With the Millennium a celebration well and truly over many Irish athletes is leaving the cold, wet Irish winter to complete their winter training in warmer climates. South Africa, Florida, Kenya and Australia seem to be the most popular destinations for many of our Olympic hopefuls, writes Ricky Simms.
Having recovered from a minor injury setback Sonia O'Sullivan continues her Olympic preparations in Melbourne and Falls Creek, Australia. She intends to target a 10,000m qualifying standard in the Australian National Championships on February 24th. Crusaders 400m hurdler Brian Liddy has relocated himself in Sydney for the entire year and has recorded some impressive times in Australian meets. An Irish team consisting mainly of throwers and including Terry McHugh and Nick Sweeney will travel to Sydney under the guidance of Nenagh's Sean Naughton. National 400m hurdles record holder Tom McGuirk will also meet up with this group. Belfast runner Dermot Donnelly spent the month of October in Sydney and may return there early in the spring. Andrew Walker joins James McIlroy (now declared for Great Britain) and a group of Kenyan athletes for a three-month training visit to Australia as part of the KIM (Kim McDonald) squad. Elite racewalkers Pierce O'Callaghan and Jamie Costin have spent the winter down-under and intend to do some competitions there, seeking Olympic-qualifying standards. Kilkenny's Emily Maher also returns with Linford Christie's Nuff Respect group.
Kenya is the destination for three of our top distance runners. Seamus Power, Peter Matthews and Noel Berkley opted to miss the IAAF Cross-Country meet in Belfast to experience a month training in the 'land of the distance runner'.
Leevale's Martin McCarthy, DSD's Cormac Smith and Mullingar man Cormac Finnerty will join Florida regulars Mark Carroll and Neville Davey in Gainesville. Catherina McKiernan intends to complete her London Marathon preparations with a spell at altitude in New Mexico. Valerie Vaughan has moved from Dublin for an extended training period in Colorado, while training partner Una English is currently training in Belgium. National 50Km walk record holder Jeff Cassin who has already achieved an Olympic 'B' standard, is currently logging up the miles in Mexico. Susan Smith-Walsh and Peter Coghlan are currently training out of their regular Atlanta base, while Sinead Delahunty, Breeda Dennehy Willis and Elaine Fitzgerald remain in Boston, Florida and Alabama. Sean Kyle takes a group of middle-distance athletes including UCC runner Freeda Davoren to train at the University of Southern Alabama at Easter.
Twelve Irish athletes travel to South Africa this week for a month of training and competition. National record holders Karen Shinkins, Dave Matthews and Gary Ryan lead a group which includes Tomas Coman, Tom Commyns, Ciara Sheehy, Dave Keoghan, Paul Opperman, Stephen McDonald, Darren Hough, Martina McCarthy (Athenry A.C.) and David Power. Olympic team manager Patsy McGonagle and Jim Kilty take charge of this team.
The Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) have organised a warm-weather training trip to the Algarve, Portugal at Easter. Building on the success of the 1999 camp Patsy McGonagle and Jim Kilty will again supervise a group of approximately 40 athletes for a two-week period. Paul McBurney, Brian Forbes, Paul McKee and Zoe Arnold are part of a group who travels to Lanzarote during the same time.