The Olympic Council of Ireland has rejected a request by Athletics Ireland to include Maria McCambridge in the Irish team bound for Athens.
McCambridge ran 15 minutes 5.86 seconds over 5,000 metres at the Heusden meeting in Belgium on Saturday night and had hoped to be added to the team. The time, the third fastest by an Irish woman, was well inside the 'A' qualifying standard but the OCI insisted the deadline had now passed and the Dundrum runner will now miss out.
Although the OCI set a deadline of July 20th, Athletics Ireland had hoped that because the run was before the IAAF cut-off point of August 9th, some leniency would be shown.
Speaking to the Irish Times yesterday, Athletics Ireland spokesman Pierce O'Callaghan said that special representation would made be to the Olympic Council to have McCambridge added to the Irish team.
"Everyone is aware of the fact that under IAAF rules an athlete has until August 9th to qualify and on that basis we will be making official representation to the Olympic Council on behalf of Maria McCambridge."
However, the OCI have declined to bend the rules and only the original 14 athletes will be travelling to Greece for the Games which get underway on August 14th.