Hopes that an appeal by Matt Brammeier to his exclusion from the Irish Olympic team would be resolved quickly and bring stability to the situation have been dashed with news that the process is going to take at least another week.
Brammeier lodged his appeal with the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) this day last week and it was first considered by the executive committee of that organisation on Monday.
Because the appeal was prepared and submitted by a lawyer, it is officially categorised as a “legal appeal”. This means the OCI was obliged to seek legal advice before its members could discuss the matter and decide if Brammeier should be included in the team for London after all.
However, while it was initially hoped the matter would be concluded in the first day or two of next week, stickybottle has now learned the appeal hearing will not even take place until tomorrow week, Saturday July 7th. It means the process will drag on beyond next week and into the second week in July; just three weeks before the Olympic Road Race.
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Under the Cycling Ireland selection criteria for the London Games, any rider who scored UCI points since the start of the 2011 season was eligible for selection. This resulted in seven riders being eligible.
Those seven were then awarded points by Cycling Ireland based on their results since the start of the current season until May 30th when the scoring window close.
A three-man selection panel then met and awarded each of the seven riders a potential 100 points based on their suitability for the road race course in London and their ability to perform in the race.
The riders with the highest combined total of results-based points and selector-awarded points filled the three places for the road race.
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These were: Dan Martin (Garmin-Barracuda), Nicolas Roche (Ag2r) and David McCann (RTS Racing). Sam Bennett of the An Post-Sean Kelly team was named as reserve, with no place for Brammeier in the line-up.
McCann was also nominated to take Ireland’s sole place in the TT.
Brammeier appealed his omission to Cycling Ireland. An appeals panel upheld his appeal and sent the selection process back to the original three-man selection panel. They revisited the process but concluded by picking the same team anyway, with Bennett again the reserve.
Brammeier, who took his third national road race title in a row last weekend in Clonmel, has now taken his appeal to the OCI and is being represented by cycling agent Andrew McQuaid in that regard. He is effectively arguing that irrespective of the Cycling Ireland selection process, he is among the top three riders in Ireland and therefore should be going to London.
It is the OCI, and not Cycling Ireland, that sends the Irish Olympic team to the Games meaning they are the final arbitrator in any disputes around selection.
They have it in their power to simply set aside the Cycling Ireland selection criteria and decide to include Brammeier on the team at the expensive of one of the three already selected. However, they may also decide to respect the Cycling Ireland criteria and leave unchanged the team that has been recommended by Cycling Ireland.
Athletes from different sports have taken similar appeals in the past, with some winning and others losing.
The delay with the Brammeier appeal means the three riders already selected will not know for certain if they will be at the Olympics until very close to the Games.
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