Irish Olympic Marathon Runners set for Olympic Selection on
May 23rd
Ireland’s top marathon runners will find out about Olympic
selection on Monday next, May 23rd.
The road to Rio, which began for marathon runners as far back as
January 2015, when the selection criteria was announced, is due to come
to a conclusion with the squad announcements, subject to ratification
by the Olympic Council of Ireland. It will also include the race
walking selections, along with the Half marathon for the European
Athletics Championships, in Amsterdam, next July.
Marathon running has been on an upward curve since the last Olympic
cycle, with over 15 athletes securing qualifying times. This will lead
to some disappointed athletes, but High Performance Director Kevin
Ankrom sees this as a good problem to have.
“There will always be some disappointed athletes but it’s really
positive to have so many athletes achieve qualifying standards as we
continue to raise the standard of distance running in the country,”
said Ankrom.
The five-person panel will meet on Monday the 23rd of May at 15:00. The
panel will select 3 males along with 2 reserves, and 3 females plus 2
reserves (6 total athletes to be nominated to the Olympic Council of
Ireland). The male/female reserves (4) are nominated in case of injury
or illness. Athletes will have 24 hours to make appeals, with hearings
concluded by the end of the working week May 27th.
Selected athletes, and reserves, will have until July 11 to continue to
show form and fitness. If there is a situation where injury or illness
occurs to any of the selected athletes, a reserve athlete can be added
to the team to replace the injured athlete, up to the 11th of July.
After the 11th of July (and when the full Olympic Games team is
selected) no further changes can be made to the marathon entry.
For clarity, and as an example in this situation, if athlete “X” is
selected and in June athlete “X” is injured, and remains unable to show
form and fitness prior to July 11th, then a reserve can be replaced or
nominated to the Olympic Council of Ireland when the overall team is
selected. After the final team has been nominated on 11th of July, no
further reserves will be entered, as this is the Olympic Games deadline
for countries to enter teams.
Selection
Criteria for the Olympic Games Marathon
After the selections have been made on Monday, Athletics Ireland
expects to contact athletes, between 17:00 and 20:00, to confirm the 6
selected and 4 reserve (10) athletes, after which Athletics Ireland
will post a media release on its websites with the names of the
selected athletes.
Irish Marathon Qualifiers
The rankings are in order of overall worldwide ranking. Only the top three athletes have been allocated a ranking
Irish Marathon Qualifiers - Women
Rank | Name | Performance | Venue | Date |
---|
81 | Lizzie Lee | 02:32:51 | Berlin (GER) | 27.09.2015 |
83 | Fionnuala McCormack | 02:33:15 | Chicago IL (USA) | 11.10.2015 |
119 | Breege Connolly | 02:37:29 | London (GBR) | 26.04.2015 |
| Gladys Ganiel O'Neill | 02:38:53 | Sevilla (ESP) | 21.02.2016 |
| Barbara Sanchez | 02:39:49 | Sevilla (ESP) | 21.02.2016 |
| Claire McCarthy | 02:42:04 | Praha (CZE) | 08.05.2016 |
| Caitriona Jennings | 02:44:33 | Rotterdam (NED) | 10.04.2016 |
Irish Marathon Qualifiers - Men
Rank | Name | Performance | Venue | Date |
91 | Kevin Seaward | 02:14:52 | Berlin (GER) | 27.09.2015 |
97 | Mick Clohisey | 02:15:11 | Sevilla (ESP) | 21.02.2016 |
99 | Sergiu Ciobanu | 02:15:14 | Berlin (GER) | 27.09.2015 |
| Paul Pollock | 02:15:38 | Berlin (GER) | 27.09.2015 |
| Martin Fagan | 02:16:09 | Zurich (SUI) | 19.04.2015 |
| Gary Thornton | 02:17:19 | Berlin (GER) | 27.09.2015 |
| Sean Hehir | 02:17:20 | London (GBR) | 24.04.2016 |
| Thomas Frazer | 02:17:45 | Rotterdam (NED) | 12.04.2015 |
| Mark Kirwan | 02:19:30 | Berlin (GER) | 27.09.2015 |
| Mark Hanrahan | 02:19:52 | Rotterdam (NED) | 10.04.2016 |
Worldwide Olympic Qualifiers Listing - All Events