Sweeney expected to be ready

Nick Sweeney is likely to answer doubts about his fitness before the Irish squad to compete in the European track and field championships is announced in a fortnight's time.

A shoulder injury was sufficiently serious to detain Sweeney in Sweden and prevent him adding to his haul of eight national title successes in the discus championship at Santry at the weekend.

The damage is not regarded as likely to threaten his hopes of competing in the European tests which open in Budapest on August 18th, however, and BLE expect that the requisite clearance will be forthcoming before the squad is announced.

Mark Carroll was another notable absentee from the national championships after withdrawing earlier in the week because of 'flu and, like Sweeney, he will now be required to furnish evidence of his fitness, before the squad is finalised.

At this point, some 22 athletes have achieved qualifying standards for Budapest but in the current financial climate at BLE headquarters, it is by no means certain that all of those qualified will be included in the travelling party.

BLE officials refuse to be specific on the point but there is at least some evidence to suggest that a harder line is now being adopted in the selection of teams for major championships and that only those with realistic chances of surviving the preliminaries are likely to be nominated.

That could put the hopes of several athletes at risk and possibly affect others who are still hoping to achieve standards. David Matthews, the UCD 800 metres runner, is included in this category but given the fact that he had only three races behind him before contesting the national championship, he is capable of finding a lot of improvement in the right race, over the next 12 days.

Una English, too, may have a lot of support for inclusion in the women's 1,500 metres championship if she dips beneath the standard. True, she faded in the closing stages of Sunday's final but given the opportunity of running against quality opposition in better conditions, she, too, is capable of significant improvement.

One of the issues yet to be resolved concerns Sonia O'Sullivan's proposed nomination for the 10,000 metres event. O'Sullivan has never run at the distance whereas the Blarney athlete, Valerie Vaughan, achieved the standard last year.

Although the practice of BLE over the years has been to give preference to those achieving standards, there is nothing in the rule book to preclude them doing otherwise. In this case, O'Sullivan would seem to be the logical choice and Vaughan, it appears, is ready to save the selectors any embarrassment by restricting herself to the 5,000 metres in Budapest.

As yet, there is no firm indication that O'Sullivan will, in fact, undertake a second event in Hungary but it may well materialise early next week after she has run at Sheffield on Sunday.