Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Dodge · 31-07-2014 1:41am

9 medals, a record, for NI boxers in the commonwelath games. 2 for women.

Some young talent in the men's game making a breakthough. Augers well for Irish hopes of Rio qualification

Strazdas · 02-08-2014 12:17am

Dodge wrote: »

9 medals, a record, for NI boxers in the commonwelath games. 2 for women.

Some young talent in the men's game making a breakthough. Augers well for Irish hopes of Rio qualification

Keep an eye on that young girl Michaela Walsh. Team GB's Nicola Adams is the world No.1 in her category but Walsh is ten years younger than her and a lot of observers at ringside today think that she may even be capable of beating Adams. Conlon and Barnes would be obvious medal hopes for Rio (along with Katie of course) but Walsh may be another contender.

feargale · 02-08-2014 11:36pm

Slight drop in world ranking for our high profile sailors:

http://afloat.ie/home/item/26180-isaf-world-sailing-rankings?utm_source=Ireland+Afloat&utm_campaign=a58b7ae4c2-AfloatDaily_Aug018_1_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56cc7c153a-a58b7ae4c2-405533105

The Rings The Flame · 11-08-2014 4:34pm

Bertram Allen taking down yet another title in Dublin at the tender age of 19. Looks like he could be turning into the boy wonder that many predicted.

Dodge · 13-08-2014 2:57pm

Jesus is he only 19! I thought he was mid 20s. Wow

KevIRL · 15-08-2014 7:23pm

Bronze for Mark English in the 800m at the European Championships

The Rings The Flame · 18-08-2014 12:33pm

Impressive new national record of 3:01.67 by the 4x400 lads to finish 5th in the euros. Given the team is so young, dare we dream of a sub 3 minute time? Would be incredible.

Dodge · 18-08-2014 1:48pm

European swimming championships started today. Sycerika McMahon is probably our best swimmer but she had a poor commonwealth games so don't know if she's on form.

4 men started today. Best was Nicolas Quinn in 28th place in 100m breaststroke

Skid X · 18-08-2014 5:56pm

The Rings The Flame wrote: »

Impressive new national record of 3:01.67 by the 4x400 lads to finish 5th in the euros. Given the team is so young, dare we dream of a sub 3 minute time? Would be incredible.

Yeah, it's great to see an Irish relay team doing well, hopefully they have more to come in the future. A few interesting stats about their performance

That time by the Irish 4x4 team would have placed 6th in the final of the London 2012 Olympic Final.

Just to put the mens 4 x 400 metre relay national record today into perspective. With the time they posted they would have won the bronze medal at every European Championship since 1986 (1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2012) apart from Barcelona 2010, where their time would have taken gold. Phenomenal running!

http://www.thescore.ie/paul-robinson-1500-final-1624467-Aug2014/

The_Kew_Tour · 18-08-2014 6:38pm

and not a word about it on RTE.

That is a fantastic acheivement.

feargale · 19-08-2014 1:56am

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

and not a word about it on RTE.
That is a fantastic acheivement.

I'll tell you more. There were two big Irish stories on Saturday, Mark English and boxer David Oliver Joyce. What did RTE 6 o'clock news, sports section lead with? The English Premiership!

The_Kew_Tour · 19-08-2014 1:43pm

feargale wrote: »

I'll tell you more. There were two big Irish stories on Saturday, Mark English and boxer David Oliver Joyce. What did RTE 6 o'clock news, sports section lead with? The English Premiership!

95% of my posts are on football, but I agree with this type of thing.

Dodge · 20-08-2014 9:21am

feargale wrote: »

I'll tell you more. There were two big Irish stories on Saturday, Mark English and boxer David Oliver Joyce. What did RTE 6 o'clock news, sports section lead with? The English Premiership!

Try being an Irish football fan...

EU boxing champs isn't a big deal though. Mark English most certainly was.

KevinK · 22-08-2014 6:56pm

Does anyone know much about Baku 2015? Have any Irish acompetitors qualified yet? Anyone information on the qualifying process, which Irish athletes are hooping to be there?

feargale · 22-08-2014 10:39pm

Dodge wrote: »

Try being an Irish football fan...

Point taken.

Dodge wrote: »

EU boxing champs isn't a big deal though.

I disagree. It's new, but it represents approximately half of Europe. Your local friendly actuary would probably tell you that an EU gold is the equivalent of a European silver at least. My main interest in European competitions is that they are pointers to Olympic achievement.

feargale · 22-08-2014 10:40pm

Is Joe Ward gone professional?

The Lost Sheep · 23-08-2014 3:29pm

Doyle 4th and McMahon 6th in 50 breast semi final which was on just there. Doyle hopefully will get into final with her swim

The Rings The Flame · 23-08-2014 4:27pm

KevinK wrote: »

Does anyone know much about Baku 2015? Have any Irish acompetitors qualified yet? Anyone information on the qualifying process, which Irish athletes are hooping to be there?

I'm not too up to date on the qualifying but following Olympics Ireland on twitter is good for this sort of stuff. I'm sure they tweeted this a couple of months ago.

feargale · 25-08-2014 2:53pm

Finn Lynch boosts his Rio 2016 hopes with world under-19 world laser title.

http://afloat.ie/sail/olympic-sailing/finn-lynch?utm_source=Ireland+Afloat&utm_campaign=2598098b6d-AfloatWeekly_Aug258_25_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56cc7c153a-2598098b6d-405533105

Dodge · 27-08-2014 1:25pm

feargale wrote: »

I disagree. It's new, but it represents approximately half of Europe. Your local friendly actuary would probably tell you that an EU gold is the equivalent of a European silver at least. My main interest in European competitions is that they are pointers to Olympic achievement.

The EU championships aren't new. They ran between 2003 and 2009 and stopped due to lack of interest. Even the Irish team sent this year wasn't a full choice team. The likes of Con Sheehan won gold at the Eu champs. He wouldn't really get close to medalling at Euros so I'd disagree with your actuaries there.

Look at 2103 Europeans here. Gold/silver medals won by EU countries that weren't Irish? Three

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_European_Amateur_Boxing_Championships

In fact only 14 of the 40 medals handed out were wn by EU members (and Ireland accounted for 4 of them)

The Lost Sheep · 31-08-2014 1:42pm

Rowing world Championships final day today
Sanita Puspere finished 4th in single sculls and was very close to getting a medal. Great race from her

danieloc89 · 31-08-2014 3:31pm

The Irish eventing team are assured 6th place at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy today, thus ensuring qualification of a team of four riders in the Eventing for Rio 2016. Well done!!

Ireland's first athletes qualified for Rio I believe.

cool666 · 31-08-2014 6:10pm

World Equestrian Games Ireland were sixth today so we got through to the Olympics

top 6 go through

Cosmo Kramer · 01-09-2014 1:19pm

KevinK wrote: »

Does anyone know much about Baku 2015? Have any Irish acompetitors qualified yet? Anyone information on the qualifying process, which Irish athletes are hooping to be there?

Information seems thin enough on the ground, but for me the way they are operating the athletics section of the event massively undermines the whole competition...

Wikipedia wrote:

Agreement was reached with European Athletics for two forms of athletics competition; in the main stadium, the third division of the 2015 European Team Championships will take place, the division currently containing the hosts, Azerbaijan. Outside the stadium, a wider "street" athletics formet event has been confirmed, open to all nations, modelled on the Great City Games format.

The Lost Sheep wrote:

Doyle 4th and McMahon 6th in 50 breast semi final which was on just there.

Unfortunately Sycerica McMahon seems to have gone backwards at an alarming rate since moving to Texas which is a shame. Whatever became of Grainne Murphy? The recent success of Scottish swimmers shows what could be achieved if more money and effort was invested in the sport.

danieloc89 · 01-09-2014 1:30pm

KevinK wrote: »

Does anyone know much about Baku 2015? Have any Irish acompetitors qualified yet? Anyone information on the qualifying process, which Irish athletes are hooping to be there?

Ireland has a team qualified in the Women's Artistic Gymnastics. They came 19th at the 2014 European Team Championships last May.

KevinK · 01-09-2014 6:59pm

danieloc89 wrote: »

Information seems thin enough on the ground, but for me the way they are operating the athletics section of the event massively undermines the whole competition...

Ireland has a team qualified in the Women's Artistic Gymnastics. They came 19th at the 2014 European Team Championships last May.

Thanks for the replies, it's crazy how little information there is out there, my sister was asked to compile a list of Irish qualifiers and likely Irish qualifiers but it's hard to get any info.

KevinK · 01-09-2014 7:04pm

Out of interest here is the only information I could find for her.

In 3x3 basketball, the Irish womens team have made the european Championships next week- there are 16 teams and the top 15 will qualify for baku, so they have aery good chance. The squad is; Orla O'Reilly, Suzanne Maguire, Grainne Dwyer and Ailish McLaughlin. The mens team are out.http://www.basketballireland.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2634:irish-senior-women-qualify-for-3x3-euros&catid=36:slideshow-fp

The swimming is only for Junior athletes and the qualifying process is not yet finalised, however four (Emma Reid, Danielle Hill, NIamh Kigallen and James Brown) of the irish team at this years European Junior championships are underage again next year and likely to compete in Baku. In fact Hill and KIgallen were part of 4 x 100m medely team that got to the final.http://www.olympics.ie/sports/swimming/10289-swimmers-end-successful-european-campaign.html

In Judo Lisa Kearney who got a bronze for Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth games is very likely to qualify, while Eoin Fleming and Caoimhin Thompson also have chances of qualifying.

In Canoeing Andrzej Jezierski, Tom Brennan, Jenny Egan, Peter Egan/Simas Dobrovolskis, Michael Fitzsimon/Barry Watkins all seem to have qualified after the European Championships in July but it's not mentioned anywhere so I could be wrong and even if I am right they may not compete as nobody seems very excited about it.

In badminton the BWF rankings on March 15th 2015 will be used to assign places Scott Evans is currently 14th in mens.Chloe Magee is 8th in womens. Sam magee and jonathan Dolan 25th in mens doubles. Sam Magee and Chloe Magee 13th in mixed doubles.
Top 32 qualify in singles, top 16 in doubles- but limited to 2 per country.So Scott Evans, Chloe Magee and Sam Magee very likely to qualify and all should play.

Triathalon qualification will be decided on european rankings on 31st December 2014, in mens there are irish people in 40th and 59th currently- Conor Murphy and Russel White (top 60 at least qualify). In womens 186th was the highest ranking I saw.http://www.triathlon.org/rankings

danieloc89 · 01-09-2014 11:10pm

KevinK wrote: »

Out of interest here is the only information I could find for her.

In Canoeing Andrzej Jezierski, Tom Brennan, Jenny Egan, Peter Egan/Simas Dobrovolskis, Michael Fitzsimon/Barry Watkins all seem to have qualified after the European Championships in July but it's not mentioned anywhere so I could be wrong and even if I am right they may not compete as nobody seems very excited about it.

I think only 3 Irish boats qualified from the European Canoe Sprint Championships.
They were:
Men's K1 200m
Men's K2 1000m (not too sure if this one qualified, as no B final run)
Men's C1 200m
Boats qualify, not athletes.

In women's boxing the following have qualified:
Micheala Walsh 54 kg
Ceire Smith 51 kg
Katie Taylor 60 kg
Men's boxing has not be finalised yet.

For many of the other sports, qualification depends on rankings, which are still in progress.

Skid X · 04-09-2014 6:24pm

Ireland just missed out on qualification for the Olympic Team Showjumping event today. They were one place away from Rio.

http://www.horsesportireland.ie/reland-finish-team-seventh-at-world-equestrian-games-miss-olympic-qualification-by-one-place/

THE Irish show jumping team came tantalisingly close to obtaining automatic qualification for the Rio Olympics when finishing seventh at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy this afternoon (Thursday).

Ireland’s quartet of Darragh Kenny, Bertram Allen, Denis Lynch and Cameron Hanley moved up one place from their overnight position, but because Olympic host nation Brazil were ahead in today’s table, Ireland needed at least a sixth place to ensure qualification.

The Rings The Flame · 05-09-2014 9:35am

Skid X wrote: »

Ireland just missed out on qualification for the Olympic Team Showjumping event today. They were one place away from Rio.

I assume there are still other ways for them to qualify right?

cack_handed · 05-09-2014 10:10am

The Rings The Flame wrote: »

I assume there are still other ways for them to qualify right?

They'll have the European Championships next year to qualify a team. Based on the performances at the Worlds, they'd surely be confident but a lot can happen in a year as we know. Am open to correction but I believe this is the only remaining avenue as far as the team is concerned. As in London, there will still be the chance to qualify individuals based on world rankings

Dodge · 09-09-2014 10:22am

cack_handed wrote: »

They'll have the European Championships next year to qualify a team. Based on the performances at the Worlds, they'd surely be confident but a lot can happen in a year as we know. Am open to correction but I believe this is the only remaining avenue as far as the team is concerned. As in London, there will still be the chance to qualify individuals based on world rankings

The top 3 "western European nations" at the 2015 European Championship qualify (not including Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden)

If that doesn't happen, we'd have to have the top ranked individual not from those 7 European countries to qualify one rider.

The last 3 team spots are between Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, Spain and Italy

The first 3 there will be the favourites but GB had a shocker at the Worlds so we know anything can happen

Skid X · 13-09-2014 10:01pm

The first Irish Sailor is on his way to Rio, hopefully many more to come ...

https://twitter.com/ISA_Performance/status/510862038676279296

Dodge · 22-09-2014 11:12am

After last week's sailing World Champs finished Ireland has qualified 3 boats already for the 2016 games

Laser (James Espey)
49er (Ryan Seaton/Matt McGovern)
Laser Radial (Annalise Murphy)

All qualified quite comfortably in the end with the 49ers having the best result in 8th place. The boats are qualified so the sailors may change

Means we have a total of 8 athletes qualified already

Dodge · 30-09-2014 1:10pm

8 athletes to receive "rio" scholarships

http://forum.olympics.ie/sports/badminton/11197-rio-scholarships-announced.html

Chloe & Sam Magee (Badminton mixed doubles): Sanita Puspure (Rowing); Liam Jegou (Slalom canoeing), Bryan Keane (Triathlon), Lisa Kearney (Judo), Andrew Smith (Gymnastics) and Natalya Coyle (Modern Pentathlon).

The Rings The Flame · 11-11-2014 10:41am

Not fantastic results from the track cycling guys in Mexico. Still though it was our biggest ever team and quite a young one at that. Every reason to think we will improve on this significantly.

Anybody know what stage the velodrome being built in Ireland is at?

The Rings The Flame · 02-12-2014 10:40am

Well at long last the IRFU have decided to put together a men's 7s team. Too late for Rio but should be available for future olympics.

Saintly Scholar · 09-12-2014 10:20pm

The Rings The Flame wrote: »

Well at long last the IRFU have decided to put together a men's 7s team. Too late for Rio but should be available for future olympics.

I don't understand what took the IRFU so long but better late than never.

The Lost Sheep · 09-12-2014 11:20pm

The Rings The Flame wrote: »

Well at long last the IRFU have decided to put together a men's 7s team. Too late for Rio but should be available for future olympics.

Hard to see us ever catching up...

Saintly Scholar wrote: »

I don't understand what took the IRFU so long but better late than never.

We don't have any real proper history in playing 7s unlike a lot of the traditional big 10 test nations never mind the islander sides where 7s is so so big.
We have kept all our academy players playing 15 a side club rugby or now provincial A teams where in some countries the young academy players play quite a bit of 7s.

Then again 7s is now quite a specialist sport and you don't see guys playing a lot of both 7s and 15s and The IRFU want to keep players for the 15 man game

Saintly Scholar · 09-12-2014 11:29pm

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Hard to see us ever catching up...
We don't have any real proper history in playing 7s unlike a lot of the traditional big 10 test nations never mind the islander sides where 7s is so so big.
We have kept all our academy players playing 15 a side club rugby or now provincial A teams where in some countries the young academy players play quite a bit of 7s.

Then again 7s is now quite a specialist sport and you don't see guys playing a lot of both 7s and 15s and The IRFU want to keep players for the 15 man game

I can't see any of the top 30 Irsh internationals being in the 7's set up.

But then again neither do many other countries either.

We could have a great 7's set up if there is the resources put into it. We'll know after a few years.

The Lost Sheep · 09-12-2014 11:35pm

Saintly Scholar wrote: »

I can't see any of the top 30 Irsh internationals being in the 7's set up.

But then again neither do many other countries either.

We could have a great 7's set up if there is the resources put into it. We'll know after a few years.

They wont be near the 7s set up.

You will see guys currently playing club rugby in the All Ireland League(AIL) and possibly some fringe provincially contracted players as well as hopefully some players who can make it from the talent identification process and can jump from another sport

We could have an ok 7s side but again there isn't any real history of 7s and having played and refereed 7s at decent underage level and played a bit at adult level we will struggle as at the elite level it is a very different game to 15s

Saintly Scholar · 09-12-2014 11:41pm

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

They wont be near the 7s set up.

You will see guys currently playing club rugby in the All Ireland League(AIL) and possibly some fringe provincially contracted players as well as hopefully some players who can make it from the talent identification process and can jump from another sport

We could have an ok 7s side but again there isn't any real history of 7s and having played and refereed 7s at decent underage level and played a bit at adult level we will struggle as at the elite level it is a very different game to 15s

You know more about the 7's game than I do and you're probably right.

But I think its good that we're taking it seriously. Some of the tournaments have countries like Portugal, Nigeria and Kenya oartaking and fair play to them.

Surely we should be in the mix as well.

breffni bogballer · 09-12-2014 11:48pm

have we ever had a 7s side, wouldnt be a huge follower but cant remember ever seeing an irish 7s game?

The Lost Sheep · 10-12-2014 12:12am

Saintly Scholar wrote: »

You know more about the 7's game than I do and you're probably right.

But I think its good that we're taking it seriously. Some of the tournaments have countries like Portugal, Nigeria and Kenya oartaking and fair play to them.

Surely we should be in the mix as well.

The likes of Kenya and Portugal have invested hugely in 7s and are using it to help aid their 15 a side team as they don't have the numbers playing the full code game and with the 7s world series can have a group of 15 or so players playing professionally
We are a long way off qualifying for the 7s. We are entering the European championships at the bottom rung and will have to work our way up from the very bottom. It will be a long time before we are near to being in the mix at the top of the sport

breffni bogballer wrote: »

have we ever had a 7s side, wouldnt be a huge follower but cant remember ever seeing an irish 7s game?

There has been irish sides competing in the now defunct IRB 7s world cup which was held every 4 years from 1993 to 2013. We entered all but the last finishing 3rd in 1993 and never higher than 13th the other years.
The 93 side had internationals such as Paddy Johns, Eric Elwood, Mick Galway and other sides who competed in other world cups had a smattering of current or future internationals but was mainly guys who only were playing 7s for the world cup.

Dodge · 10-12-2014 10:48am

That 1993 WC saw most international sides contain 15-a-side internationals. 7s was a side game then. It's become way more specialised since then

The bottom line is that the IRFU didn't feel there was enough return for the outlay. It's a problem with all Irish sport - money.

breffni bogballer · 10-12-2014 11:46pm

thanks sheep, it will be a while till we are in the hunt for anything so

The Lost Sheep · 11-12-2014 1:46pm

Dodge wrote: »

That 1993 WC saw most international sides contain 15-a-side internationals. 7s was a side game then. It's become way more specialised since then

The bottom line is that the IRFU didn't feel there was enough return for the outlay. It's a problem with all Irish sport - money.

1993 was also in the amateur era and the game as just exploded since then.

breffni bogballer wrote: »

thanks sheep, it will be a while till we are in the hunt for anything so

It will. Only way is to have plenty of age grade competitions and have end of season(april/may) sevens competitions where all can compete and not just schools/clubs where there is a divide in underage competition in Ireland.
We need to build from the bottom up and hope interest builds from that so yes it will be quite a while before we are in the hunt for anything in relation to silverware at the top end of things

Dodge · 11-12-2014 2:13pm

Team leaders for each sport announced. McGinley for golf being the headline grabber

http://olympics.ie/summer-games/rio-2016/11577-the-olympic-council-of-ireland-today-announced-the-team-ireland-leaders-for-the-rio-2016-olympic-games.html

feargale · 25-12-2014 12:10am

Happy Christmas to all and every goid wish for 2015. I'm looking frward to Dan giving this place a kickstart early in 2015. And I'm looking forward to Ireland returning from Rio with 2-0-3.

Dan man · 29-12-2014 10:51pm

RIO2016

Olympic Medal Table Simulation

As you may know, I usually keep a track on how countries are doing in each Olympic cycle and I like to create an Olympic medals table simulation based on the most recent results at the World Championships in each Olympic event within the Olympic cycle. So here is the current state of play with the medals won at the most recent World Championships since London 2012.
*The table is 99% complete....the only Olympic event yet to contribute medals to the simulation table in this Olympic cycle is Women's Football (the FIFA Women's World Cup will be played June - July 2015).

2|China|30|25|28|83
3|Russia|26|24|35|85
4|France|20|11|19|50
5|Germany|19|18|14|51
6|Great Britain|11|11|16|38
7|New Zealand|10|4|5|19
8|Australia|9|18|10|37
9|Japan|9|11|11|31
10|South Korea|9|8|3|20
11|Netherlands|8|4|12|24
12|Hungary|8|4|7|19
13|Kazakhstan|7|4|2|13
14|Ukraine|7|3|10|20
15|North Korea|7|2|5|14
16|Jamaica|6|2|1|9
17|Czech Republic|6|1|2|9
18|Brazil|5|7|11|23
18|Italy|5|7|11|23
20|Kenya|5|4|3|12
21|Spain|4|8|11|23
22|Cuba|4|5|10|19
23|Canada|3|11|10|24
24|Poland|3|9|4|16
25|Iran|3|6|3|12
26|Serbia|3|4|5|12
27|Ethiopia|3|3|4|10
28|South Africa|3|1|3|7
29|Ireland|3|1|1|5
30|Colombia|3|1|-|4
31|Denmark|2|6|6|14
32|Croatia|2|5|4|11
33|Sweden|2|4|2|8
34|Azerbaijan|2|3|4|9
35|Slovakia|2|-|2|4
36|Greece|2|-|1|3
37|Armenia|2|-|-|2
38|Turkey|1|3|3|7
39|Romania|1|3|2|6
40|Bulgaria|1|2|-|3
41|Slovenia|1|1|4|6
42|Georgia|1|1|2|4
43|Thailand|1|-|4|5
44|Lithuania|1|-|3|4
44|Mongolia|1|-|3|4
46|Trinidad and Tobago|1|-|1|2
47|Albania|1|-|-|1
47|Austria|1|-|-|1
47|Gabon|1|-|-|1
47|Kosovo|1|-|-|1
47|Uganda|1|-|-|1
52|Argentina|-|3|3|6
53|Mexico|-|2|4|6
54|Chinese Taipei|-|2|2|4
54|Egypt|-|2|2|4
54|Uzbekistan|-|2|2|4
57|Switzerland|-|2|1|3
58|Cote d'Ivoire|-|2|-|2
58|Portugal|-|2|-|2
60|Belarus|-|1|9|10
61|Estonia|-|1|3|4
62|India|-|1|2|3
63|Finland|-|1|1|2
63|Indonesia|-|1|1|2
63|Israel|-|1|1|2
63|Malaysia|-|1|1|2
63|Nigeria|-|1|1|2
68|Algeria|-|1|-|1
68|Botswana|-|1|-|1
68|Jordan|-|1|-|1
68|Montenegro|-|1|-|1
68|Qatar|-|1|-|1
68|Vietnam|-|1|-|1
74|Norway|-|-|3|3
75|Latvia|-|-|2|2
75|Tunisia|-|-|2|2
75|United Arab Emirates|-|-|2|2
78|Belgium|-|-|1|1
78|Costa Rica|-|-|1|1
78|Djibouti|-|-|1|1
78|Dominican Republic|-|-|1|1
78|Fiji|-|-|1|1
78|Hong Kong|-|-|1|1
78|Moldova|-|-|1|1
78|Senegal|-|-|1|1
78|Singapore|-|-|1|1
78|Venezuela|-|-|1|1
Total|Medals|305|305|375|985

*For tennis I am using a simulation based on results at the 4 Grand Slam events of the season combined with the World Rankings.
*For golf I am using a simulation based on the 4 Major tournaments of the season (5 for women) combined with the World Rankings.

So, Ireland sitting quite nicely in 29th place with a respectable 3-1-1 total.
The Irish medals were contributed by the following:

GOLD Robert Heffernan (Men's 50km Walk)
GOLD Katie Taylor (Women's Boxing Lightweight -60kg)
GOLD Rory McIlroy (Men's Golf)
SILVER Jason Quigley (Men's Boxing Middleweight -75kg)
BRONZE Joe Ward (Men's Boxing Light-Heavyweight -81kg)

While I'm sure most of us would be delighted to achieve a similar medal haul from the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, we must start raising the bar higher with each Olympic cycle. Let's face it, the bar is very low right now and hopefully in future we can begin to emulate the wonderful success of similar small nations like New Zealand who are really putting some big nations to shame with their current position on the medals table (7th place, 10 golds and 19 medals in total). The likes of Denmark and Croatia are also filling up on medals of all colours across many sports so it shows with good planning, investment and strategic targeting of sports it's possible to have much success.

Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Comments