Time running out for marathon hopefuls

WITH less than 100 days to go to the start of the Olympic Games in Atlanta the London Marathon on Sunday represents the last chance for marathon runners hoping to achieve qualification given the widely accepted three month recovery period needed between races of that distance.

With that in inii&those whoharbour hopes of making it to the starting line in the US will set their stall out this weekend.

Catherine Shum is tlte only Irish athleje to have achieved a standaid at theinarathbn distance, with her performance in the World Qhampionships in Gothenburg last August qualifying her although it subsequently transpired that the course in Sweden was in fact found to be short of the recognised distance. However the IAAF has issued a list of athletes whom they accept as having achieved the standard from that race with the Dub liner named.

Shum's time in Gothenburg was inside the B standard and she is aware that if an another athlete were to achieve the A standard or even run faster than her she could still find herself watching events unfold across the Atlantic from her home in Yoxall in the English midlands. She will run in Sunday's London marathon safe in the knowledge that she is rounding into form at the right time.

Last month she finished second at a half marathon in a time marginally outside her best while at home in Dublin for Easter she returned a course record for the Dunboyne race although her winter training was restricted some what by some dreadful weather.

Joining her on the starting line with similar dreams will be Caitriona Dowling. Like Shum Dowling was a late starter only taking up running when she went to the US some 12 years ago. And while her best is some way short of the A standard the Balbriggan woman has been training and living in the rarefied atmosphere of Boulder Colorado as well as clocking up to 100 miles a week while working full time.

Boulder has also been home for the last few weeks to Richard O'Flynn the west Cork athlete who will also set out on the trip around the British capital.

O'Flynn never really got the rewards his undoubted talent deserved but like Dowling he too will be hoping that training in the oxygen diminished heights of the Rockies will yield a reward. O'Flynn is returning to live on a farm in Courtmacsherry and should add considerably to the distance scene here.

An eight strong team of walkers will also compete this weekend in Santiago, Spain, in the Europa Cup with Jimmy McDonald, another hoping to make the A standard for Atlanta, leading the men's team while Deirdre Gallagher is expected to be our top female finisher.

McDonald has displayed an uncanny knack of peaking in Olympic year and this year would appear to be no different with his clocking of B standard in the National Championships three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, a squad of 20 including Niall Bruton, Mark Carroll now over his latest injury and hurdlers TJ Kearns and Sean Cahill have been training in Marietta, Georgia, for the last two weeks as part of the games Atlanta and using the facilities of Life College.

Indeed the squad are the only National Olympic team in the Atlanta area at the moment, have featured on both television and radio as the build up continues.

Several of the athletes will break camp this weekend in search of the qualifying standards with Shane Healy travelling to run over 5,000 metres in the prestigious Mount Sac relays while Kevin Keane will complete in the high jump at another meet also in California.

The squad will remain in Georgia for a further week with 800 metres runner David Matthews competing in the Penn relays anxious to show the benefits of his full time training this past ye before returning to Dublin.