Wiley `frustrated'

Ian Wiley heads off to the final race in the World Cup series in Sydney next week "frustrated" at having to again compete with no full-time coaching support.

Ireland's top canoeist qualified for the 2000 Olympics when he finished 30th at the World Championships in Seu d'Urgell in Spain last weekend, but this performance was well below what was expected of an athlete who was in the world's top three last year.

"I'm very down about the whole thing," said Wiley yesterday. "Olympic qualification was the last thing on my mind, but as it turned out I had put myself in a situation where I nearly didn't qualify."

Wiley is frank about his performance - "the season has been a disaster, my form has been terrible" - but possibly alone among elite athletes he has had no full-time coach.

The kayaker is a carded athlete under the Sports Council's scheme, receiving £24,000 this year, but has had a number of different coaches in recent years as no funding has been made available to retain one.

"The situation has been pissing me off all year," says Wiley. Slovenian Magan Strukely had to be dropped after the Atlanta Olympics because of lack of funding and more recently Mervyn Jones departed for the same reason.

Plans to appoint another Briton for the next World Cup in Sydney and onwards to the Olympics may also be in jeopardy unless the Sports Council, which had an official request in March, comes through with funding for a full-time coach.

Irish team manager Ike Jacob says: "It's absolutely unbelievable that the Sports Council would on the one hand give £24,000 to Ian to allow him to be a full-time athlete and to cover costs, and at the same time not cover coaching support which would make sense of the investment.

"Ian has been ploughing a lone furrow in terms of preparation and team strategy," says Jacob. "He doesn't have constant coaching support."

Jacob maintains that the £17,500 made available for the canoe slalom team's running costs is inadequate: an extra £25,000 to £30,000 would be needed to fund a full-time coach.