Ireland aiming to escape middleground in search for promotion
Relegation. Promotion. These are words typically used in athletics just once every two years, but that time has come around again.
This weekend, an Irish team of 43 athletes will contest the second division of the European Athletics Team Championships in Maribor, Slovenia.
They face 15 other mid-tier European nations like Belgium and Turkey, Denmark and Norway. The top three nations will earn promotion to division one, while the bottom three will be relegated. Ireland will likely finish somewhere in the middle.
For a long time, this event has been a biennial reminder of just how big an imbalance exists in Irish athletics between track and field, the runners typically powering them towards promotion, the field eventers taking them towards relegation.
The reasons for that are varied, from lower participation numbers to poor facilities to dire investment in coaching but either way, Ireland is just not strong enough across the board to earn a place in division one. At least not yet.
The imbalance is starting to even out, though, and the likes of Nicola Tuthill in the hammer and Eric Favors in the shot put are both Olympians who should make decent points contributions in their respective events.
But on the track, even without several star names, is where the Irish will make the greater impact. Olympians Sophie Becker and Cillín Greene are late withdrawals, but other high-profile athletes have made the trip such as Sarah Lavin, who will race the 100m hurdles and 4x100m relay, and Sharlene Mawdsley, who'll race the 400m and mixed 4x400m.
Sophie O'Sullivan will race the 800m, having recently won the 1500m title at the NCAA Championships, and it will be intriguing to see how she fares stepping back down to the distance at which she won a European U-18 medal in 2018.
Others returning from the NCAA include Elizabeth Ndudi, the reigning European U-20 long jump champion who dealt with her share of injuries over the past year, and Ava O'Connor, who last month won a Division 2 NCAA title in the 3000m steeplechase. Cork sprinter Lucy-May Sleeman, a student at Florida State University, will race the 100m and 4x100m.
Ciara Neville will make a welcome return to international duty in the 4x100m over four years on from a severe hamstring injury that cost her a spot at the Tokyo Olympics. She recently clocked a promising 100m season's best of 11.53 in Geneva.
The in-form Bori Akinola will don the green vest in the men's 100m and 4x100m, the UCD sprinter last weekend clocking a wind-assisted time of 10.10 (2.9m/s) in London, the fastest all-conditions time ever by an Irishman. Israel Olatunde, the Irish record holder who clocked a season's best of 10.23 in Geneva last weekend, will race the 4x100m.
Paris Olympian Brian Fay will contest the 5000m for Ireland, while Cian McPhillips will be in action over 800m. Jack Raftery has been given the nod for the men's 400m after a hugely impressive PB of 45.75 in UCD last week.
European Athletics Team Championships: Live, 1:25pm (Irish time), Eurovisionsport.com
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