Since the premature death of former Irish Olympian Noel Carroll, the athletics club at UCD seems to be showing one or two fractures that were not so apparent before.

Pierce O'Callaghan, the national 20km walking champion, who hopes to travel next weekend to Paris for the World Cup, wanted to compete in this weekend's Intervarsities in Belfast in preparation for the event. A member of the Belfield club through his college years, O'Callaghan was expecting to avail of the year's grace that applies for the year after a student leaves college. Imagine his surprise and dismay when he was told that he was surplus to requirements.

James Nolan (left) and Ann Marie Larkin join O'Callaghan on the unwanted list. UCD must indeed have a talented athletics team to take on the best of the rest.

Nolan and Larkin committed the cardinal sin of not taking a degree course, prompting questions on philosophy and geography - when is a year's grace not a year's grace and do you really need a degree to find your way around an athletics track?