ATHLETICS IRELAND HAVE today announced a 23-strong squad of Irish athletes selected for the World Championships in Budapest from 19 to 27 August.
It marks the largest-ever Irish squad selected for the event.
Rhasidat Adeleke will run in the 400m, having finished fourth in that distance at the Diamond League meet in Monaco at the end of July. It was also across the 400m in which Adeleke won an outdoor NCAA title in June. Adeleke is also entered into the women’s 4x400m relay.
Adeleke withdrew from the national championships last weekend on medical advice, with Sharlene Mawdsley taking the national 400m title in her absence. Like Adeleke, Mawdsley will also run in the 400m and has been selected for the women’s 4x400m relay.
Also selected for the women’s relay are Sophie Becker, Cliodhna Manning, Roisin Harrison, and Kelly McGrory.
Mawdsley, Becker, and Harrison have all been selected for the mixed 400m relay, along with Chris O’Donnell, Jack Raftery, and Callum Baird. The team are seeking a second-consecutive appearance in a world final.
Ciara Mageean, meanwhile, will compete in the 1500m, fresh from breaking Sonia O’Sullivan’s Irish mile record in Monaco.
Also running in the 1500m are Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy, who took gold and silver respectively in a remarkable European U23s final last month. They followed that with an epic battle for the national title at Morton Stadium last weekend, in which Healy inverted the order to hold off O’Sullivan for victory.
Andrew Coscoran, who broke his own national 1500m record at a Diamond League meeting in Poland in mid-July, will run the same distance in Budapest, along with UCD athlete Luke McCann. Ireland may have a third entry in the men’s 1500m, should Nick Griggs be re-allocated a quota spot in the coming days.
Elsewhere, Thomas Barr will run in the 400m hurdles, with Mark English set to compete in the 800m along with newly-minted national champion, John Fitzsimons.
In-form Sarah Lavin will run in the 100m hurdles: she completed the rare double of 100m and 100m hurdles titles at Santry last weekend.
Olympians Louise Shanahan (800m), David Kenny (20km walk), and Brendan Boyce (35km walk) will also compete in Budapest, as will recent Irish 5,000m record-breaker Brian Fay.
“With 16 individual athletes selected, and the potential for further additions in the coming days, plus two relay squads, this is the largest team we have sent to a World Championships, despite the higher qualification standards than any previous edition of this championships, and with eight athletes inside the A standard”, said Athletics Ireland Director of High Performance, Paul McNamara.
This team includes multiple athletes, both seasoned campaigners and rising stars, that are primed to make an impact, building further on the upward trajectory seen in Oregon and Munich in 2022
The World Championships will be broadcast on Virgin Media television.
The following are provisionally selected should they be re-allocated a quota spot by World Athletics. They have achieved a B standard time but are not currently within quota
Written by Gavin Cooney and posted on the42.ie
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