Athletics rule change is a courageous step forward

Anyone left around these parts who still clings to the notion that sport and politics can survive in splendid isolation should have been at the landmark meeting of the Northern Ireland Athletics Federation (NIAF) last Wednesday evening.

The motion up for discussion was a change to the governing body's constitution to allow Northern athletes to compete for both Northern Ireland and the Republic. In the course of an extended debate, one delegate raised the issue of those who had remained "loyal to Northern Ireland", while another went further and disputed the extent of the jurisdiction of BLE over the island. Clearly not your mundane, run-of-the-mill a.g.m. business.

In the event, the motion to change the clearly discriminatory rule was passed almost unanimously, thus ending a long period of exclusion for those who, for individual reasons, chose to declare for the Republic rather than Northern Ireland. The one-year "limbo" period before eligibility for Northern Ireland would be restored has also been removed, so the possibility of dual representation in the near future has been opened up.

John Allen, the secretary of the NIAF, must take much of the credit for shepherding this change through and holding a firm line against some of the misgivings.

"In many ways this is about changing mindsets," he said. "We have to get away from the `them and us' situation, the view that people who compete for Ireland are somehow defecting or leaving us in the lurch. We need to move on and cater for all our athletes. It may be a problem for some people but we have to make this move."

When was the last time you heard a sports administrator anywhere on this island speaking with anything approaching this degree of common sense and good grace?

Allen was also honest enough to concede that this move towards change wasn't wholly altruistic, but has been driven to a certain extent by outside forces. Funding considerations provided their own subtle pressure; there were indications that contributions from the Lottery and Northern Ireland Sports Council might be under threat if there were question marks about the attitude of the NIAF towards issues of equality.

But by acting now, Allen and the NIAF have headed off any challenge at the pass. An anachronistic rule, one which has its roots in the antagonism that has festered since the administration of athletics in Ireland was divided 60 years ago, has been consigned to history. The NIAF has shown it has the will and courage to modernise itself, and every athlete here associated with it will benefit as a result.

One of those will be the Belfast distance runner Dermot Donnelly. His experiences at the hands of the British selectors, who repeatedly overlooked him for international competition, made one of the most compelling cases for change. In the early years of his career, Donnelly came to the conclusion that the Commonwealth Games represented his best opportunity of international competition, so he opted to run for Northern Ireland. He went to the Commonwealths in Kuala Lumpur last year, but was ignored for the British teams at the World Cross Country and European Championships. These snubs were delivered even though Donnelly had done all that was required of him by running the requisite qualifying times and finishing in the frame at the trials.

As Donnelly's horizons broadened - he was the fastest man over 10,000 metres in Ireland last year - he came to the realisation that there were other avenues to international recognition. So, at the start of this season, wholly within the rules and regulations, he declared for the Republic. With last week's changes he can continue to represent the Republic, while also making himself available for Northern Ireland teams in smaller competitions and the Commonwealth Games.

The NIAF initiative may also have wider ramifications in the light of developments at last weekend's BLE annual congress in Ballybofey. A motion from the Ulster Athletics Council, BLE's arm in the North, to conclude negotiations on unifying the athletics structures within the island was passed unanimously. The issue had been side-stepped at the NIAF meeting a few days before, but the presence of its president at a function organised by the BLE in Donegal does seem to suggest that Northern toes are being dipped into the water.

It all makes unbelievably good sense, particularly for Northerners disgruntled at the English - and to a lesser extent Scottish and Welsh - bias in the way nominally "British" athletics teams are picked. Ireland, as a single entity, would also be in a much stronger bargaining position when it came to negotiating the contentious issues of the size of teams for Olympic Games and World Championships.

The unification argument is by no means over, and once again there are enough parallels with the political zeitgeist to confound all the idealists. There is a world of difference between espousing support for understanding and accommodation and the hard business of negotiating that change. That is the area into which BLE and the NIAF are nervously edging and there are many toes just waiting to be trod on.

Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with a sports club or organisation will know how jealously administrators and office holders guard their little patches of territory. Any nervousness about the future will be magnified one hundred fold when it comes to the possible dissolution of one, or both, of the NIAF and BLE.

There is clearly some distance to go before that becomes a reality. While the vibes from Ballybofey were positive and forward-looking, the NIAF would appear to need more convincing of the merits of unification. That should come in time.

The hardest bit has been the first step taken last Wednesday. Once the impact of that has been assimilated, nothing that follows will be anywhere near as difficult. There is, of course, impatience in some quarters at the slow pace of change, but the courage that has already been shown by those within the NIAF should be matched with a little more understanding.