Novice Cross Country Championships
30 November 2023
Athletics NI would like to apologise for the recent incident at the NI & Ulster Novice Cross Country Championships hosted by Athletics NI and the Ulster Athletics Council on 4th November 2023.
On the day of the event, Amy Greene (Finn Valley AC) was presented the Gold medal for the Novice Women’s event. Post-event a query about the athlete’s eligibility was brought to the attention of Athletics NI, on which basis Amy was then disqualified.
Unfortunately, in this instance the due process to address the query of eligibility was not followed, which lead to the athlete being disqualified unfairly. An Independent Appeals panel has since met to investigate the claim of eligibility and review all evidence submitted since the original query and the decision has been made to reinstate Amy as the winner of the 2023 Novice Cross Country Championships.
Athletics NI would like to apologise to Amy, and her coach Helen, as well as to the wider community for the inconvenience and upset caused. A formal apology has been sent to Amy and Helen from Athletics NI.
Athletics NI work with the Ulster Athletics Council to ensure the rules of all joint competitions are agreed upon and communicated to our athletics community. Again, we apologise for this mistake and will reflect upon our processes and make relevant changes to ensure this does not happen in the future.