Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

flynng wrote: »

Excellent result in Cairo for our Modern Pentathletes. Does anyone know what the qualification process is for these two outstanding competitors. They took London by storm and hopefully will qualify for Rio.

Qualification is already underway and the first direct chance they will have to qualify is at the World Cup Final in Minsk in June. This seems an unlikely pathway though as only the men's and women's champion will qualify via this route and Natalya still has a lot of work to do just to qualify for the World Cup Final.

The next direct opportunity to qualify is at the World Championships in July of this year. However, only the top 3 finishers (not already qualified) in the men's and women's events will qualify via this pathway.

Therefore, a much more likely opportunity to qualify comes just after that at the European Championships in August. The top 8 finishers (not already qualified) in the men's and women's events will book their tickets to Rio 2016.
Hopefully we can get at least one qualifier by that stage but if not there are still plenty of opportunities to qualify, with the World Championships in 2016 providing another 3 quotas per gender and the final remaining quotas (6) being distributed through the Olympic ranking system. Arthur is already in a strong position to qualify, he just needs to continue current form and he'll easily make the team for Rio. Natalya has had a few problems this year and although there is nothing to panic about yet, she will need to turn things around very soon. Failing to make the World Cup Final this year would be a blow to her chances but there would still be a lot to play for. Besides she still has time to make the World Cup Final this season and gain valuable Olympic ranking points.

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Is there an equivalent event to the relay event at World Cups in the Olympics in Modern Pentathlon? To be honest I don't really understand how the various competitions work in that sport.

No unfortunately it's not an Olympic event and as such the appetite of the powerhouse nations to participate in this event at World Cup level shifts quite often. Sometimes they participate, other times not. Still, back to back silvers (and very nearly gold last weekend) is a wonderful achievement by our duo. They are putting Ireland firmly on the modern pentathlon world map.

After both won by unanimous verdict tonight against Argentine opponents, Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan are just one win away from Olympic qualification.
There is a slight added complication of the importance of margin of victory to look out for in their next match, but simply, if they win by unanimous verdict next time out, they will book their tickets to Rio

flynng wrote: »

How many sports do ye think we will be represented by at Rio? London was fantastic in terms of the range of sports our competitors qualified for - triathlon, gymnastics, modern pentathlon, judo, badminton etc etc. Do ye think there will be any surprises for Rio on the horizon e.g. fencing, BMX, mountain biking, taekwondo?

Here is my quick (very quick) projection on our qualification chances......

Sports in which we have already qualified quotas:

• Athletics (2 quotas)
• Equestrian (4 quotas)
• Sailing (4 quotas - across 3 events)

Events in which we will almost definitely qualify quotas:

• Badminton
• Boxing
• Cycling
• Golf
• Swimming
• Triathlon

Sports in which we have a very strong chance of qualifying quotas:

• Modern Pentathlon
• Rowing

Sports in which I would give us at least a 50% chance of qualifying quotas (these sports were the hardest to categorise.....we have a decent chance to qualify 1 quota in them, but it's a precarious enough situation. Canoeing could potentially yield more than 1 quota for us, but again extremely hard to predict right now):

• Canoeing
• Gymnastics
• Judo
• Shooting

Borderline sports that we could qualify quotas for, but less probable than probable:

• Archery
• Hockey
• Rugby Sevens
• Taekwondo
• Wrestling

I hope I haven't forgotten any sport off the top of my head.



Currently it seems as though we are unlikely to qualify any track cyclists directly for Rio 2016. This would be a big disappointment, particularly as it doesn't reflect the amount of progress we are making in this sport. This could change if one of our riders has a magnificent season next year (e.g. winning a medal at the World Championships) but there will be a chance we could claim 1 quota through invitation or reallocation of some sort.

Dodge wrote: »

Actually that's now wrong. The standards have been officially released

http://www.iaaf.org/download/download?filename=643c6a52-5447-42ff-a2f6-311b26a5b786.pdf&urlSlug=rio-2016-olympic-games-entry-standards

Based on 2014 performances, Ireland would qualify the following athletes (not many...)

Men
800m - Mark English
400m - Hurdles Tom Barr
20k walk - Rob Heffernan
50k walk - Rob Heffernan/Brendan Boyce

Women
200m - Kelly Proper
20k walk - Laura Reynolds
Marathon - 5 qualifiers!

Alex Wright in the 20km and 50km walk also.

Our men's 4x400m relay team would also qualify based on 2014 results. Currently they are in a qualification position for the world championships in Beijing this year and I think they will make it to Rio also when the qualification process is finished.

gordongekko wrote: »

And we'll probably qualify a few more. Brian gregan, Paul robinson, ciaran o lionard to name 3.

Yes, I think we'll have 20+ in the end (if we qualify a relay team).

And it's double success tonight, Michael Conlan won also and qualifies Ireland for the Olympics in the bantamweight division. Great night for us