from Clare McCoy Athletics Northern Ireland held a ‘send-off’ evening at Athletics House on Tuesday 21st September ahead of the Athletics team going to Portugal on Friday 24th for final preparations and a chance to get into competition mode. The evening had former champions as guests including Dame Mary Peters and Maeve Kyle.
The Province’s top athletes and their personal coaches have been given the opportunity to attend a training camp on the Algarve and are in upbeat mood prior to their departure tomorrow (Friday). They will spend a week there on acclimatisation training before travelling to the Games in Delhi.
This arrangement has proved to be fortuitous to say the least in view of the unfolding accommodation problems in Delhi. Two senior NI Commonwealth Games officials are currently in Delhi assessing the facilities at first hand before presenting a Report to Chef de Mission Robert McVeigh. It is only then that we will know more information about the situation first hand.
In the meantime the 10 athletes will be able to enjoy the relative luxury of warm weather preparation training in the Algarve prior to their planned arrival in Delhi just 4 days before the start of the track and field programme. Past experience has shown that there are physical advantages for athletes arriving late at Championships which offset the effects of jetlag.
There is also of course the unforeseen bonus that hopefully all the current facilities’ problems will be resolved long before the athletes’ arrival on 1st October.
Kelly Mc Neice said:
“As athletes we are staying upbeat and concentrating on the job in hand- competing at a major competition. It is disappointing to hear all this negative coverage but there has always been some sort of hiccup or setback in advance of major games and so at this stage this is all we can do is hope that things will be resolved by next week”.
Certainly the athletes themselves have been adopting a fiercely up beat approach to the Games which for many of them will be the highlight of their sporting careers. At a final get together many were enthusiastic and positive about the challenges in Delhi
Athletics Team:
Amy Foster 100m, 200m 4x400m relay
Katie Kirk, 4x400m relay 400m
Ciara Mageean, 800m and 1500m/ 4x400m
Joanna Mills 4x400m relay 400m,
James McIlroy 800m, 1500m
Christine McMahon 4×400 relay, 400mh
Kelly McNeice 800m, 4X400m relay
Joanna Patterson 4x400m relay, 400m
Tomas Reynolds – Decathlon
Stephen Scullion 5000m