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As the closing date for the Olympic Games looms ever closer,
Athletics Fans in the capital are in for a rare treat this
weekend with the 4th Dublin International Games taking place
in the Morton Stadium, Santry on Friday evening (6.25pm) and
the 14th Dublin International Grand Prix of Race Walking taking
place in the Phoenix Park on Sunday (9am).
From an Olympic qualification point of view, all eyes will
be on the sprint events in Santry with Gary Ryan and Paul
Hession edging ever closer to the A standard over 200m where
they will take on Irish record holder Paul Brizzel while Rob
Daly and David McCarthy will be hoping to achieve the thus
far elusive standard over 400m.
Athens bound James Nolan is the star attraction in the Morton
Mile while Aoife Byrne moves ever closer to becoming the first
Irish woman in history to break the magical 2 minutes for
the 800m. In the field events World Indoor High Jump finallist
Adrian O'Dwyer and Multi National Javelin champion Terry McHugh
are the star attractions.
Then on Sunday morning, all 5 Olympic bound Australian race
walkers head up a star studded line-up in the Phoenix Park
while over 20 walkers will chase the magical sub-4 hours qualification
limit in the 50kms event as the final date for Olympic qualification
draws ever closer.
Led by World Cup bronze medallist Nathan Deakes and World
Cup 4th placer Jane Saville, the Australians will be using
the event as the last competitive opportunity before Athens
before spending the next month in training camps at high altitude
in St. Moritz (Deakes) and Font Romeau (Saville & Adams)
respectively.
Deakes, who set the Commonwealth Record of 1.18.14 at this
competition 3 years ago will not have things his own way and
will face stern competition from local star Robert Heffernan
who recently recorded the second fastest time of his career
with a 1.20.55 clocking in La Coruna 4 weeks ago.
Indeed Deakes Australian team mate Luke Adams, who finished
5th in last years World Championships in Paris, will also
be looking to make up for a rare DNF due to illness in Sesto
San Giovanni last weekend.
Doubling up as the Irish 20km National Championships, reigning
Champion Jamie Costin, who has achieved the Olympic standard
for 50km will be hoping to gain his second A standard by improving
his seasons best of 1.23.08 by a mere 8 seconds.
In the womens 20km the competition was dealt a severe blow
by the late withdrawal due to injury of World silver medallist
Gillian O'Sullivan. Although the injury is not thought to
be too serious, O'Sullivan has decided to miss both the Krakow
10km and this event in a bid to regain the kind of form which
won her World silver in Paris last year.
In her absence however, the way is now left open to Olive
Loughnane to win her first Irish 20km title having won silver
on 4 previous occasions. Race favourite Jane Saville, who
finished third in this event in 2001 behind Susanna Feitor
(POR) and O'Sullivan will be looking forward to her first
major win after making a huge improvement from 11th in Paris
last year to 4th in the World Cup in Naumburg in May.
The Mens 50km sees a whole host of International entries
looking for last minute qualification the most surprising
of which are those from 20km specialists Andre Hohne (GER)
and Hatem Ghoula (TUN).
Altogether, athletes from over 20 countries are due to compete.
www.athleticsireland.ie
Source the Athletics Ireland
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Time-to-Run Ireland
