Irish Relay Squads Announced for World Relays

The IAAF World Relay Championships take place in the Bahamas on the 2nd and 3rd of May with Irish teams set to compete in the men’s 4x400m and women’s 4x100m events. An added incentive for the Irish teams competing at the weekend is that a top eight finish in either the 4x400m or 4x100m events will automatically secure qualification for both the *IAAF World Championships in Beijing in August and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

4x400m

Fresh from securing the world championship qualifying time of 49.08 in the 400m hurdles in Florida Thomas Barr (Ferrybank AC) will lead the six strong Irish men’s 4x400m team. Craig Lynch (Shercock AC) joins Barr on the team having run a time of 47.35 at a meet in Jacksonville, Florida on the 10th of April. European Indoor 400m semi-finalist Dara Kervick (Clonliffe Harriers AC) is also named on the team along with three members of the Irish 4x400m team that competed in Zurich last summer – Brian Murphy (Crusaders AC), Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers AC) and Richard Morrissey (Crusaders AC).

At those European championships in Zurich last August the Irish team spectacularly broke the Irish record on two occasions recording times of 3.03.57 (heats) and 3.01.67 (Final). 

4x100m

The Irish women’s 4x100m team were also in recording breaking form in Zurich last summer recording a time of 43.84 seconds. Amy Foster (City of Lisburn AC), Sarah Lavin (UCD AC) and Phil Healy (Bandon AC) who were members of that record breaking team are joined by Celtic DCH duo of Catherine McManus and Steph Creaner.

Healy has been in encouraging early season form recording a time of 11.74 seconds in Jacksonville on the 10th of April which was inside the qualification standard (11.75) for the European U23 Championships. Hurdles specialist Lavin opened her outdoor campaign last weekend in Florida recording times of 14.00 (100m hurdles) and 25.16 (200m).

The men’s team will get the action underway with the heats of the 4x400m taking place on Saturday, 2nd of May while the women’s team take to their marks in the 4x100m heats on the 3rd of May.

Qualification

*Failing to finish inside the top eight at the weekend, the Irish teams will need to be ranked inside the top 16 teams in the world before the close in qualification on the 9th of August in order to qualify for the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Beijing.