 Fraser Brown is already assured of a place in the Irish Olympic team |
Time appears to be running out for several of Northern Ireland's Olympic Games hopefuls. At present, only six Northern Ireland competitors appear to have booked their plane tickets to Athens.
Sprinter Paul Brizzel, three-day eventer Sasha Harrison, rower Richard Archibald and sailor Fraser Brown are certainties for the Irish team.
They also look set to be joined in the Irish selection by swimmers Michael Williamson and Emma Robinson.
However, in addition to the certainties and probables, there are up to half-a-dozen possibles with a number of candidates edging towards the probable category.
Rower Alan Campbell, who like Richard Archibald hails from Coleraine but who competes for Britain, is still awaiting the verdict from the GB selectors.
The former Coleraine Inst student, who won the Diamond Sculls event at Henley last year, broke into the British sculling squad earlier this season and is reckoned to have a very good chance of making the heavyweight quad.
An indifferent performance by the quad crew recently at Lucerne may not have helped Campbell's chances but the smart money suggests that he will be in the British team.
 Ballymena man Paul Brizzel will run the 200m in Athens |
Despite claiming the FBD Milk Ras and a couple of overseas stage victories, Belfast cyclist David McCann has missed out on Athens.
Competition was tough for the two Irish spots in the road race with Tour de France prospect Mark Scanlon always assured of one berth.
McCann, much to his disappointment, was controversially overlooked for the second slot with Ciaran Power getting the vote.
Show Jumper Jessica Kurten is in the possibles category at the moment although disappointing recent form and horse troubles for a number of her team-mates have boosted her chances.
Banbridge's Dermott Lennon is not even in the frame for selection because his world championship-winning mount Liscalgot is out of action because of injury.
Peter Charles and Robert Splaine have also not had the best of seasons so German-based Kurten could yet make it to Athens - even though she wasn't included on the original shortlist for the Games.
Six months ago, Helen's Bay swimmer Andrew Bree looked a virtual certainty for Athens in the wake of his second place in the 200m breaststroke at the European Short Course Championships in Dublin.
However, so far this season Bree has been unable to translate that short course form into a long course Olympic qualifying time.
Bree was once again outside the Athens mark of 2:14.20 last weekend in Nashville although he has still has hope of joining Lisburn man Williamson in the 200m event.
If Bree doesn't get the time, it's possible Swim Ireland could still nominate him for the Games, pointing out his championship pedigree and in particular his silver medal performance in Dublin last December.
However precedence suggests that it would be far from certain that the Olympic Council of Ireland would look favourably on such a request.
Carrickfergus swimmer Julie Douglas did hold out hopes of achieving the Olympic 50m freestyle standard but she now appears to have run out of chances.
800m runner James McIlroy's disappointing performance recently while on European Cup duty for Britain means he can now only be classed as a possible for Athens.
McIlroy has an Olympic qualifying time from last season but he will probably need a victory in the British Olympic Trials next month to guarantee selection.
Injury and illness have severely affected the Olympic chances of McIlroy's fellow track & field athletes Gareth Turnbull and Paul McKee.
 Andrew Bree still has to achieve the Olympic qualifying time |
Turnbull has been playing a game of catch-up in his attempt to shave the .40 of a second off his personal best that he needs to qualify for the Games.
He missed two months of training over the winter and acknowledges that he is unlikely to achieve the Athens standard before the Olympic Council of Ireland's self-imposed deadline of 3 July.
However, Turnbull has high hopes of bettering the mark of 3:36.20 before the end of the July and with the IAAF's international deadine not until 9 August, the Belfastman would hope for flexibility from the OCI.
McKee has suffered to an even greater extent than Turnbull with a virus meaning he has trained little over the past six weeks.
His personal best of Irish record of 45.58 from 2002 is only .03 outside the Olympic standard but that came after a good winter and spring and McKee last week acknowledged that time had run out on his Olympic dream.
Pole vaulter Zoe Brown is ranked number one in Britain this year but her personal best of 4.26, while an Olympic B standard, is 14 centimetres shy of the A mark.
OCI spokesman Jack McGouran points out the tougher qualifying standard across all the various Olympic sports this year.
"For us, numbers are going to be well down this time round," said the Irish official.
"Our team looks like being in the region of 52 or 53 which is around 20 less than last time."
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For us, numbers are going to be well down this time round
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