Athletics Ireland have named their teams for European XC Champ's in December.
http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/?p=5236#more-5236
Some strange selections across the teams. Seems some athletes are rewarded for mediocre performance in the US rather than competing in the trial.
What do we have a trial for? Surely athletes shouldn't be picked outside the trial unless they are clearly going to contribute to the team.
Obviously Fagan and Ledwith in the senior mens, Cullen in the womens, McCarthy and to some extent O'lionaird in the u23 mens and knight in u23 women have shown from to justify selection.
However some of the other selections are seriously questionable.
Mens u23 - Yeates only 168th in NCAA champs
Womens u23 - Baker didn't even Qualify for NCAA's and dead last in euro u23 last year
Mens Senior - Carroll only 4th Irish finisher at Great South Run and no XC races this season (+Works for AAI)
Mens Junior - Quinn Won u18's comfortably at the weekend but could have ran u20 race if he wanted to do Euro's.
Womens Junior - two athletes that didn't compete in the trials