Commonwealth Games Nomination Policy released

Athletics NI have today released the Nomination Policy for Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games with the aim of achieving one medal and maximising the number of athletes finishing in top eight positions.

The qualifying period opens on 1 January 2021 for the marathon event and on 1 April 2021 for track and field. The closing date will be confirmed by Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland but is likely to be late May or early June in 2022.

Leon Reid achieved a bronze medal in Gold Coast 2018 in the 200m. Further top eight positions were achieved by Kevin Seaward – Marathon 4^th, Dempsey McGuigan – Hammer 6^th, Kate O’Connor – Heptathlon 8^th, Adam Kirk-Smith – Steeplechase  8^th

The Nomination Policy and consideration standards have been set to align with the Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland (CGNI) selection criteria to select athletes ranked according to:

1. Potential Birmingham 2022 medallist
2. Potential top 8 position at Birmingham 2022
3. Development athlete, on an upward trajectory within a NGB performance system, with the potential to obtain a top 8 position at the 2026 Commonwealth Games

The consideration standards can be seen in the policy in section 25.3. Athletes will be considered in four rounds. Athletes should note that consideration does not necessarily mean nomination. In the first round, all those that have achieved the standard once will be considered. In round 2 the panel will consider athletes who are close to the standard and are on and upward trajectory, round 3 will consider any athletes that could come in to a relay team and round 4 will consider others and reserves. In determining the standards, Athletics NI have taken into account the season’s bests of athletes who finished 7^th, 8^th and 9^th as well as the actual 8^th positions in previous Games to give a realistic marker for a position in the final.

Director of Coaching and Athlete Development, Jackie Newton said “We are very excited to launch this policy that has had hours of work dedicated to it, not least on the statistics of performances from athletes who have achieved top 9 positions at previous Games. The policy was presented to the board last month and, after their scrutiny, was signed off to be launched in good time before the qualification period opens. The policy and standards have been written to give us the best chance of achieving a medal and a greater number of top 8 places than the last Games. Since then, we have seen an unprecedented number of Northern Ireland records broken as athletes have been achieving higher standards across the event groups. Competition will be strong for places, which is great to see as strong competition will drive performances higher still. We are looking forward to seeing athletes and coaches at an online information session on the evening of 23^rd December when we will go through the detail and answer any questions from those targeting the Commonwealth Games in 2022.”

Northern Ireland is allocated fewer places than the other home nations at this event. This means that competition is particularly strong between sports for places on TeamNI and also between athletes to be nominated by Athletics NI. Athletics NI will meet regularly with CGNI and will lobby for the maximum number of places. Athletes and coaches are encouraged to read the policy carefully and begin planning their programmes towards achieving the standards set.

We have provided a video with some of the key points highlighted.

The Nomination Policy can be found here

The Video can be found here

Information Evening- Wednesday 23^rd December

The information session will take place at 8pm on Wednesday 23rd December. To register for the Information Session click here

Registrations close at 12 noon on Tuesday 22nd December. Please send questions in advance to info@athleticsni.org