World indoor and outdoor silver medallist Kate O'Connor and five-time European medallist Mark English will headline a strong Irish team for the upcoming World Indoor Championships.
They are two of the eight athletes already with A standards and named in the initial squad for the event which takes place in Torun, Poland from 20-22 March.
Maeve O'Neill, Andrew Coscoran, Nick Griggs, Sarah Lavin, Bori Akinola and Lauren Roy complete the line-up.
The remainder of the squad will be completed on Tuesday, 11 March after World Athletics confirms its final list of qualifiers. Ciara Neville, Emma Moore, James Gormley and Elizabeth Ndudi are provisional selections having secured a B standard.
O’Connor will look to build on last year’s championships in Nanjing, China, where she claimed Ireland’s first Worlds indoors medal since 2006 with silver in the pentathlon.
The 25-year-old went on to win silver in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo last September.
The Dundalk star returned to competitive action at the recent 123.ie National Indoor Championships, setting personal bests in the 60m hurdles (8.21) and long jump (6.50m) indicating that she is in strong form ahead of her first multi-event competition of the year in Poland.
English has also been in excellent form this season lowering his own Irish indoor 800m record on two occasions.
The 32-year-old ran 1:44.23 at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava, Czechia in early February before returning to altitude for a training camp. He also ran an Irish indoor 600m record in January, clocking 1:15.80 at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Dublin.
Coscoran and Griggs are both ranked highly in the men’s 3000m, with the pair having ran the third and fifth fastest times in the world for the event this year.
At the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in January, Coscoran ran a time of 7:30.97, with recently crowned national champion Griggs crossing the line just behind him in 7:32.79, a huge Irish Under-23 record. The duo will compete in a straight 15-man final in Torun.
Lavin (above) is a consistent championship performer who finished fifth in the 60m hurdles final in Glasgow two years ago. The Limerick woman, who has clocked a best of 7.98 seconds this season, will look to deliver a strong performance when it matters most.
Akinola and Roy will race over 60m. Akinola broke Israel Olatunde’s national record for the event last month at the World Indoor Tour Gold meet in Belgrade, Serbia, with a 6.54 performance, illustrating that he’s in the form of this life travelling to Poland.
Roy has also had a breakthrough season in America where she has been racing on the NCAA collegiate circuit for Tarleton State University. The Ballymena woman recorded a personal best of 7.19 seconds recently to move equal second on the Irish all-time list for the event.
O’Neill will make her senior Irish international debut in Poland. The 22-year-old who is studying at Providence College in Rhode Island broke the national indoor record over 800m recently, running a time of 2:00.33 at Boston University.
Ciara Neville (60m), Emma Moore (800m), James Gormley (1500m) and Elizabeth Ndudi (long jump) are provisionally selected pending confirmation of their qualification status by World Athletics.
Irish team
Kate O'Connor (heptathlon), Mark English (800m), Maeve O’Neill (800m), Andrew Coscoran and Nick Griggs (3000m), Sarah Lavin (60m), Bori Akinola (60m) and Lauren Roy (60m)
Provisional (pending World Athletics confirmation)
Ciara Neville (60m), Emma Moore (800m), James Gormley (1500m) and Elizabeth Ndudi (long jump) are provisionally selected pending confirmation of their qualification status by World Athletics.
