Well Done Irish Women in Europa!!!

thirtyfoot

The Irish women did us proud in Prague, great performance to finish 4th, in the 2nd division of European athletics. Great run by Joanne Cuddihy in the 400m and also a NR for Deirdre Ryan in the HJ, two relay records, and all this without our top athlete DOR. Great stuff! Men did well to get promoted back up from the division below also.


Women
1. Belarus 126.5
2. Italy 116
3. Czech Republic 102
4. Ireland 86
5. Finland 82
6. Belgium 78
7. Switzerland 67
8. Latvia 61.5

Common Sense

Let me add my congratulations and also the men on gaining promotion. 1 thing has been bothering me about the selection. At last week's NI championships, Mary McLoone had a good long/triple jump double, winning in 6.22 and 12.41 respectively. Mary has been showing very good form all year - yet she was overlooked for both of these events by Sarah Barry (Welsh girl recently qualified through grand parentage) and the promising Kelly Proper. Barry's TJ best is only a few cms better than Mary's while Mary has the longest long jump in the country so far this year. At the weekend, Sarah jumped 11.74 and Kelly 5.74. Surely, athletes should be selected based on current form. (Mary has also missed out for years to another import Taneisha Robinson who has now declared for England).

Pherekydes

Proper jumped 6.10m in the Irish Schools', the best legal jump this year. All of the performances in the NI champs were very wind assisted. I'm not sure about Taneisha, but I think she may be injured/retired. She did not represent England in the CG this year. While she was active, she was Ireland's best.

Some of the selections were a bit odd on both teams, but many stalwarts had their funding removed. You reap what you sow.

Common Sense

Taneisha, as I understand it, is now an English citizen and is no longer eligible to represent Ireland. Her English passport arrived just too late to compete for England in the Commonwealths. My objection was more to the selection of Sarah Berry over Mary than Kelly Proper. (Her schools winning jump was, in actual fact, 6.08 - to the best of my knowledge there was no wind guage). With regard to Sarah Berry, there seems to be very little between her and Mary, yet as soon as she qualifies through grand parentage, she is given immediate selection. Mary has been competing for many years and, in fact, won the National Triple Jump championship in 2004, a title she was unable to defend in 2005 due to injury. What kind of message is this sending out to our home grown talent? She has three TJs over 12 metres this season - the best legal jump being 12.40 at the AAI Games (+ 1.8). All of these jumps have come in the last month to six weeks so she is obviously in good form and is consistent.

Pherekydes

Common Sense wrote:

Taneisha, as I understand it, is now an English citizen and is no longer eligible to represent Ireland. Her English passport arrived just too late to compete for England in the Commonwealths. My objection was more to the selection of Sarah Berry over Mary than Kelly Proper. (Her schools winning jump was, in actual fact, 6.08 - to the best of my knowledge there was no wind guage). With regard to Sarah Berry, there seems to be very little between her and Mary, yet as soon as she qualifies through grand parentage, she is given immediate selection. Mary has been competing for many years and, in fact, won the National Triple Jump championship in 2004, a title she was unable to defend in 2005 due to injury. What kind of message is this sending out to our home grown talent? She has three TJs over 12 metres this season - the best legal jump being 12.40 at the AAI Games (+ 1.8). All of these jumps have come in the last month to six weeks so she is obviously in good form and is consistent.

I stand corrected about Kelly's 6.08m, though there were wind gauges there and all jumps and sprints were legal. Regarding Robinson, she competed in the 2002 CG, representing England, using the same loophole that Sonia wanted to use. Afterwards, she represented Ireland again. I agree that there is an element of wanting to sweeten things for newly declared athletes, to the detriment of long timers like McLoone.

Common Sense

Mutual stand corrected society - Slow Coach, I stand corrected if you say they wind guage was in operation at the long jump. Just wind reading wasn't mentioned in the results. However, in fairness, the wind readings that are mentioned (for the sprints) are legal.