The day has finally arrived. After a Winter of training and planning, the Irish 4*400m team will be lining up for their first attempt at relay qualification for the Beijing Olympics.

This will be part 1 of 2. Qualification for the Olympic Games involves having the average of their 2 best times to rank them in the top 16 teams worldwide on the 19th of July. The boys have 2 races to get their 2 times so their is no margin for error. (All qualification times must be made at specially sanctioned races, hence the lack of potential races). As the list currently stands, the 16th ranked team have a time of 3.04.5 so the guys will need to get very close to the national record twice within the space of a week in order to get on the list.

No one is in any doubt that this will be an awesome challenge so the guys will need your support.

Please drop a few lines of encouragement in the comment box below and help Ireland qualify for the Olympics!

-Brian