Athletics: Loughnane's Euro ambitions curbed by biennial switch
Friday November 13 2009
SHE IS hotly tipped to win 'Athlete of the Year' at tomorrow's Athletics Ireland annual awards gala -- but Olive Loughnane will be one of the Irish athletes with no chance of winning a European title in 2012.
That's because all the walking and marathon events have been ditched off that year's European Championships timetable in Helsinki, as a result of the European Athletics Association's (EAA) decision to turn their championships into a biennial event from 2012.
Next summer's Europeans in Barcelona will be the last quadrennial event and because the 2012 championships (June 27-July 1) are so close to that summer's London Olympics, the EEA has dropped the long-distance road events off that programme.
Loughnane took silver at the World Championships in Berlin three months ago and race walkers have consistently been amongst Ireland's top international performers in the last 20 years.
Jimmy McDonald was sixth in the 1992 Olympics, Gillian O'Sullivan took silver at World Championships in 2003 and Loughnane (seventh) and Robert Heffernan (eighth) were Ireland's best track and field performers at the Beijing Olympics.
The EAA say they will run a full programme of events any year that the Europeans do not clash with the Olympics but, aside from the road-racing issue, it remains to be seen how this decision affects participation rates in Helsinki.
There was almost unanimity (47 out of 50 federations voted for it) when the new two-year cycle was first mooted in 2007 and Swedish athletics boss Lennart Karlberg says that having Europeans in the same year as an Olympics "won't have that much of a negative effect.
"Of course, some athletes may have questions the first time but they will adjust."
The decision to go biennial is primarily a marketing one and Athletics Ireland president Liam Hennessy admitted it is "a calculated risk".
"There is no perfect solution but, for the athletes and the sport, it was felt that it's necessary to have biennial championships and the hope would be, in future, that the Europeans can double up as Olympic trials," he said.
"The 2012 Europeans will take place at the same time as the American championships, which are always their national trials," he added. "Our own nationals will be a week later, and the Olympic team will be named the following week so athletes would be looking to hit top form at that stage anyway."
Elsewhere, double world cross-country champion and Olympic silver medallist John Treacy will join previous recipients Ronnie Delany and Eamonn Coghlan when he is inducted into the AAI Hall of Fame at tomorrow's National Athletics Awards, when the winners of 11 other categories will be revealed.
And Athletics Ireland have also enlisted the help of local legends, Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan, ahead of hosting the Spar European Cross-Countries in Santry on December 13.
As 'ambassadors' for the event, they will not only help with promotional work but also lend their considerable experience to the Irish teams who are managed by Ann Keenan-Buckley.
- Cliona Foley
Irish Independent
