Lauren Roy, Northern Ireland's leading sprinter, will not compete at the Commonwealth Games in July, not due to injury or performance issues but because of her exclusion from Team NI.

The 25-year-old, who holds the Northern Ireland 200m record, is in her final year at Tarleton State University in the USA and recently represented Ireland at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in March. However, Athletics NI's selection policy stipulates that athletes must compete at the 2025 or 2026 NI & Ulster Senior Championships to qualify, but the dates for these events were not announced when the policy was released in June 2025.

When the dates were finally revealed earlier this year, they clashed with the NCAA Division One Championships, a key event in U.S. college athletics. Roy chose to compete in Oregon, resulting in her exclusion from the six-member athletics team.

Roy expressed her disappointment, stating, "I'm absolutely blessed to be here, with my amazing support team... But it's almost like I'm being punished for performing well over here."

Despite her appeals to Athletics NI, she felt "punished for being in a very good set-up" and criticized the governing body for its inflexibility.

She highlighted that her personal best time of 22.83 seconds in the 200m would have placed her fourth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Roy noted, "If you're going to say that an athlete is required to compete somewhere, you're required to give dates... especially when it comes to elite world-class athletes like myself."

In a statement, Team NI confirmed they could not consider Roy for selection as she was not nominated by Athletics NI, who have yet to provide a comment on the matter.