Sarah Reilly, the former British international sprinter, is expected to link-up with the bulk of the Irish Olympic squad in Australia later this week after being provided with an Irish passport.

With the assistance of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, the necessary documentation was processed yesterday and Reilly was cleared to travel to the squad's training camp at Newcastle, some two hours' drive from Sydney.

"I've never seen a happier and more excited group than the Reilly family when I informed them that we had received notification of Sarah's eligibility from the International Olympic Committee," said Dermot Sherlock, general secretary of the Olympic Council of Ireland.

As yet, there is no such reprieve in prospect for Una English, who complained bitterly about the selection process after failing to gain a nomination for the 5,000 metres event.

English, who gave up her job two years ago to apply herself full-time to the task of winning a place in the Olympic squad, must now depend on one of the three nominated athletes dropping out of the 5,000 metres to realise her ambition.

In the meantime, she is off to Germany to compete in a 1,500 metres race in Cottbus this evening and she will then travel on to Switzerland for a race on Saturday.

The advance contingent of the Irish squad is already in Australia and the main party left Dublin yesterday on the first leg of the journey to the Newcastle camp.

Other athletes will travel early next month with Sonia O'Sullivan due to arrive there in the first week in September. Mark Carroll will wait until after the Grand Prix meeting in Berlin on September 1st before joining the squad.

Rowing: Three of the Irish lightweight four which heads off for Sydney tomorrow were given an informal and well-attended send off at Neptune's clubhouse in Dublin last night, writes Liam Gorman.

Commercial, whose own member of the crew is Neal Byrne, co-hosted the function, which was also attended by Tony O'Connor and Neville Maxwell of Neptune. British-based Corkman Gearoid Towey will join the crew when they fly out from London.

Training in Nottingham under coach Ray Sims, the crew have changed the format of the boat: Byrne will now row in the bow, with Maxwell switching to the two seat. Towey in three and Tony O'Connor in the stroke seat remain unchanged, but both Towey and Maxwell will row on the bow side.

Corkman Eugene Coakley will travel to Sydney as the reserve for the four. The 21year-old won bronze as part of Ireland's under-23 lightweight four at the Nations Cup in Copenhagen this year.

Clay-Pigeon Shooting: Ireland has received a wild card entry for the Olympics in the discipline of Olympic Trap. Derek Burnett, who narrowly missed automatic qualification, will now join David Malone.

It will be the first time that Ireland will have had two shooters in this discipline at the Games.