London already calling to the faraway towns

ATHLETICS:With the Ice Age here and the sun zooming in, our Olympic hopefuls have bought the ticket and are preparing to ride, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

BACK BY popular demand! Contrary to widespread rumours and a wave of wishful thinking, this column has not expired. Not yet anyway. I know some people think it’s a terrible waste of space, and maybe sometimes it is. But who really cares about anything anymore? So we’ll beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Anyway, in case you didn’t know, sports writing really is a 24/7 assignment – as in 24 hours a week, seven months of the year. Which explains why the only snow I saw over Christmas was in the little plastic packets they tried to push on me in the backstreets of Old San Juan. Believe me, the best way to feel good about this country again is to get as far away from it as possible, preferably somewhere nice and warm, with good surf, where they serve a delicious rum punch.

Of course, reality cuts deeper than a sword. Just 559 days to the London Olympics! It’s unbelievable how quickly these things creep up on us. Although, having said that, Beijing does seem like a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Still, it was only when talking to the milkman yesterday about “next year’s Olympics” that it really struck me: the long road to London is suddenly looking a lot shorter. It’s time to buy the ticket, take the ride. The circus is on the outskirts of town.

The plan was to ring around a few of our potential Olympians this week to get their view on this, to see if they’re in London mode by now. After several overseas dial tones and a few straight to voicemail, it was obvious they are. No athlete thinking seriously about next year’s Olympics will have chanced training in Ireland this time of year, especially if they caught the tip of that recent Ice Age.

So, as I later discovered, Derval O’Rourke and “Team Cahill” are away in Potchefstroom, South Africa – a favourite warm-weather training base for the serious athlete. Her coach, Seán Cahill, has taken time off work to join her, and also with O’Rourke is regular training partner Ailis McSweeney, who last summer broke the Irish 100 metres record, and has just gone full-time into athletics in an effort to improve her chances of qualifying for London. Serious, indeed.

By coincidence, also in Potchefstroom for the next few weeks are distance runners Mary Cullen, Róisín McGettigan, Fionnuala Britton and Deirdre Byrne. Britton has been in excellent form on the cross country circuit and should prove ideal company for Cullen as she tries yet again to end her injury jinx. If there is one Irish athlete who deserves a break and honest shot at qualification for London, then it’s Cullen. With the exception of bad luck, she hasn’t had any luck at all in the last few years.

Monte Gordo in Portugal is another hot spot for serious athletes during the winter, or so I’m told. A bunch of Irish sprinters have made the short trip south, including Paul Hession, who has already declared that his last motivation in the sport is to fulfil his potential at the London Olympics. And Robert Heffernan, who walked himself into the medal favourites for London when finishing fourth in the 20k and 50k at the European championships in Barcelona last summer, has been in Australia for the past month, again thinking 2012 as much as 2011.

Then there’s David Gillick, who last October decided to move himself lock, stock and smoking barrels to Orlando, Florida – permanently – to train under American sprint coach Lance Brauman, whose stable includes the world’s second fastest man, Tyson Gay. Gillick made no secret of the fact that if he is to maximise his potential in London then he needed to move from his previous base in Loughborough, in England. It was no good waiting any longer. Whatever the others promise to do, when it comes to the showdown, they won’t be there, as Daniel C Plainview would say.

Here’s why: this week, Athletics Ireland confirmed the qualifying standards for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, next August. Unlike some recent championships, these mirror the standards laid down by the IAAF, (with the sole exception of the marathon – which for some peculiar reason Athletics Ireland has made even tougher). The IAAF had themselves toughened qualifying standards in several events compared to previous World Championships, and tightened the qualifying period – which for most events effectively requires athletes to qualify this summer, rather than carry over qualifying marks from last season, as has been the case for previous championships.

These same standards will almost certainly apply for the London Olympics, with a couple of minor modifications. They’ll be announced in April – only the big difference is athletes will be able to qualify for London this summer, in that the qualifying period will probably begin on or around June 1st. In other words, athletes have every incentive to make this season a priority, not just in terms of qualifying for the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, but more importantly London.

My gut feeling is that most Irish athletes who do end up qualifying for London will do so this summer. Naturally they’ll still have to prove form and fitness next summer, but the London Olympics are relatively early, running from July 27th to August 12th. The cut-off for qualification will be at least a week or two before that, which really does shorten the season.

Plus, there’s something else to consider: the 2012 European Championships, in Helsinki – which take place from June 27th to July 1st. No one knows yet whether it’s a wise decision to stage these championships every two years – and thus effectively clash with the Olympics – but if some Irish athletes are considering competing in both then they’ll definitely want their Olympic qualification sorted well in advance, ideally this year.

It shouldn’t be forgotten either just how difficult Olympic qualification will be. Among the events where the qualification bar for Daegu has been raised – and therefore likely for London too – is the men’s 1,500 metres, when the A-standard is now 3:35.00 compared to 3:36.20 for the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. By my quick calculations, only four Irish athletes have run this standard, the last of which was Mark Carroll, who ran 3:34.91 in 2000. Eamonn Coghlan’s best was 3:35.6, and that was actually indoors.

Consider, too, the men’s 10,000 metres, where the A-standard is a seriously quick 27:40, compared to 27:47 in 2009. Only one Irish man has run under 27:40, just about: Alistair Cragg, who ran 27:39.55 in 2007.

Honestly, in most events athletes will have to break the Irish record to have any chance of qualifying for London.

Which is why any athlete who isn’t in London mode already is already too late. 2011. Let the games begin.