Top Olympic roles for Ashbourne men

Although Ashbourne will not have any representatives on the sporting field at the London Olympics the town was given a huge boost when it was confirmed that Pierce O'Callaghan and Hugh McAtamney have been appointed to top international jobs at the London Games. Both members of St Andrew's AC, O'Callaghan has been appointed as an International Technical official for athletics while McAtamney has been appointed to a similar role for triathlon. O'Callaghan (36) was the youngest ever official to pass the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) examination process when he became a European Technical Official in 2005 and a World Technical Official in 2006. Since then he has officiated in over 20 countries including a memorable last minute call up for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. "I went out to the Beijing Olympics mainly as a spectator and a babysitter. I brought our five-month old baby Savanagh as my wife Tamara had been working there for a few weeks before the Games," he explained. "However, on arrival in Beijing I received a call from the IAAF informing me that one of the appointed International officials had just had a heart attack and wasn't going to make Beijing and would I step in to his place? Once I arranged a baby sitter for Savanagh, I was only too delighted to!" On the back of that performance he was delighted to be appointed again and is under no illusions as to how lucky he is. "Since 1932 Ireland has only had one other athletics official appointed for the Olympic Games so I am fully aware how honoured and fortunate I am and intend to enjoy every moment of the Games." A former international athlete who achieved the Olympic standard for the Sydney Games, but had to withdraw through injury, O'Callaghan has served at the top of his sport when he was Director of Communication for the European Athletics Association from 2006-2009. He is currently an elected member of the European Athletics Competition Committee and consultant for the European Olympic Committees. McAtamney is a former president of Triathlon Ireland (2002 - 2005) and founder of the 3DTriathlon club in Dublin. He has been a Triathlon Ireland Technical Official and referee since 2002 and now runs their training programmes. He became a Level one ITU official in 2006 while preparing a bid to host the 2010 European triathlon championships in Athlone. He qualified as a Level two official in 2008 in London and Level three in Budapest in 2011, the first Irish person to reach the top level in the sport. He was race director for the Athlone European Triathlon championships in 2010 and race referee at the European Duathlon championships in Limerick in 2011. He was given his first role as technical delegate (TD) by the ITU in May of 2009 at the Strathclyde European Cup. He was the assistant-technical delegate at the world championships grand finale in Budapest in 2010 and was appointed TD to his world championship series triathlon in Lausanne in 2011 and then again for this year's Stockholm WCS which takes place two weeks after the London Olympics. He will be the TD for the 2013 European Championships in Alanya, Turkey.