Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

In dressage news, Judy Reynolds had a good weekend at the World Cup stage in Neumunster, Germany, achieving a personal best score onboard Vancouver K to finish 15th overall.
Judy set a personal best of 69.00% in the Grand Prix class, placing her inside the top 15 combinations to qualify for the Freestyle class. She went on to achieve a score of 71.575% in that element, eclipsing her previous best of 70.000%.
So overall, a good weekend for Judy. It's not an earth-shattering result by any means but slowly Irish dressage is making progress.
We competed with a dressage team at the World Equestrian Games last year which was a step in the right direction.
It's also notable that in the last couple of seasons, our eventing teams have improved their dressage scores which has been the traditional achilles' heel of Irish eventing teams. So any progress in dressage, however slow, is to be welcomed.

Ireland came through their pool unbeaten after a 2-0 win over Italy last night. Again, the performance was a bit worrying as the Irish squandered many chances and perhaps didn't create enough goal-scoring opportunities. Against better opposition they would be punished, but their 100% record is still intact and even an under-par Irish team should be able to make it through this tournament without too much difficulty.
Up next is a must-win game against tournament whipping boys Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow. A victory in that match would leave the Irish just one win away from securing their passage to the next stage of the Olympic qualification process. A defeat would end their Olympic dream there and then so the stakes are high.....best of luck to the boys in green!


*times in Irish local time

There's good news to report tonight as Ireland's men booked their place in the next stage of Olympic qualification with a 2-0 win over Canada this evening. A great 3rd-quarter for Ireland provided 2 goals and the Irish lads never looked in trouble after that. Up next in the final is a re-match against Pool A runners-up Austria. Both teams will desperately want to claim the honour of champions in this event, but both can be comfortable in the knowledge that they have secured their place in the next round of qualification for Rio 2016. That tournament will take place in Argentina in June where the Olympic quotas will be distributed.
Canada and Russia face-off tomorrow for the final remaining qualification berth.
Well done you boys in green!!


*times in Irish local time

Here's an article outlining our 15 best medal hopes for Rio 2016

https://balls.ie/olympics/irelands-15-best-hopes-olympic-medals-2016/

So what are your thoughts? Who would be in your top 15 medal hopes? What are your early medal projections for Rio 2016?

Dodge wrote: »

That's my article fwiw. Feel free to lash it/me over it

No lashing, don't worry Good work!

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Whatever happened to Grainne Murphy and Sycerica McMahon? They seemed like two great prospects at one stage. Did they just fade away from contention or will they be aiming for Rio?

It would be great to qualify for a team event this time to boost our numbers. Hockey probably the best hope - no real chance of a medal but it would be nice to have them there to follow throughout the olympics.

Sycerika will likely qualify for Rio without too much difficulty but she hasn't progressed as hoped and it's unlikely she can challenge for medals. Even making a final would take a big step-up from her.
The illness that scuppered Grainne Murphy's Olympics continued to hamper her progress long after the Games had come and gone. Her return to competitive swimming has thus far not looked very promising, just making the Olympic team will be a tough ask for her.

We have an outstanding young talent in Antoinette Neamt. She has a great chance to qualify in the long distance freestyle events for Rio 2016 when she would only be 15 years of age. Because she is so young it would be unfair to comment much about her prospects at this stage. Let's hope she can continue to make significant progress as this is a vital point in her career and a time when you might expect visible year-on-year improvements.


I'm really hoping and praying we can qualify a showjumping team this time having missed out on Beijing and London. By simply qualifying a showjumping team we are significantly improving our medal prospects. Showjumping is unpredictable and anything could happen so if we qualify we could be hopeful of challenging for a podium. Also by qualifying a team it gives us 4 medal chances in the individual event. If we don't qualify it is very damaging as at most we can only qualify 2 riders individually and even securing those 2 spots is far from a straight-forward process. Despite just missing out on qualification for the Olympics at the World Equestrian Games, it will be a very daunting task to secure qualification in the next and final opportunity at the European Championships. 3 team quotas are up for grabs but we face stiff opposition from teams from Great Britain, Switzerland and Belgium and other teams like Italy, Norway, Spain and others could have a good day and push for qualification also. We have a good chance of course and while we can be very hopeful it will be extremely difficult.

Dodge wrote: »

It's even worse than that Dan. If the team doesn't qualify, only one rider from Western Europe is likely to be qualify. So if, for example, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy qualify as teams I'd expect Ireland to have no riders at the Olympics as the Western Europe individual would go to Scott Brash of GB as World number 1

However, I think Ireland will qualify

We had a disaster at the Euros in 2013 and still might have made it. We're much stronger now and should be competing for medals at the Euros, never mind qualifying

There is still scope to qualify 2 individual riders as there are 4 additional places for the highest ranked individual riders not already qualified, regardless of which region those riders are from.
I think we have a good chance but Belgium have a terrific team of riders to choose from right now and Britain should be strong, even if they have been inconsistent more recently.....and Switzerland are always solid. If we don't perform to our best or near to it then we probably won't qualify. But not to be negative, I think we will do it, especially with Bertram Allen in the team.

Ireland continued on winning ways this afternoon with a 2-1 victory over Canada in UCD. It will be an encouraging result to take forward to the rest of the tournament as Canada are earmarked as one of our main rivals here. Still, the result should perhaps have been more comprehensive in terms of the final scoreline but a win is a win and that's the important thing at this stage. Up next is a game against the Turkey on Tuesday afternoon and should be a comfortable win on paper for the Irish.

Ireland are now just one win away from progressing to the next stage of Olympic qualification after a 2-0 win against Lithuania. Ireland were never troubled in the match but having pressed in the opponents circle for long stretches of the game, perhaps the Irish team will be a little disappointed with their end product today..... but a win is a win and at this stage nothing else matters.
Up next is a crunch game against Belarus where the winner will secure qualification to the next round.




5th-8th Place Classification:
Mar. 21 (09:30) Ukraine vs Lithuania
Mar. 21 (12:00) Austria vs Turkey


Semi-Finals:
Mar. 21 (14:30) Belarus vs Ireland
Mar. 21 (17:00) Canada vs Chile

Ireland's women put in a fantastic performance to thrash Belarus 7-0 and secure their passage to the next stage of Olympic qualification. Ireland exploded out of the traps and were 3-0 up by the end of the first quarter. From there they never looked back and the result is a huge boost going into the final match against Canada, having already faced each other in the pool stage (Ireland victorious 2-1 on that occasion).
Huge congratulations to the Irish women's team




5th-8th Place Classification:
Mar. 21 (09:30) Ukraine 0-2 Lithuania
Mar. 21 (12:00) Austria 6-0 Turkey


Semi-Finals:
Mar. 21 (14:30) Belarus 0-7 Ireland
Mar. 21 (17:00) Canada 0-0 Chile (Canada won 5-4 after shoot-out)


7th-8th Place Play-Off:
Mar. 22 (09:30) Ukraine v Turkey


5th-6th Place Play-Off:
Mar. 22 (12:00) Lithuania v Austria


3rd-4th Place Play-Off:
Mar. 22 (14:30) Belarus v Chile


FINAL:
Mar. 22 (17:00) Ireland v Canada

Ireland were crowned the winners of the World Hockey League Qualifier in UCD this evening after a dramatic shoot-out victory over Canada. With the scores tied at 1-1 after a nip and tuck encounter, the match went to the dreaded shoot-out and the Irish women held their nerve, netting 4 of their penalties to claim the honours.
Canada join Ireland in advancing to the next round of the World League / Olympic Qualification.
Well done to the Irish women on a successful tournament to cap a great weekend for Irish sport




5th-8th Place Classification:
Mar. 21 (09:30) Ukraine 0-2 Lithuania
Mar. 21 (12:00) Austria 6-0 Turkey


Semi-Finals:
Mar. 21 (14:30) Belarus 0-7 Ireland
Mar. 21 (17:00) Canada 0-0 Chile (Canada won 5-4 after shoot-out)


7th-8th Place Play-Off:
Mar. 22 (09:30) Ukraine 2-1 Turkey


5th-6th Place Play-Off:
Mar. 22 (12:00) Lithuania 1-2 Austria


3rd-4th Place Play-Off:
Mar. 22 (14:30) Belarus 2-3 Chile


FINAL:
Mar. 22 (17:00) Ireland 1-1 Canada (Ireland won 4-3 after shoot-out)


*Ireland and Canada advance to World Hockey League Semi-Final Round.