ATHLETICS: IAN O'RIORDANpreviews this weekend's National Championships, where our best hope to book a trip to the 'Worlds'

ALL SUMMER they’ve been just a blip on the radar, but suddenly the World Championships are fast approaching. For the Irish athletes intent on being in Daegu in just over three weeks – and there aren’t many – this weekend’s National Championships in Santry offer a last chance to rubberstamp selection before the travelling team is announced on Monday.

There may still be a chance for a few late additions, although thankfully there shouldn’t be any A v B standard debate this time: unlike next year’s London Olympics, Athletics Ireland will consider B standards as meriting selection for Daegu, provided the athlete wins the national title this weekend. Just as well: otherwise the team would be worryingly small.

Indeed, many of the A standards remain largely unattainable – and not just for the Irish athletes. Brian Gregan recently emerged as the new hope of Irish 400-metre running with his excellent silver medal at last month’s European Under-23 Championships in Ostrava. Yet, as he pointed out in Santry yesterday, the A standard for Daegu – a frighteningly fast 45.25 seconds – is proving beyond many of the world’s best.

In fact only two Europeans have run under 45.25 in 2011 – and they happen to be the Borlee twins, Kevin and Jonathan, from Belgium. And of the 24 in total, 10 are Americans, which means the number of actual Daegu qualifiers on the A standard is around 17.

“Enough for about two heats,” says Gregan, who improved his best to 46.12 in Ostrava. “Even Michael Johnson was commenting on the times this year, because 45.25 would probably make the final – 45.70 for the B standard is difficult enough too. So I’m not focusing on Daegu anymore. It wasn’t the priority for me this year anyway. I’m looking at the World Student Games in China instead, and hopefully get a proper race there, run a faster time.”

Still only 21, Gregan will be prioritising the London Olympics, although knowing the A standard may ultimately be a step too far.

“I think they’re crazy not sending B standards to London. We’ve just won nine medals in the last few weeks, between the youths and juniors, and I think the experience of the Olympics would mean everything. Because you’re just not going to get that experience anywhere other than the Olympics. So hopefully they might change their policy. London would be an amazing experience, and hopefully by Rio in 2016 I’ll be ready to make the final.

“Because winning the European under-23 silver has given me a lot of confidence for the future, knowing I can go a lot faster. I also had serious sinus problems earlier this year, and last year had a lot of injuries as well. I missed a full month in May with the sinus infection. It’s cost me a fortune to get it right, and will need surgery later in the year. That should improve it long-term. I have asthma as it is, and it just made it impossible to breathe right. But thankfully I look to have got that sorted.”

Gregan will step down to the 200m this weekend, looking to improve his best of 21.58, and with David Gillick hanging up his spikes for the summer, Brian Murphy should take the 400m titles with some ease.

Derval O’Rourke, with her 12.84 in the 100m hurdles, is one of only five athletes to run A standards on the track this summer – along with Alistair Cragg in the 5,000m, Fionnuala Britton and Stephanie Reilly in the 3,000m steeplechase, and now Ciarán Ó Lionáird, who ran a fairly sensational 3:34.46 for 1,500m in Belgium on Tuesday.

A significant improvement on his personal best, it also qualifies Ó Lionáird for London (where the A standard is 3:35.50), and moves him to fourth on the Irish all-time list, behind Ray Flynn (3:33.5), Marcus O’Sullivan (3:33.61) and Frank O’Mara (3:34.02) – and indeed ahead of Eamonn Coghlan, whose 1,500m best was 3:35.6.

For Ó Lionáird, who only recently turned 23, it continued a remarkable streak of personal bests over the mile, 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m in recent weeks. The plan is to run the 5,000m in Santry on Sunday.

O’Rourke will run the London Diamond League meeting on Saturday before returning home in search of a ninth Irish sprint hurdles title.

Olive Loughnane – who along with Rob Heffernan has also achieved the A standard in the walk for Daegu – has decided against competing, and will train on instead in Spain. So that should clear the way for new World Youth champion Kate Veale to claim a first senior title.

The four Irish athletes with B standards for Daegu – Jason Smyth (100m), Paul Hession (200m), Deirdre Ryan (high jump) and Tori Pena (pole vault) – will all look to secure selection with national titles.

But with Ailis McSweeney ruled out for the rest of the season with an Achilles’ injury, and Any Foster and Kelly Proper focusing in their individual events, Ireland won’t be taking up its qualifying spot in the 100m relay in Daegu.

Instead the Daegu team of around 16 athletes looks set to be completed by a women’s 400m relay.