Irelands most likely Olympic 2012 Medals

Dan man

James Espey finished 20th in race 4 and with the discard rule coming into play, Espey is able to discard his score of 29 from race 2 and he now sits in 24th place overall and is more importantly best ranked of those unqualified nations. Superb racing by James so far.

Dan man

Here is a table which outlines the nations that James is in competition with in terms of battling it out for Olympic qualification:
Notes:
The top 12 nations in this list at the end of competition will have earned an Olympic quota place for their country.
Sailors are ranked such that the lower the score, the better the result. For example, if a sailor finishes first in a race, then they add just 1 point to their total. If they place 50th then they add a whopping 50 points to their tally, thus damaging their potential of a good overall result.
Each sailor can discard one result after the first 10 races after which the field will be split into gold and silver fleets. Discarded scores will be displayed in brackets ().
A black flag (disqualification) will result in the region of a 57 point penalty.


Position|Country|Race 1|Race 2|Race 3|Race 4|Total
1|IRELAND (James Espey)|7|(29)|3|20|30
2|Thailand|9|14|12|(17)|35
3|Lithuania|23|14|7|(24)|44
4|Portugal|16|21|9|(35)|46
5|Malaysia|15|(45)|13|23|51
6|Puerto Rico|(45)|12|36|5|53
7|Tunisia|23|(33)|24|6|53
8|Czech Republic|(26)|20|10|26|56
9|Venezuela|9|(39)|14|34|57
10|Colombia|19|35|(46)|5|59
11|Ukraine|(47)|3|32|26|61
12|Serbia|(48)|15|28|23|66
13|Trinidad & Tobago|30|(57)|17|19|66
14|Japan|(27)|21|24|21|66
15|South Africa|27|23|18|(43)|68
16|Montenegro|(51)|27|27|16|70
17|Peru|26|11|(44)|40|77
18|Moldova|35|(42)|31|17|83
19|El Salvador|6|32|50|(51)|88
20|Mexico|(44)|42|33|22|97
21|Seychelles|34|26|(46)|42|102
22|Dominican Republic|35|29|42|(47)|106
23|Monaco|38|(46)|25|46|109
24|Cook Islands|41|(51)|47|46|134
25|Egypt|(51)|48|44|51|143
26|Kyrgysztan|(53)|50|48|52|150
27|Bulgaria|47|54|54|(55)|155
28|Iran|52|54|(55)|54|160

Dan man

Sanita Puspure finished 5th in the A final of the women's single sculls at the Rowing World Cup in Belgrade today. Good performance by her, hopefully she can build on this result and challenge for Olympic qualification.

Dan man

At the Star World Sailing Championships, Irish duo Peter O'Leary and David Burrows have placed 4th in the second race, moving them into the overall lead. Great stuff.
In other sailing news James Espey finished 19th and 17th in today's 2 races at the Laser World Championships to remain well on course for Olympic qualification. More updates on his overall situation later.

Dan man

James Espey is in 28th place overall after 18th and 17th place finishes in today's 2 races at the Laser World Championships in Boltenhagen. On the Olympic qualifying list he lies 2nd best nation and has a 63 point cushion over the 13th best nation. The top 12 earn Olympic quota places for London so it really looks good for Espey from a qualification viewpoint now at this stage.

Here is a table which outlines the nations that James is in competition with in terms of battling it out for Olympic qualification:
Notes:
The top 12 nations in this list at the end of competition will have earned an Olympic quota place for their country.
Sailors are ranked such that the lower the score, the better the result. For example, if a sailor finishes first in a race, then they add just 1 point to their total. If they place 50th then they add a whopping 50 points to their tally, thus damaging their potential of a good overall result.
Each sailor can discard one result after the first 10 races after which the field will be split into gold and silver fleets. Discarded scores will be displayed in brackets ().
A black flag (disqualification) will result in the region of a 57 point penalty.


Position|Country|Race 1|Race 2|Race 3|Race 4|Race 5|Race 6|Total
1|Portugal|16|21|9|(35)|3|14|63
2|IRELAND (James Espey)|7|(29)|3|20|18|17|65
3|Thailand|9|14|12|17|(26)|15|67
4|Tunisia|23|(33)|24|6|10|9|72
5|Lithuania|22|14|7|24|6|(30)|73
6|Czech Republic|26|20|10|26|15|35|97
7|Trinidad & Tobago|30|(57)|17|19|7|36|109
8|Japan|27|21|24|21|17|(52)|110
9|Puerto Rico|(45)|12|36|5|43|15|111
10|Ukraine|(47)|3|32|26|17|34|112
11|Venezuela|25|38|17|22|(43)|16|118
12|Colombia|19|35|(46)|5|34|27|120
13|Montenegro|(51)|27|27|16|19|39|128
14|South Africa|27|23|18|43|17|(45)|128
15|Malaysia|15|45|13|23|40|(46)|136
16|El Salvador|6|32|50|(51)|15|42|145
17|Serbia|48|15|28|23|(57)|33|147
18|Seychelles|34|26|(46)|42|23|22|147
19|Mexico|(44)|42|33|22|22|29|148
20|Peru|26|11|44|40|34|(55)|155
21|Moldova|35|(42)|31|17|35|37|155
22|Monaco|38|(46)|25|46|32|41|182
23|Dominican Republic|35|29|42|47|(57)|39|192
24|Cook Islands|41|(51)|47|46|48|44|226
25|Kyrgysztan|(53)|50|48|52|41|51|242
26|Egypt|51|48|44|51|(52)|52|246
27|Bulgaria|47|54|54|(55)|51|54|260
28|Iran|52|54|(55)|54|55|51|266

Dan man

Ireland has another Olympic qualifier with the news that James Espey has made the gold fleet at the World Laser Sailing Championships in Boltenhagen. He cannot finish outside the top 12 of those nations not yet qualified for London thus earning a quota spot for Ireland to sail this event at the Olympics. Very well done to James, he has been racing consistently at this regatta and never looked in any danger of not making the Olympic qualifying positions.

Dan man

Here is the latest update for the battle for Olympic qualification in the Men's Laser. James has now secured a quota place for Ireland as the fleet has been divided into gold and silver fleets. James has made the gold fleet and thus cannot drop outside the top 12 nations of those who have not yet qualified for London. Therefore there will be no need to update this table any further beyond today's racing.
Notes:
The top 12 nations in this list at the end of competition will have earned an Olympic quota place for their country.
Sailors are ranked such that the lower the score, the better the result. For example, if a sailor finishes first in a race, then they add just 1 point to their total. If they place 50th then they add a whopping 50 points to their tally, thus damaging their potential of a good overall result.
Each sailor can discard one result after the first 10 races after which the field will be split into gold and silver fleets. Discarded scores will be displayed in brackets ().
A black flag (disqualification) will result in the region of a 57 point penalty.


Position|Country|Race 1|Race 2|Race 3|Race 4|Race 5|Race 6|Race 7|Race 8|Total
1|Thailand|9|14|12|17|(26)|15|12|17|96
2|IRELAND (James Espey)|7|(29)|3|20|18|17|23|20|108
3|Portugal|16|21|9|(35)|3|14|18|35|116
4|Lithuania|22|14|7|24|6|(30)|(35)|16|119
5|Tunisia|23|(33)|24|6|10|9|24|27|123
6|Ukraine|(47)|3|32|26|17|34|5|10|127
7|Trinidad & Tobago|30|(57)|17|19|7|36|15|34|158
8|El Salvador|6|32|50|(51)|15|42|8|12|165
9|Puerto Rico|43|9|57|21|41|20|36|8|178
10|Venezuela|25|38|17|22|(43)|16|36|29|183
11|Colombia|19|35|(46)|5|34|27|28|39|187
12|Japan|27|21|24|21|17|(52)|33|49|191
13|Malaysia|15|45|13|23|40|(46)|42|21|199
14|Moldova|35|(42)|31|17|35|37|20|26|201
15|Mexico|(44)|42|33|22|22|29|26|29|202
16|Czech Republic|56|55|35|30|6|43|17|22|208
17|Montenegro|(51)|27|27|16|19|39|37|46|211
18|Serbia|48|15|28|23|(57)|33|25|40|212
19|South Africa|27|23|18|43|17|45|(51)|45|218
20|Seychelles|34|26|(46)|42|23|22|38|43|227
21|Peru|26|11|44|40|34|55|26|(57)|236
22|Monaco|38|46|25|46|32|41|19|(50)|247
23|Dominican Republic|35|29|42|47|(57)|39|29|31|252
24|Cook Islands|41|(51)|47|46|48|44|44|31|301
25|Kyrgyzstan|(53)|50|48|52|41|51|50|49|340
26|Egypt|51|48|44|51|(52)|52|42|52|340
27|Iran|52|54|(55)|54|55|51|43|53|362
28|Bulgaria|47|54|54|(55)|51|54|55|53|368

Dan man

At the Star World Sailing Championships in France, Ireland's Peter O'Leary and David Burrows have dropped back to third place overall after a 12th place finish in today's race. The scores are very tight at the top and the Irish lads are right up there with the best in the world. All to play for.

Skid

Many thanks for all of these updates, Dan man, you are doing great work.

It really demonstrates how much effort goes into just qualifying for the Olympics. For every athlete who makes it to London there are many more near misses. Hopefully we can swell the ranks of the team in the coming weeks.

Dan man

Skid wrote: »

It really demonstrates how much effort goes into just qualifying for the Olympics. For every athlete who makes it to London there are many more near misses. Hopefully we can swell the ranks of the team in the coming weeks.

Indeed, making the Olympics in this day and age takes a monumental effort and an unthinkable level of dedication so anyone who on the Olympic team wins my respect. It's always very unfortunate to see anyone miss out narrowly, not because they were a let-down, but because I can see how much time and commitment these guys invest in their chosen disciplines.

Very good news obviously about James Espey, I'd have high hopes for the 470 duo also when their qualification event gets underway shortly. I make it that we have 43 athletes on the team now and should get a fair few more onto that total by the end of the various qualification deadlines.

Dan man

At the Men's Star World Sailing Championships in Hyeres, France, the Irish team of Peter O'Leary and David Burrows continued to perform well and placed 7th in race number four. Their consistency means that the pair remain in third place behind Olympic champions Iain Percy/Andrew Simpson and just one point behind the World champion duo from Brazil.
Here is the provisional results:
http://www.starworlds2012.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=169&lang=en

However, if you take the discard score into account you get a more accurate picture of things and the current standings looks as follows (top 10):

Position|Country|Points
1|Great Britain|8
2|Poland|9
3|IRELAND|14
4|Brazil|15
5|Switzerland|19
6|Denmark|23
7|Greece|23
8|France|25
9|Germany|30
10|Norway|31



As you can see, O'Leary and Burrows still remain 3rd if you take into account the discard rule and are very much in the hunt of silverware. It's a rest day tomorrow for Star fleet sailing so no action until Thursday.

Dan man

At the Men's 49er World Sailing Championships, the Irish duo Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern placed 18th in race 5 and followed this with a superb victory in race 6. This means they move up to 41st position overall but they will not be happy with their current placing. Still, much more racing to come so there is plenty of scope to improve their ranking.

Dan man

At the World Championships for Modern Pentathlon Ireland's Natalya Coyle suffered a bitter blow by placing 13th in her qualification heat with only the top 12 advancing to Saturday's final. This could prove to be a very unfortunate result in terms of Natalya's Olympic hopes as she would have hoped to reach the final where mega points are up for grabs.
Nevertheless the large positive for her is that this is not a definitive blow to her Olympic chances just yet as a good result in the World Cup final will help put her Olympic dream back on track but today's disappointment will mean that her workload has been made considerably harder now in terms of securing a London 2012 berth.
Hoping that Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe will have better luck in his heat tomorrow. He is in a fairly similar situation to Natalya so a place in the final here will help to ease his anxiety.

Dan man

Very exciting times for Irish Sailing as the Irish duo of Peter O'Leary and David Burrows are in bronze medal position at the Men's Star World Championships with the competition coming to a climax with tomorrow's final race. The Irish team are on 26 points after they discarded today's result (18th place from race 5) meaning they have a 3 point advantage over the 4th placed team from Poland. Here is a link to the current standings:

http://www.starworlds2012.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=170&lang=en

If the Irish lads bring home silverware from this competition, confidence will be sky high ahead of the Olympics, where they will race in very familiar waters in Weymouth, a place where Peter in particular has experienced huge success in the recent past. Best of luck to them tomorrow, would be amazing for Irish sailing to get a crew onto the podium.

Elsewhere, at the World Laser Championships for men in Boltenhagen, Germany, Ireland's James Espey finished the competition in 37th place overall, a best ever result for the 28-year-old Belfast sailor.

Dan man

Just to catch up on some triathlon news, Ireland's Gavin Noble helped to cement further his place in the qualfying positions in the Olympic rankings list with a solid 25th place finish at the ITU World Cup Race in Huatulco, Mexico last weekend. Gavin now sits in 43rd place in the Olympic rankings simulation and with 55 spots to be allocated from this list he is in a fairly comfortable position as the close of the qualification period fast approaches (May 31st). One more good result will ensure his Olympic place but the smart money would be on him making London now at this stage.

K_1

In Canoe Slalom, the European Championships started today in Augsberg, Germany. In the Mens K1 heats, Eoin Rheinisch and Ciaran Heurteau and both trying to get one of the 2 spots for qualification for the Olympics - only one boat per country can compete.

Rheinisch was 17th in the heat, Heurteau 23rd. However only 2 of those ahead of Rheinisch are from a country without a boat qualified, and 3 (4 inc. Rheinisch) ahead of Heurteau.

Dan man

K_1 wrote: »

In Canoe Slalom, the European Championships started today in Augsberg, Germany. In the Mens K1 heats, Eoin Rheinisch and Ciaran Heurteau and both trying to get one of the 2 spots for qualification for the Olympics - only one boat per country can compete.

Rheinisch was 17th in the heat, Heurteau 23rd. However only 2 of those ahead of Rheinisch are from a country without a boat qualified, and 3 (4 inc. Rheinisch) ahead of Heurteau.

Decent start for both Rheinisch and Heurteau, I presume the scores do not carry forward to the next round so still everything to play for. There will be a course change for the semi-finals and final.

Dodge

Scores don't carry forward

You can see full details of the qualifying runs here;
http://webfiles.kanu-schwaben-augsburg.de/2012/kanuslalom/Euro%202012/Quali%20K1M.pdf

Rheinisch would need to make up less than a second on the Slovakian

Dodge

Katie Taylor's route to Olympic qualification;

Taylor

Last 64; Bye
Last 32; (JOUINI)Tunisia/( CANEDO da ROCHA)Portugal
Last 16; Colombia/Kazakhstan/Spain/Armenia
Last 8; Croatia/Taipei/Romania/Mongolia/Hungary/Nepal/India/Bulgaria

Draw was seeded, Taylor seeded one. Bulgarian is seeded 8. No other seeds in her path
http://www.iaba.ie/images/C75WW601.pdf

Dan man

Dodge wrote: »

Scores don't carry forward

You can see full details of the qualifying runs here;
http://webfiles.kanu-schwaben-augsburg.de/2012/kanuslalom/Euro%202012/Quali%20K1M.pdf

Rheinisch would need to make up less than a second on the Slovakian

But as the scores don't carry forward this is not the case. As far as I'm aware it is a clean slate in the next round. The first two runs were qualification runs and the best of the two runs were used for each paddler. All of the qualifiers usually start the next round on zero but after this each score is accumulative. I'm not 100% certain as I can't see the qualification rules for this event but this is the usual procedure.

Dodge

Dan man wrote: »

But as the scores don't carry forward this is not the case. As far as I'm aware it is a clean slate in the next round. The first two runs were qualification runs and the best of the two runs were used for each paddler. All of the qualifiers usually start the next round on zero but after this each score is accumulative. I'm not 100% certain as I can't see the qualification rules for this event but this is the usual procedure.

Its 100% that the scores don't carry forward, and I posted that above. I mean he'll need to improve by a second to beat the Slovakian's time. I know different course set up etc. Just pointing out the dfference betweent them in the heats

Dan man

Nothing official just yet but I make it that Hannah Craig has qualified Ireland a place at the London Olympics for the women's K1 Slalom. Unofficially Hannah has finished 25th overall and whilst she does not make it into the semi-finals she has done enough to earn Ireland an Olympic quota place. She ensured that Ireland has finished best nation of those not yet qualified for London and with 2 quota places on offer at this event she has fulfilled the qualification criteria.
Hope to hear some confirmation of this excellent news very soon.

Dan man

The results of the second run are now official so that is very good news for Hannah and indeed Ireland. We should hear confirmation very soon that Ireland will be awarded a quota spot for women's K1 at the London 2012 Olympics. If so Ireland will have 44 qualifiers now for the Games.

Dodge

Dan man wrote: »

Nothing official just yet but I make it that Hannah Craig has qualified Ireland a place at the London Olympics for the women's K1 Slalom. Unofficially Hannah has finished 25th overall and whilst she does not make it into the semi-finals she has done enough to earn Ireland an Olympic quota place. She ensured that Ireland has finished best nation of those not yet qualified for London and with 2 quota places on offer at this event she has fulfilled the qualification criteria.
Hope to hear some confirmation of this excellent news very soon.

After the first round she was 29th, with Helen Barnes the other Irish kayaker the closest challenger. The Dutch and Swiss girls were next in line

Hannah's 2nd run was even faster and would've been top 10 if not for 4 penalty points. She finished 4 seconds ahead of the Swiss and Ukraine girls to qualify

Well done Hannah

Dan man

In terms of the men's K1, Ireland are one of 4 countries still in with a chance of claiming one of the remaining 2 Olympic quota positions.
The other nations are Slovakia (3 paddlers still in the competition), Russia and Croatia. Ireland also has 2 paddlers left in the semi-finals, Eoin Rheinisch and Ciaran Heurteau. Hopefully between the two of them we will have a finisher in the quota positions but it will certainly be difficult. Best of luck to the lads tomorrow.

Dodge

I've combined the times for the first two runs of the 5 main competitors (as this is hwo socring works in the semis). Hope for Eoin as he comes out on Top

IRL1 93.43 92.93 186.36
Croatia 95.17 91.4 186.57
Slovakia 94.85 92.09 186.94
Russia 93.82 93.53 187.35
IRL2 93.78 97.75 191.53

As you can see though a second covers the top 4. Will be very tight

Dan man

At the Men's Star World Sailing Championships there was disappointment for Peter O'Leary and David Burrows as they slipped out of the medal positions in the final race to finish 4th overall (7 points behind the medals). They finished 14th today, a result which unfortunately they had to count due to yesterday's 18th place finish in race 5, costing them a place on the podium. Nevertheless it is hugely encouraging to see the Irish team do so well with the Olympics on the horizon. A little more consistency and they could do very very well in London. Well done to the Star duo, hopefully they can go one better in Weymouth for the Olympics.

CoachDudie

Great stuff in the canoeing, hopefully one of the lads get in too. Not a sport we watch a lot in Ireland but at the Olympics every event has some excitement.
And of course it's always possible to get close to the medals as we've seen previously.

Dan man

Triathlon Ireland have been pointing out that although Gavin Noble is currently sitting pretty in the Olympic rankings, he will have to endure a very nervous couple of weeks as his place in London is far from certain:

http://www.triathlonireland.com/index.php?id=107&nid=756

My money is still on him making the team.

Dan man

At the Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Rome there was disappointment for Ireland's Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe as he failed to make the final on Sunday. He dropped from 12th place to 14th in the final event (combined shoot and run) meaning he did not finish amongst the top 12 qualifying positions in his heat.
Similarly to Natalya Coyle in the women's event, this narrow miss has made his task of Olympic qualification a lot harder now. He will need a very strong showing at the World Cup Final later this month, where a top 3 placing amongst pentathletes not yet qualified for London will be enough to earn him a quota place. Otherwise he will need to finish as high up as possible in that event in the hope to overhaul those ahead of him in the Olympic rankings.
Elsewhere, Eanna Bailey finished 19th in his heat and set a new swim PB in the process. Well done Eanna.
No matter how things pan out (good or bad) for our pentathletes this time round, Ireland has a very bright future with this current crop of talented youngsters.
If the current rate of progress is maintained then we could hope to have serious contenders for Rio 2016.