Roy feels 'punished' by Commonwealth Games omission

When the Commonwealth Games begin in July, Northern Ireland's leading sprinter will not be taking to the starting blocks in Glasgow.

Not through injury or a 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 college in the USA with Tarleton State, and represented Ireland at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in March.

But Athletics NI's selection policy says athletes hoping to compete at the Commonwealth Games should compete at the 2025 or 2026 NI & Ulster Senior Championships, for which the dates were not released when the policy was published in June 2025.

When dates were released at the start of this year, the NI Championships directly clashed with the NCAA Division One Championships, the leading college athletics event in the USA.

The 25-year-old elected to race in Oregon, and that has ultimately led to her omission from the six-strong athletics team.

Despite appeals to Athletics NI over her case, Roy believes she has been "punished for being in a very good set-up" and for trying to better herself by moving to Texas.

"I'm absolutely blessed to be here, with my amazing support team," Roy told BBC Sport NI's Nigel Ringland.

"But it's almost like I'm being punished for performing well over here, by not being able to compete for my country as one of the fastest people.

"Although no one's directly said that, that's exactly how it's portrayed via this whole selection policy."

When contacted by BBC Sport, Team NI said it could not consider Roy for selection as she was not nominated by Athletics NI, who have yet to respond to a request for comment.

When the dates for the NI & Ulster Championships were released at the start of the year, it clashed with the NCAA Division One Championships, which already had pencilled in its schedule.

The 2025 edition took place in August - two months after the policy was released - and Roy was in the USA.

Roy had asked for an exemption to Athletics NI but it was not granted, therefore making her ineligible for selection, and she says the governing body was "pretty stubborn".

"It's pretty typical within other policies, where there are standards that if you're competing at a high enough level, you can essentially request a pass from the championships from the Northern Ireland champs to still be eligible to be selected," she said.

In context of Roy's 2026 performances, her season's best time in the 200m of 22.83 seconds would have been enough to finish fourth at 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Roy said she "did see it coming", adding she hoped that Athletics NI could be persuaded to show some flexibility, but was instead told "the policy is the policy".

"I totally get the policy is the policy. But the policy was also produced insufficiently, there were no dates given besides the Northern Ireland Championships, which is pretty standard with other policies.

"If you're going to say that an athlete is required to compete somewhere, you're required to give dates and specific times for when the athlete needs to be available for that, especially when it comes to elite world class athletes like myself, who do live on the other side of the world and do compete on a totally different schedule compared to most athletes."

If Roy was to return to Northern Ireland for the national championships and Commonwealth Games, she estimated it could cost her £5,000 to compete.

On top of that, she says she also would have been impacted in the USA if she elected to return home.

She is in the final year of her Masters, and her athletics funding comes from the university as she studies and competes.

"In order to keep my scholarship in the USA and continue with my education, I'm required to compete at every meet for my school that I qualify for.

"I am supported financially solely by my university up until I finished competing for them.

"So things like being tied into housing leases, I would not be able to pay for my housing and they would have had to unfortunately cut my funding.

"As an unsupported athlete, I obviously can't cover that. I would have had to give up my Masters' degree."

Roy said it had been a "stressful process" and considered appealing, adding that she contacted Team NI to explain the selection policy was "unfair" and "not equal for everyone".

The added cost of £200 for an official appeal was another issue, and there was no let up from Athletics NI.

"I was not in a position to pay £200 to appeal something that they would perhaps turn around and tell me the same thing."

After missing out on Glasgow, she says she will target the European Athletics Championships in August, the World Championships in 2027 and the Olympic Games in Los Angeles the following year.

"I'm at the peak of my career essentially between now and the next three or four years," she said.

"If there was ever a time for me to potentially medal at Commonwealth Games, it was now.

"To compete for Northern Ireland, it's always been an honour. It's something that I've done since I was 15-years-old, so I'm really, really disappointed that I can't go and put on a show for Northern Ireland this year."