BY RYAN FERRY
BRENDAN Boyce says the Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay is a viable option as he tries to make it to his fourth Olympics in Paris next summer.
Boyce has been one of the top athletes in Ireland over the last 12 years, and competed in the 50km Race Walk at the London, Rio, and Tokyo Olympic Games.
However, that event has now been scrapped and the longest individual category is 20km.
The Milford man is pushing to make the time for the 20km but acknowledges that it will be a challenge.
The Mixed Relay is a new event brought in to help with gender equality, and Boyce admits that he has no great affiliation to it at the moment.
That said, the Finn Valley man delivered a good display in the new event alongside Kate Veale in Dublin last weekend.
The Irish pair are currently seventh in the World Rankings for the Olympics, and it has certainly given Boyce some food for thought.
“In terms of Paris, it is definitely an option.
“I’m obviously still trying to gain points towards the individual 20km as well.
“But I think with Kate at the minute, it is definitely a viable qualifying option.
“We have only really got one female in Ireland but you have myself, Dave Kenny, and Oisin Lane who are three athletes on the male side who could take up the male legs in the race.
“With any relay, it will be down to Athletics Ireland to select who they want to race that race.
“I’m looking to race it again with Kate in Turkey in April so if we do qualify the team then it will be up to AI (Athletics Ireland) to select who is actually going.
“There’s the possibility that I could qualify the team and then not get selected so that’s a bit of a risk for me.
“But I am still trying to do the individual 20km.”
Boyce is looking forward to enjoying the festive period with his family and then it will be straight to hard training in the new year.
“The World Race Walking Championships are on in April in Turkey and they have basically said that the top 22 teams from that race will be automatically selected and then there are three discretionary spots for maybe the three fastest teams who haven’t got an automatic spot.
“At the minute, the three fastest times are a good bit faster than us so we would need to go to Turkey and finish in the top 22 and that’s the main way to qualify for the relay.
“In the individual, I will need to have two performances over the 20km.
“I haven’t fully decided which races they are going to be yet.
“They will probably be foreign races. Maybe Podebrady in the Czech Republic in April, and there are races every weekend, it’s just about figuring out where the training comes in and what dates suit best.
“I’m still figuring out the season ahead, but I’m going on a training camp for two weeks at the start of January.
“That will be the first main block of training and then I will hopefully get away to altitude in March and get ready for that Podebrady race and the World Cup in Turkey.
“Those are the main objectives for the short-term. There are two championships in the summer – the Europeans (in Rome) and the Olympics.
“I would be fairly confident that I can get the standard for the Europeans in June, and then it’s going to be whether I can get that big performance to walk a 20km PB by over two minutes to get selection for Paris.
“For the Europeans, I’m pretty close, so one big race should get me in.
“They have cut the numbers for Paris with only 48 athletes selected, and it was sixty for Tokyo so qualification has never been harder.
“It will probably take the race of my whole career to qualify for the 20km in Paris but where there is hope and there is drive, there’s always a way.”
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