Athletics Ireland today announce a team of 45 athletes to compete at the European Team Championships 1st League in Tallinn, Estonia from the 21st-22nd of June.

The Irish team will face Estonia, Belarus, Greece, Norway, Romania, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia and Lithuania during the two-day competition, with the top three finishing teams earning a promotion to the following year's Super League.

Ireland hosted the team championships last year in Dublin with the Irish team achieving its highest ever placing finishing seventh. With one of the strongest teams in recent years set to line out Ireland will be targeting a top five position at the 2014 event in Estonia.

Leading Contenders

The Irish team is headlined by Irish 400m Record Holder Thomas Barr (Ferrybank AC), Barr smashed his own Irish record with a time of  48.90 to win the race at the EAP meet in Geneva on Saturday, 14th of June.  The performance moved him to Number One on the current European rankings list and sixth in the World rankings lists.

Mark English (UCD AC) and Paul Robinson (St Coca’s AC) have both produced impressive performances recently in the Diamond League Meetings. English who finished second in the New York Grand Prix behind World Record Holder David Rudisha will contest the 800m in Tallinn. Robinson competes in the 1,500m after setting a new personal best of 3.54.77 at the Dream Mile event in Oslo.

Double European Cross Country Champion Fionnuala Britton (Kilcoole AC) fresh from a personal best over 3,000m (8.50.80) at the IMC meet last Saturday will contest the 5,000m event in Estonia.  

Sarah Lavin (UCD AC)-100m hurdles, Ben Reynolds (North Down AC)-110m hurdles, Amy Foster (City of Lisburn AC) - 100m, Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers AC) – 400m, Rose-Anne Galligan (Newbridge AC) – 800m, Kelly Proper (Ferrybank AC) - Long Jump/200m, Tori Pena (Finn Valley AC) – Pole Vault and Anita Fitzgibbon (Dundrum South Dublin AC) - Javelin will spearhead the challenge in their specialists events in the quest to achieve an overall top five position at the 2014 event.

The European Team Championships also act as a key preparation event on the road to the European Track and Field Championships in Zurich in August.

Relays

The team competition will also provide the Irish relay squads (4x100m & 4x400m) with the opportunity to secure qualification for the European Track and Field Championships. The Irish squads need to be ranked within the top 16 teams in Europe in order to secure selection for Zurich. The women’s 4x100m relay team are currently ranked 12th in Europe with the men’s and women’s 4x400m teams ranked 13th and 16th respectively.  The men’s 4x100m team will target a quick time in Tallinn in order to move up from their current ranking of 29th place.

Irish Team Captains

David McCarthy (West Waterford AC) and Anita Fitzgibbon (Dundrum South Dublin AC) have been named as the men’s and women’s team captains for the competition. Both athletes have numerous Irish caps to their name will lead the 45 strong Irish team in Estonia this weekend. 

Irish Team