One to keep an eye on!

walshb

THERE was ecstasy and then agony for a young athlete after she romped home in style to win a major cross-country event yesterday.

No sooner had Siofra Clerigh-Buttner picked up her gold medal for winning the junior women's race in the cross-country championships in Dublin's Phoenix Park than she was disqualified and forced to give it back because she was too young.

Siofra, who has been involved in athletics for two years, raced past her more experienced competitors to win easily by a 45-second margin.

But the joy of her triumph was short-lived after race organisers found that the 14-year-old girl was two years under the age limit. Under the rules for junior women's running, participants must be at least 16.

Siofra is a member of Dundrum Athletics Club and a pupil in St Augustine's College in Blackrock, Dublin.

Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) officials became aware of the controversy shortly after the race, when a spectator who had recognised the girl made a complaint.

Controversy

Siofra was then stripped of her gold medal and it was given to Mary Mulhare of Co Laois.

Last night the AAI was still reeling from the controversy and making enquiries into how it happened. A spokesman for the association said that the 14-year-old had only been named as a replacement on the team sheet yesterday morning.

He added that the club knew she was ineligible when secretary Martin O'Connor entered the original team last week. However, it was the club's head coach, Eddie McDonagh, who had written Siofra's name on the application, crossing out another athlete's name but not changing the date of birth.

Mr McDonagh was unavailable for comment last night.

"Dundrum is a particularly juvenile-focussed club," the AAI spokesman said. "In most cases it would be that an athlete would be over-age for a race, so this is particularly unusual."

Cross-country results

- Michael McHale and Tom O'Riordan

Irish Independent

athlete43

heard the radio interview on monday morning about the race and the dq Can i say eddie has been in athletics a very long time and he should have known that you had to be 16 to run and to listen that he had her enter as a reserve that should not have happened either but also aai should take some of the blame they should have picked it up at the entry form stage but also the young athletes parent should have realised the there daughter was to young to run at 14 but then one only has to look at the results from he antrim x/c races and the youn girl was running way out of her age group

eliwallach

athlete43 wrote: »

heard the radio interview on monday morning about the race and the dq Can i say eddie has been in athletics a very long time and he should have known that you had to be 16 to run and to listen that he had her enter as a reserve that should not have happened either but also aai should take some of the blame they should have picked it up at the entry form stage but also the young athletes parent should have realised the there daughter was to young to run at 14 but then one only has to look at the results from he antrim x/c races and the youn girl was running way out of her age group

That's one hell of a long (unpunctuated) sentence there athlete43 :rolleyes:!
Was out of breath towards the end.

However, Dundrum AC obviously knew the girl's age (and most likely also knew the age qualification), so I think they were just chancing their collective arm.
Maybe they knew they'd be caught but were prepared for the consequences just to see how she fared out?

Fair dues to SCB though.
One to watch indeed.

athlete43

Sorry for the grammar eli .But i did,nt think it was a spelling forum :)but sure ,Well as a coach myself i would never run a athlete so far out of there age group especially in a championship race ,i wonder what mental state that girl was in when she thought she had won a title then have it stripped of her . after all rules are rules and uyou only had to read the entry form to see waht age you had to be to run .i watched the race and new wheni seen the girl line up she was to young and this was pointed out to the coach before the race went of and he done nothing Chance your arm with senior athletes not good junior athletes

TFBubendorfer

walshb wrote: »

He added that the club knew she was ineligible when secretary Martin O'Connor entered the original team last week. However, it was the club's head coach, Eddie McDonagh, who had written Siofra's name on the application, crossing out another athlete's name but not changing the date of birth.

Is it against boards' rules to speculate that this (not changing the DOB) may have been done on purpose?

petermijackson

What harm is it if she entered a race that she was too young to race in, she won it so surely she had every right to compete. Does it not say more about the older girls that they were beaten by a girl that was at least two years their junior?

conlon123

eliwallach wrote: »

However, Dundrum AC obviously knew the girl's age (and most likely also knew the age qualification), so I think they were just chancing their collective arm.
Maybe they knew they'd be caught but were prepared for the consequences just to see how she fared out?

eliwallach everyone in athletics around dublin knew of this girl and her capabilities long before this race, and there has been a massive amount of mis-information spread about this race.
Firstly there is no age required on a change of athlete on the day of a race so DSD cudn't have put down a false age,

also an interesting few bits of information to you chancing an arm theory from the last AAI congress

“The following motion was presented to Congress on the proposal of Pat Kelly and seconded by John Cronin – “That athletes have to be under 16 (i.e. 15 in the year of competition) minimum, to compete in Junior Events” – this motion was carried.” meaning that this girl was eligible to compete?