The disappointing performance of the Irish men's team at the weekend's European Athletics Cup will not affect the Athletics Association of Ireland's (AAI) decision to send athletes with B-standard qualifying times to the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, next August.
The team ended the two-day event in Vaasa, Finland on Sunday with possibly their worst ever overall team performance in the history of the competition: especially in the field events. The Irish finished last of the eight nations competing in the First League group, and as a result earned one of the two relegation berths.
With a total team score of 60.5 points, the Irish finished well behind the winners Finland (110 points), as well as the likes of Belarus (77 points) and Switzerland (87.5 points).
But the AAI are to maintain their policy of sending athletes with the weaker B-qualifying standard, providing they win the national title next month and no athlete has achieved the automatic A-standard in the same event. So far, only six athletes have achieved the A-standard, but the team may grow to at least 10 if the B-standard athletes are included.
"The decision to send B-standard athletes was made a while ago and won't be changed at this stage," according to AAI international secretary Chris Wall. The AAI have also set a date of July 23rd as the deadline for achieving qualifying times.
Among the athletes with A-standard times are Peter Coghlan (110 metre hurdles), Robert Heffernan (20km walk) and Karen Shinkins (400 metres).
