Three of the four athletes provisionally selected by Athletics Ireland for next week’s World Indoor Championships have now been confirmed for their respective events.
Ciara Neville (60m), Emma Moore (800m) and James Gormley (1,500m) were all within their event final quota announced by World Athletics on Wednesday, although Elizabeth Ndudi has just missed out on the long jump quota.
It means 11 Irish athletes will now make the trip to Torun in Poland, where the championships take place from March 20th-22nd – with Kate O’Connor once again leading the Irish medal challenge in the pentathlon, after her perfect record of four medals from her four multi-event competitions last year.
Neville, Moore and Gormley had all held Athletics Ireland B Standards in their events, but still needed to be within the World Athletics quota. Neville has continued her excellent return to form in the indoor season, and her lifetime best of 7.26 seconds clocked in Athlone last month has left the Limerick athlete ranked 35th of the 52 qualifiers in the 60m.
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Moore has enjoyed a breakthrough indoor season over 800m, and her recent best of 2:01.21 left her ranked 28th of the 30 qualifiers for Torun. The Galway athlete will be making her senior international debut, with Maeve O’Neill already selected in the event.
Gormley’s 3:37.60 clocked in Boston last month was good enough to qualify 26th of the 30 1,500m runners, the 27-year-old also competing over 3,000m at last year’s World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China.
Ndudi had been sitting close to qualifying quota in the long jump, when the 20-year-old, competing for the University of Illinois, leapt out to 6.63m last month, but that was not enough to get her to Torun.
Five-time European medallist Mark English also heads to Torun with medal aspirations, after twice lowering his own Irish indoor 80m record this season, running 1:44.23 in Ostrava.
Andrew Coscoran got the backing of Athletics Ireland for the 3,000m, ahead of Darragh McElhinney, where he will join National champion Nick Griggs. McElhinney finished ahead of Coscoran at the National Championships, after Coscoran fell around the final bend, but critically for Coscoran, he had the automatic qualifying time, his 7:30.97 the fastest of the three Irish runners in contention.
O’Neill (800m), Sarah Lavin (60m hurdles), Bori Akinola and Lauren Roy (both 60m) had also secured the automatic qualifying times, with both O’Neill and Roy also set to compete at this weekend’s US collegiate NCAA championships in Arkansas, as is Ndudi.
Irish Team, World Indoor Athletics Championships, Torun, Poland, March 20th-22nd:
Kate O’Connor: Pentathlon (Dundalk St. Gerard’s AC)
Mark English: 800m (Finn Valley AC)
Maeve O’Neill: 800m (Doheny AC)
Andrew Coscoran: 3,000m (Star of the Sea AC)
Nick Griggs: 3,000m (Candour Track Club)
Sarah Lavin: 60m Hurdles (Emerald AC)
Bori Akinola: 60m (UCD AC)
Lauren Roy: 60m (Fast Twitch AC)
Ciara Neville: 60m (Emerald AC)
Emma Moore: 800m (Galway City Harriers)
James Gormley: 1,500m (Carmen Runners)
