The organisers of the SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon will continue to campaign to have the race turned into an Olympic qualifying event for Irish athletes.
As it stands, there are are seven men and five women sitting on qualifying times for the Rio Games - but only three of each can go.
Athletics Ireland will announce their decision on 23 May and it is bound to be controversial regardless of who they pick.
Race organisers and many leading athletes believe that the first Irish male and female athletes home at the Dublin Marathon in the year before the Olympics - so long as they have achieved the qualifying time - should automatically be given a ticket to the Games.
Similar proposals have been put in the past, but have been shot down.
“We have made the case over the past few years that the winner of Dublin, so long as they have the qualifying time, are on the plane, but we have been turned down more than once,” said Dublin Marathon Race Director Jim Aughney.
“Yes, we would love to see it and it’s the national marathon as well, the first Irish athlete, male and female, is the national champion, so we don’t see any reason why it can’t be included.
“We don’t know why others won’t give that thumbs up, but we would love it and we will keep fighting and keep asking.
“Especially with so many achieving the standards now, it would be a great move to have the winning man and winning woman, so long as they have the time, qualifying. To us it was the perfect solution, but we couldn’t get it across the line.”
Segiu Ciobanu, Kevin Seward, Paul Pollock, Mick Clohisey, Gary Thornton, Sean Heir and Thomas Frazier have all achieved the Olympic qualifying time of two hours and 19 minutes.
Lizzie Lee (above), Fionnuala McCormack, Breege Connolly, Gladys Ganiel and Barbara Sanchez have all run under the women’s mark of 2:45.
Clohisey and Lee, who were speaking at the launch of the 2016 SSE Airtricity Marathon Series in Dublin on Tuesday, both say that they are training as if they have already been given the nod for Rio.
They say they have no other choice, as they can’t wait until after the May 23 announcement of the team to begin their preparations.
However, both agree that granting at least one qualifying spot for Dublin would take some of the uncertainty out of the equation, as well as boosting the race’s stature and profile.
“We sat round in a room years ago and we all said that we wanted to run Dublin,” said Lee, who pointed out that Irish athletes don’t always run Dublin as it isn’t a quick race and doesn't fit into their programmes.
“With the standards being easier now, if it’s 2.45 for the women, it’s a realistic prospect that you are going to have three Irish girls breaking 2.45.
“When you can only put three people on the plane there is always going to be controversy, though I would say that it’s absolutely brilliant that there’s so much competition.”
