BRENDAN Boyce’s place at the Olympic Games is safe after the International Olympic Committee clarified that all qualified athletes will retain their spots.
Earlier this week, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was postponed and will now take place in 2021.
Those athletes who have qualified – including Finn Valley AC 50k race walker Boyce – will keep their places for 2021.
“The 57 per cent that are qualified do remain in place and the goal is to maintain the same athletes quotas across the different sports,” an IOC official said.
The IOC and 32 international sports federations held a teleconference on Thursday where it was decided to respect the qualification process.
Boyce became the first Irish athlete to qualify in May 2019. A person best of 3:48.13 at the European Race Walking Championships in Lithuania saw Boyce book his place in Tokyo.
The Milford man has previously competed at the 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio) Olympic Games.
Other Donegal athletes, like Mark English, Chloe Magee, Sam Magee and Ann-Marie McGlynn, who have designs on making it to Tokyo, will still hope to qualify.
There remains no certain dates for the rescheduled Olympics and many sports will also have to reschedule their qualifying tournaments.
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