Olympic row continues

An emergency general meeting of the Irish Cycling Federation (ICO) has been called for this Saturday, regarding the controversy over the selection of team personnel for the Sydney Olympics.

The application, by the Hilltown cycling club and backed by the required 13 clubs, follows the appointment of Peter Purfield as team mechanic two weeks ago. National team director Richie Beatty had nominated John Keegan for the role in June, but this decision was recently over-ruled by the board of the ICO, of which Purfield is a member.

According to Ciaran McKenna of the ICF, "the board felt that Peter's long-term involvement with mountainbike racing, combined with his experience as a mechanic would make more sense, given that Robin Seymour will be competing in the crosscountry race. In effect, his appointment is more than just as someone to look after the bikes."

Michael MacSharry of the Hilltown cycling club disagrees. "John Keegan has acted as mechanic on most Irish teams and the decision to appoint Peter Purfield in his place should be over-ruled. The national team director made his nomination and to my mind it was the correct one, given that three of the four riders will be competing on the road. John Keegan has a lot of experience in that area. Basically, I feel the board should have stayed out of it."

The latest disagreement follows months of tension between Beatty and some members of the ICF. Discord initially arose early this year when Beatty nominated ICF executive officer, Tony Allen, to take over his managerial duties in Sydney. Although the national team director was expected to travel to Australia, he has instead opted just to attend the world championships in France in October. Since that time, it has been well-known within Irish cycling circles that Beatty and some of the ICF board no longer enjoyed a productive working relationship.

The e.g.m. will take place at 2.30 p.m. this Saturday in the West County Hotel. As a result, the national 25-mile time trial championships has been postponed to a later date.

Meanwhile, following his withdrawal from Sunday's European mountainbike championships in Rhenen, the Netherlands, Robin Seymour's participation in the Olympic Games is not in doubt. His father, and Irish Cycling Federation mountainbike PRO, Geoff Seymour, yesterday described his non-finish in the race as "purely a precautionary measure".

"Robin pulled out with some back pain, but so did a lot of the field," he said. "It was a real back-breaker of a course. He was lying 17th after the first lap, but the course was very tough physically with a lot of climbs on dunes. Robin had fallen last week in a race in England, and we told him if he had any problems on Sunday that he should stop. He got some twinges, which were probably more to do with the nature of the course, and wisely decided not to continue."

Seymour, seven times national champion, will go for physiotherapy today "just for a check-up", but expects to be fully fit for the forthcoming World Cup race in Lausanne, Switzerland. He will dispute the Olympic cross-country mountainbike race on September 24th.