Melbourne: Commonwealth Games officials will close a loophole which will allow Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan to run for Australia at the upcoming Melbourne Games.
O'Sullivan, a former world 5,000-metres champion who won a silver medal for Ireland at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, became an Australian citizen six weeks ago and will run for her adopted country in the 10,000 metres in Melbourne.
But O'Sullivan, who spends much of the year in Melbourne with her Australian husband Nic Bideau and their two children, has retained dual citizenship and intends competing for Ireland at the European championships later this year.
O'Sullivan's dual citizenship allows her to exploit a loophole in Commonwealth Games rules, which will be changed after the Melbourne Games to ensure there's no repetition.
"The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) were of the view that as a matter of procedural fairness given that the athletes were duly selected and indeed entered in the competition of the Commonwealth Games, that this change comes into effect immediately following the closing ceremony," said CGF chief Mike Hooper said.
Hooper said the rule needed to be changed.
"I don't want to personalise it, but the loophole makes an absolute mockery (of the Games)," he said.
Two other athletes with Irish connections have also slipped through the citizenship net -- sprinter Anna Boyle, who won a bronze medal for the Republic of Ireland at the World Student Games in Turkey last year and will compete for Northern Ireland, and high jumper Simon Phelan, who has competed for Ireland but will represent Jersey at the Melbourne Games.
At its general assembly on Sunday the CGF considered barring all three athletes from competing, but decided it would not be fair to do so on the eve of the Games.
The anomaly occurred because the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) does not recognise the Commonwealth Games as an elite event and therefore its three-year qualification rule does not apply.
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