoped to travel to Mexico next week in an effort to continue his long road back to competition.