When the Commonwealth Games begin in July, Northern Ireland’s leading sprinter will not start in Glasgow.
Not because of injury or lack of consideration times, but because she was not selected to represent Team NI.
Lauren Roy, who holds the Northern Ireland 200m record, is in her final year of university in the United States with Tarleton State and represented Ireland at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in March.
But Athletics NI’s selection policy says athletes wishing to compete at the Commonwealth Games must compete at the 2025 or 2026 NI and Ulster Senior Championships, the dates for which were not published when the policy was published in June 2025.
When the dates were released earlier this year, the NI Championships clashed directly with the NCAA Division One Championships, the premier collegiate athletics event in the US.
The 25-year-old chose to run at Oregon, and that ultimately led to her being cut from the six-member track team.
Despite appeals to Athletics NI about her case, Roy believes she has been “punished for being in a very good set-up” and for trying to improve by moving to Texas.
“I feel absolutely blessed to be here, with my incredible support team,” Roy told BBC Sport NI’s Nigel Ringland.
“But it’s almost like I’m being punished for performing well here, by not being able to compete for my country as one of the fastest people.
“Although no one has said it directly, that is exactly how it is presented in this entire selection policy.”
When contacted by BBC Sport, the NI team said it could not consider Roy for selection because she was not nominated by Athletics NI, who have not yet responded to a request for comment.