Reid will be given green light to wear Irish colours
EUROPEAN Athletics will accept an application from sprint star Leon Reid to compete for Ireland in their championships in Berlin starting on August 7.
This major development follows hot on the heels of the statement by the IAAF that it had set up a Transfer of Allegiance Review Panel to consider cases quickly before forthcoming major championships.
One of these involves NI Commonwealth bronze medallist Reid who has been campaigning to be allowed to transfer from GB to Ireland.
Reid meets the stringent new criteria requiring an athlete to wait thee years and have full citizenship of the country to which they wish to transfer to.
Athletics Ireland will announce their team for the European Championships today and it will now include Reid’s name.
The acceptance of his name by European Athletics is a major step forward with Leon’s final clearance to be determined in the next few days.
There is every expectation that the panel will endorse the transfer request. A happy Reid said: “My transfer request has been a long and stressful wait.
“This has been a busy few days with my 24th birthday, competing here and waiting for a phone call about my transfer which finally came.
“I am optimistic that the IAAF Review Panel will accept my case as I meet all their requirements.”
This major distraction for Reid certainly did not affect his performances at the Irish Life Health Senior Championships at the weekend in Dublin where he achieved the sprint double.
His 100 metres win in a classy time of 10.42 seconds against a strong headwind appeared relatively easy.
He was, however, stretched the whole way in the 200 metres by Marcus Lawler of St Lawrence O’Toole who led the entire race bar the last 20 metres. Reid then edged clear to take the victory in a fast 20.74 with Lawler timed at 20.79.
European bronze medallist Ciara Mageean (left) also secured a double victory in the 800 and 1,500 metres despite an interval of just 75 minutes between races.
The Portaferry woman took the two-lap race with ease after bursting clear in the home straight in a time of just under 2 minutes 8 seconds.
She then won a tactical 1,500 metres in 4 minutes 23 seconds. Ciara explained that the purpose of two races was to build up her stamina for Berlin.
There were other notable victories for Northern athletes, the most impressive being Emma Mitchell’s successful defence of her 5,000 metres title.
The QUB woman got the better of long-term leader Shona Heslip, recording her second fastest ever time of 15.59.64.
Emma also took bronze in the 1,500 metres.
Belfast’s Stephen Scullion won the 10,000 metres in 29.25.31, some nine seconds ahead of Mick Clohisey.
City of Derry’s Adam KirkSmith won the steeplechase in 9.02.09 while Lagan Valley’s Jai Benson was second in the triple jump with 13.89 metres.
Adam McMullen of Crusaders took yet another long jump title with 7.68 metres.
High hurdler Ben Reynolds of North Down will be disappointed at having to settle for silver behind Carrick’s Gerard O’Donnell who won in 14.05.
There were bronze medals for James Kelly of Finn Valley in the shot (14.83 metres), Sarah Connolly of North Down in the high jump (1.60 metres), Connall Kirk of Annadale in the 800 metres (1.51.72), Craig Newell of Ballymena in the 400 metres (48.16) and Jason Harvey of Crusaders in the 400 hurdles (51.99) in a race won by Thomas Barr in a Championship record of 49.58. RUSSIA will remain banned from world athletics until December at the earliest, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has announced.
The Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) has been suspended by the IAAF since November 2015, after the World Anti-Doping Agency investigated allegations of widespread doping.
The IAAF council has said RusAF is making “significant progress” towards meeting the requirements laid out for it in order to have its ban lifted, saying it is “in some cases going above and beyond what was required”.
But the world athletics governing body said RusAF’s ban will remain in place at least until the council next meets in December.
The IAAF’s Russia Taskforce chair Rune Andersen said the scandal-hit federation must meet all costs incurred by the world body and of associated cases taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, while the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) must also be reinstated by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
In relation to the latter aspect, the IAAF said WADA is hoping for a breakthrough at its executive committee meeting in September. Crucially, Russia must acknowledge findings from investigations that showed the country’s doping conspiracy was state-sponsored.
Russians are not universally banned from elite competition, however, with 74 competitors cleared to compete as authorised neutral athletes this year.
A further 68 have been refused permission by the IAAF.