Joanna Mills misses out on an Olympic place

[AQMP]

Joanna Mills may 'defect' to GB + NI
Michael O'Neill, 26 July 2012





A very demoralised, dejected and disillusioned, Joanna Mills , has confirmed that she has decided not to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over her exclusion from the Irish 4 x 400m relay squad.

On Tuesday, it was announced ,as we reported then that Catriona Cuddihy had been reinstated to the Irish team at the expense of Mills.

"If I were successful in my CAS appeal, I don't think I would now be comfortable going into the environment of competing in London," Mills told BBC Northern Ireland

"I'm really disappointed with the way the whole thing has been handled, especially by Athletics Ireland, and I hope they learn from it."

"The whole way the high performance management and coaches have dealt with this issue is disheartening and I will have to make a decision"

"It should just be about times and who is running faster, but other factors are coming in to play.

"If it's meant to be, there will be other Olympic Games for me."

Mills said that in the light of recent events she had not ruled out the possibility of switching allegiance to the GB + NI organisation.

"I've got a lot of opportunities through Ireland. A lot of individuals in the set-up have been very good to me.

"I can't in any way ignore that but at the same time, the whole way the high performance management and coaches have dealt with this issue is disheartening and I will have to make a decision.

"But it's not one I'm going to make at the minute – in the middle of all this."

The 19 years old from Mills, Ballymena, was adamant that she holds no grudge against towards Catriona Cuddihy and wished her and the team well for the Games.

"I hope they enjoy it," she concluded

It is easy to understand how disappointed that Joanna Mills must be at this stage following the fiasco but equally it has been an extremely difficult time for Catriona Cuddihy. There are no real winners here.

For Mills though it would be a major error if she were to make any immediate decisions. Time is a great healer. She has a big future ahead of her with the Irish team as some of the present team members are most unlikely to be around in four years time and she has said in her statement, " a lot of individuals in the set-up have been very good to me".

For now, this incident must be put aside in the interests of the Irish team competing in London 2012 but clearly both the Olympic Council of Ireland and particularly Athletics Ireland have serious questions to answer once the Games are over.

Time for a major shake – up to the Athletics Ireland set up at Senior Management level whilst the Olympic Council of Ireland needs to explain why as the ultimate authority they did not satisfy themselves that the selection criteria laid down was clear and beyond legal challenge . Athletics Ireland also needs to explain why Joanna Mills was even included in their squad considering she had not signed the declaration that they had originally insisted all athletes must sign before being considered for the relay squad. Why have rules if one does not abide by them?

All in all, a sad episode in Irish athletics history and one which must not be repeated.

It's up to her who she runs for but there are two points for Mills to bear in mind here, 1) Is she now (or will she be) good enough to make the British team?  2) She may find the GB & NI selection policy as "discriminatory" as the Irish one.  I was friendly through work with a guy who was high up the the NI athletics scene up until the mid 90s.  He was from a Unionist background but told me that he always advised Northern athletes to run for Ireland since in his words the GB selection policy (then) was that if the choice was close between an athlete from Belfast and one from Birmingham, 9 times out of 10 they went for the one from Birmingham.

[Evil Genius]

Two points here, 1) Is she (or will she be) good enough to make the British team?  2) She may find the GB & NI selection policy as "discriminatory" as the Irish one.

I read somewhere that her PB wouldn't get her into the UK Top 20. Not sure if it's correct, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were.
Tbf, she does have age on her side, but I'd still say she'd likely need to move to GB to take advantage of superior facilities, coaching, competition and funding etc, to improve her chances of making the step-up.

2) She may find the GB & NI selection policy as "discriminatory" as the Irish one.  I was friendly through work with a guy who was high up the the NI athletics scene up until the mid 90s.  He was from a Unionist background but told me that he always advised Northern athletes to run for Ireland since in his words the GB selection policy (then) was that if the choice was close between an athlete from Belfast and one from Birmingham, 9 times out of 10 they went for the one from Birmingham.

The whole GB set-up is a million times more professional than it was in the 1990's.

So much so that "home" athletes are complaining that they're getting overlooked in favour of "foreign" athletes, who manage to acquire British eligibility on sometimes tenuous grounds, then get parachuted into Team GB if they're even a 100th of a second quicker than their home-grown counterparts:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/athletics/9131504/US-born-Tiffany-Porter-fends-off-Plastic-Brit-jibes-after-being-named-Team-GB-captain-for-Istanbul.html
Foreign-born athletes competing for GB in [the World Indoor Athletics Championships in] Istanbul

Tiffany Porter Sprint hurdler from Ypsilanti, Michigan, but qualified to compete for Britain through her London-born mother
Shara Proctor Long jumper from Anguilla, which is a British Overseas Territory whose citizens are full UK passport-holders
Michael Bingham North Carolina-born 400m runner with a British father who won silver for Britain at the 2010 European Championships.
Shana Cox 400m runner who is a native of Long Island, New York, but whose parents were both born in Britain.
Yamile Aldama Triple-jumper who was born in Cuba, has also represented Sudan but is married to a Scotsman and has lived in the UK since 2001.

I have no doubt that were Ms. Mills to start posting top UK-standard times, she'd be "knocking on an open door" if she wanted to switch.

[imtommygunn]

Britain gets huge value from Lottery funding but you need to be at the absolute top of your game to get it.

This feeds onto internal politics that people have trained by themselves and met standards but feel they have been overlooked due to not being the "chosen ones".

Also then the lottery funding has metrics with regard to major finals. People who have met all qualifying criteria get overlooked because they may not make finals and impact funding.

Mills was 8th in a world junior semi-final so would have a long way to go to make a british team.

There was another girl at her age in either european or world juniors the other year(Kirk) who was about her standard(slightly lower) but got in the 4 x 400 team and won gold yet Mills got nothing. You basically have more chance of success with Britain due to a) better strength and depth in a relay and b) better access to funding. (James McIlroy shifted due to money)

That being said not something I could bring myself to do...

[nrico2006]

The Olympics qualification process is a disgrace.  The best athletes should be present at the games and in a lot of the sports this will not be the case.  This Mills example is another disgrace - how can it be justified that she is out and the other girl is in?  Time is all that matters here, not who your sister or da is.

Does each Country have its own Olympic qualifying time or is there a standard Olympic qualifying time for each event.  I find it strange that the Blade Runner initially missed out on the individual 400 metres as he didn't meet the time yet Dwain Chambers qualified and he didn't meet the time. 

Anyway, can anyone tell me what days I am likely to see Isinbayeva strutting about on HD?  I am sure there is bound to be a 'Hot Olympians Thread' created and I'll be happy as long as those GB Volleyball players are kept away from it.   

[imtommygunn]

You have olympic A and B standards set by olympics bodies however then it is up to your governing athletics board to set their own too. These obviously must be either equal or quicker than the olympic set ones. Ireland have quicker standards in things like marathons to try and limit the number of people who go but in some other disciplines they will maybe accepth the B standards.

It becomes more complicated when more than the max number of athletes meet these standards. (e.g. womens marathon in Ireland where Maria McCambridge missed out).

I think with regard to the standards you can run them in the olympic year or the year prior to olympic year. Chambers ran A standard last year. It was the same for quite a few womens 800 in Britain - e.g. Meadows and Simpson in 800. I think Kenneally in the marathon ran his marathon standard in 2011 too. I'm not sure if blade runner did meet that standard. If you don't meet the standards you won't be there though.

Chambers is an interesting one. I'm glad to see him go as I think there are cheats there anyway and he's being scapegoated by a lot of people. However I don't think he should be there based on current form - I *think* maybe the brits hands were tied on this one due to publicity.

Relays etc get very political as with Ireland for example no standards have been met so it's all discretionary. Same anywhere though.

[lawnseed]

Lawnseed seems to be only concerned with athletes from the North who have missed out on selection, surely sectarian in itself.

where'd you get that from? i said they should have a race the winner gets the place..