Irelands most likely Olympic 2012 Medals

swim2

Dan man wrote: »

Sycerika is safely into tomorrow's final of the 200m Freestyle, qualifying 3rd fastest in a time of 2:02.32mins.

It is brilliant to see Sycerika doing so well!! great hope for the future.

The rest of the team are heading to Malaysia tomorrow for altitute training before the world swimming championships, Sycerika will join them once she finishes (after hopefully winning a few more medals)
It is also brilliant to see so many swimmers doing well who are based and train in the Island of Ireland and dont have to live abroad to train
I hope two do qualify for the Olympics at the event, I would say Barry and Grainne Murphy. Hope too for Sycerika and also Chris Bryan.
Irish team head for Malaysian training camp

Thursday, 7 July 2011 15:08
The Irish senior swimming squad will depart for Malaysia this Saturday 9 July, for a ten-day training camp in advance of the FINA World Swimming Championships, taking place in Shanghai from 16-31 July.
There they will prepare for the championships along with their coaching and support team including high performance director Peter Banks.

The World Championships represent the pinnacle of the year for high performance swimmers with Irish team members involved in open water swimming (20 and 22 July and pool swimming (24 to 31 July). The event also represents an opportunity for early qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games.


The Irish team is comprised of six swimmers: Barry Murphy (Aer Lingus SC), who trains full time with Club Wolverine in Michigan, USA; Gráinne Murphy (New Ross and Limerick High Performance Centre), who will look to repeat her success at the 2010 European Championships; 2008 Olympian Melanie Nocher (Ards SC), who is based at Loughborough University; and relay swimmers Clare Dawson (Bangor SC) and Sycerika McMahon (Leander SC).

Chris Bryan (Ennis and SI's High Performance Centre, Limerick) will compete in the 5k and 10k open water events. Bryan is the first ever Irish swimmer to compete in open water at a World Championships, having achieved qualification for Shanghai by completing earlier this year at the European Open Water Swimming Cup in Antalya, Turkey.

Swim Ireland's expectations at this meet are for one top-eight performance, two top-sixteen performances and three top-twenty-four performances, as well as the achievement of FINA Olympic A standards by two Irish swimmers at the meet.

Dan man

In showjumping news, Ireland retain their second place position in the Nations Cup series after a solid 5th place in the latest leg in Falsterbo, Sweden. The hosts finished in 3rd place, but they are not in the super league which means that Ireland effectively finished in 4th place in terms of league points. The Irish team was made up of combinations that have not previously rode in this level of competition, so to finish on 16 faults, within one fence of second place is a creditable result.
http://www.horsesportireland.ie/show-jumping/splaine-names-team-for-fridays-swedish-nations-cup-clash.10554.html

Dan man

Another fantastic performance from Sycerika McMahon, claiming a silver medal in the 200m Freestyle in a time of 2:00:61mins. Coming from third place on the final turn, Sycerika almost edged out the Russian winner in a tight finish. Sycerika's and Ireland's third medal of these champs!!

Sparks

Derek's currently in 9th place on 49/50 (first six are all 50/50, next 17! are on 49/50) along with Wayne Byrne (12th, 49/50) and Dave Malone (15th, 49/50). All to play for going into day two...

Dan man

Sparks wrote: »

Derek's currently in 9th place on 49/50 (first six are all 50/50, next 17! are on 49/50) along with Wayne Byrne (12th, 49/50) and Dave Malone (15th, 49/50). All to play for going into day two...

I was keeping an eye out for their progress today....so far so good for the guys. It's fantastic that all three have given themselves an opportunity to make the final, where those quota places will be won and lost.

Dan man

Ireland's Derek Burnett finished in a very strong 9th position at the shotgun World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia this weekend. He missed out on a place in the trap final (top 6) by a single target. This performance shows that if Derek earns a quota place for the Olympics he is more than capable of going for a podium finish. The field was very strong and Derek to his credit finished ahead of the three current Olympic medallists. But in shooting, it is very much about who is in form on the day with little separating the best from the rest, and with scores of shooters going for those quota spots, it is a difficult goal to attain. Derek missed only 4 targets out of 125 but unfortunately even this level of accuracy found him falling just short of a place in the top 6 shoot-off. This was the final shotgun world cup of the season and his next chance to book his ticket to London 2012 will be at the World Championships in Belgrade in September.
Ireland's other shooters performed very well, with Wayne Byrne placing 29th missing just 6 targets and David Malone a further two targets adrift in 58th place.

Sparks

Dan man wrote: »

But in shooting, it is very much about who is in form on the day with little separating the best from the rest, and with scores of shooters going for those quota spots, it is a difficult goal to attain.

To be fair, you could replace "shooting" there with any other Olympic sport at all and still have an accurate statement...

...and don't forget, Burnett has european championship, world cup and world championship medals in his display cabinet - he's proven over and again that he's got what it takes.

Dan man

Sparks wrote: »

To be fair, you could replace "shooting" there with any other Olympic sport at all and still have an accurate statement...

...and don't forget, Burnett has european championship, world cup and world championship medals in his display cabinet - he's proven over and again that he's got what it takes.

Yes but the point I am making is that in shooting, the margins of error are so fine that if you are not on your best form then you have little chance of coming out on top. In some other sports, for example athletics, an athlete may not be on top of his/her game but can still make it out on top. In shooting, there are so many competitors on a similar level of ability that you absolutely need to be at your very best in order to win or even make it into the shoot-out. This is a credit to the sport.

Dan man

A solid performance by Natalya Coyle in the Modern Pentathlon World Cup Final in London today finishing in 20th place out of 36 finalists. This was also a test event for the Olympics so it will give her valuable experience ahead of the Games next year. She is making good progress and qualification should be within her grasp next season.

Dan man

A strong Irish team finished joint second (alongside Germany and G.B.) in the fifth leg of the F.E.I. Nations Cup of Showjumping. Aachen is always regarded as one of the most testing courses so this was a very good result, meaning that Ireland retain their second position in the series and are well clear of a fast developing scrap for survival at the bottom of the table. Hopefully the great success of the Irish team this year will culminate in an Olympic qualifying berth at the European Championships in the autumn.
Here is a list of tonights results followed by the 2011 Nations Cup Table:

1) Netherlands 12 faults
=2) Ireland 16 faults
Shane Breen/Carmena Z 8/0
Shane Sweetnam/Amaretto Darco 0/4
Denis Lynch/All Inclusive NRW 4/0
Billy Twomey/Tinka's Serenade 8/4
=2) Great Britain 16 faults
=2) Germany 16 faults
5) France 20 faults
6) United States 32 faults
7) Denmark 85 faults
8) Belgium Eliminated
STANDINGS:
1) Netherlands 39.5pts
2) IRELAND 30.0pts
3) Germany 27.0pts
4) Great Britain 25.0pts
5) France 22.0pts
6) Belgium 21.0pts

---

7) U.S.A. 18.5pts
8) Denmark 7.0pts

Dan man

Here is an update on how our triathletes are doing in their quest for Olympic qualification:
(top 50 triathletes in the Olympic qual. table qualify)
Aileen Morrison is performing superbly and is truly world class with potential of a medal in London next year. Currently, she is ranked no.14 in the Olympic qualifying table.
Emma Davis, who competed in Beijing faces an uphill battle to return to the Olympic stage as she currently lies 97th...not exactly where she would like to be at this stage, mainly her low rank is due to lack of racing and an injury-hit campaign.
Gavin Noble currently occupies 56th position, just outside the qualification slots. However, I am very confident (barring injury) that Gav will qualify as he has had some powerful results of late including an I.T.U. World Cup silver medal in Japan.
Bryan Keane lies in 138th position, which doesn't reflect his potential at all. He missed a chunk of qualifying tournaments due to a horrendous injury and has only recently been able to race on the circuit again. It's a shame as he is a super athlete.
The qualification period runs up until May next year so more time to gain all-important qualifying points.

swim2

Chris Bryan will this week take part in the World swimming championships in Shanghai China.
He will be the first Irish swimmer to represent Ireland in Open Water at a World event.
The event times are:
Wednesday 20th July 2am GMT, 10KM
Friday 22nd July, 3am GMT, 5KM

I think most races will be on Eurosport.

The top 10 in each race will automatically qualify for the Olympics in London next year. After that qualification will be through other events during the summer and early Autumn.

Dan man

A huge night tonight (early morning in China) for Irish marathon swimmer Chris Bryan. A top 10 finish in the 10km open water swim at the World Aquatic Championships in Shanghai will see him qualify for the Olympic Games. Reports are that conditions will be tough in terms of water temperature and air humidity but at least the swim takes place 9am in the morning in Shanghai so that should help limit these factors.
I am looking forward to his performance as young Bryan is showing promising form this year. Having said that, all does not hinge on this performance as he will have other opportunities to qualify for London 2012.
Good luck to Chris, his race starts 2am Wednesday morning Irish time.

Dan man

Chris Bryan placed a disappointing 33rd in the 10km open water swim at the World Champs in Shanghai. He was well behind those top 10 qualifying slots for the Olympics also. He will have his work cut out for him to qualify a place for London. He should do better in the 5km event, although that is not an Olympic event.

swim2

Am gutted for Chris Byran.

It was an extremely tough race.

He wont get another chance this summer to qualify for the Olympics, but hopefully he can qualify next year for it.
A lot of those competing were a couple of years older than Chris with more experience

swim2

Sounds like a really rough competition




CHRIS Bryan will today make history by becoming the first Irishman to dip into the Open Waters at the World Championships -- and for the 21-year-old, it's only the beginning.
A trip to Eindhoven earlier this year has changed the Clare man's whole outlook on the 10km Open Water event and he now believes he has the drive and knowledge to make it to London 2012.
Bryan, the first of the Irish team to take part at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai, competes in the 10km today and 5km on Friday knowing that he's in for a real battle, having taken some punishment at the European championships last year.
"It's a tough sport -- last year at the Europeans I got out of the water and had a black eye," Bryan said. "I went to Eindhoven and trained alongside some of the best in the world and I realised there and then that I had to move up a level.
"I could see that although I was good in an Ireland context, I had to go to a new level.
"When I was there I did 120km in six days; it opened my eyes to the training that was required. I have since had good results in the European Cup series, I was leading it at one stage and in a couple of weeks I have the final of the European Cup in Holland.
"I am aiming to go to the Olympics and after this event there will be two qualifying events where I hope to get my place -- unless I can finish in the top 10 here."
Bryan takes pride in the fact he's Ireland's first man at this level and is determined to make his own mark.
"I find the 1500m in swimming up and down the pool boring, I like the challenge of the 10km and 5km, so much more than swimming -- the tactics, the navigating and every course is different," he added.
Meanwhile, Grainne Murphy has signed a sponsorship deal with a major swimwear brand which the Wexford native hopes will aid her in the Olympics next summer.
The 18-year-old star, has signed a two-year deal with Arena that will provide technical support until 2013. Murphy confirmed her promise by winning three gold medals and a bronze at the 2009 European juniors and last year, she claimed silver in the 1,500m freestyle at the senior Euros.
She will be looking to add to her growing medal haul at the World Championships in Shanghai later this week.

swim2

Chris Byran this morning finished 8th in the world swimming championships in Shanghai, China.
It was the 5k event, although not an olympic event, is a fantastic result for Chris!!
He is the first Irish swimmer to get to a world championships for open water!

Dan man

swim2 wrote: »

Chris Byran this morning finished 8th in the world swimming championships in Shanghai, China.
It was the 5k event, although not an olympic event, is a fantastic result for Chris!!
He is the first Irish swimmer to get to a world championships for open water!

Great swim there by Chris, it's not often we can boast a swimmer in the top 8 in the world (even if it's not an Olympic event). I suppose we have been spoiled of late what with Grainne and Sycerika claiming medals on the international stage. Well done Chris, hope all goes well for him in the run in to London.

Dan man

A disappointing week for Ireland at the World Swimming Championships. A big shock that Grainne Murphy has failed to make the final in her best event, the 1500m Freestyle. This could well end our chances of having a swimmer into the final in Shanghai. Yesterday, Barry Murphy was way off his best in his main event, the 100m Breastroke and failed to even reach the semis. Melanie Nocher also endured a frustrating heat this morning in the 100m Backstroke, finishing about a second off her entry time and does not progress to the semis. It has been a bad championships so far for Ireland and I would be lying to say otherwise. Hopefully Grainne can bounce back in the 800m Free later in the week as this now presents our last realistic chance of making a final. There has been some positive news in that young Sycerika McMahon continues to impress with another Irish junior record in the 100m fly. She also had a fantastic swim yesterday in the 400m free placing a creditable 24th overall. However, so far, not so good for team Ireland.

swim2

Very disappointed for Grainne that she didnt make the final. I guess the only consolation is that the 1500m is not an Olympic distance for women(it is for men) so maybe now she will concentrate more on the 800m.
hopefully the rest of the week the irish swimmers will do better as it has been a disappointing start to the pool events. Chris's 8th place the in 5k open water was still great

Dan man

With exactly a year to go until the start of the London Olympics, time to look forward to how the Irish team is shaping up and how they might compare with our teams from past Games.
This will be our 20th appearance at the Summer Olympic Games and hopefully we will see many of our current Olympic stats revised. (Note the medal records I refer to are those listed by the I.O.C. )
Our most successful Olympics in terms of gold medals won came in Atlanta 1996, with Michelle Smith controversially winning all of our medals. With 3 golds and a bronze medal, Smith propelled Ireland up to a respectable 28th placing on the medals table. Despite all of the subsequent controversy associated with the Irish swimmer, she retains her Olympic medals and as such, this officially remains our most successful Olympics.
However, our most successful Games in terms of total medals won at a single Olympics, came way back in 1956 in Melbourne where Ronnie Delaney’s gold in the blue riband event, the 1500m and a silver and three bronze in boxing helped the Irish team to finish with a record haul of 5 medals, a total we have neither equalled nor surpassed in the 13 Olympics since.
So will Ireland revise these records? Well we at least have a chance of matching that impressive medal haul from Melbourne and again our boxers will likely be crucial if we are to achieve this feat.
In terms of equalling or, dare I say, surpassing those 3 gold medals from the Atlanta Games, whilst probably unlikely, it is not an impossible scenario. Let’s see….Katie Taylor would be our leading gold medal contender and between them the likes of Paddy Barnes, Joe Ward, and sailors Annalise Murphy and duo Peter O’Leary and David Burrows may deliver at least another. Team Ireland would probably also look to equestrian to throw up a major success if we are to challenge our record gold total.
We have so many talented athletes on the international scene at the minute, with Olive Loughnane (20km Walk), Aileen Morrison (triathlon) and Rob Heffernan (20km/50km Walk) in with decent chances of making the podium as well as the amazing swimmer Grainne Murphy (800m Freestyle).
This may be the Games that Ireland finally gets that so far elusive equestrian medal, quite astonishing considering our proud tradition in this sport. In doing so, Ireland would add only a fifth sport to the list of sports in which we have one an Olympic medal (the others being athletics, swimming, boxing and sailing). Aileen Morrison in the triathlon may also help revise this weak stat on the Irish Olympic record books.
All in all, it's looking like we will see the Irish flag raised in London on more than one occasion and those organiser better make sure they have the orchestral version of Amhran na bhFiann handy as I'm sure it will be needed!!

Dan man

Another disappointing day for Ireland at the World Swimming Championships. Melanie Nocher, Barry Murphy and Grainne Murphy all fail to progress from their heats. It has been nothing short of a disaster for the Irish team in Shanghai....the goal was to qualify at least two swimmers for the Olympics as well as achieving one top 8 performance and 2 top 16 finishes. In the pool, not one Irish swimmer has advanced in their heat, a very worrying stat with the London Olympics just around the corner. All swimmers apart from Sycerika McMahon have been considerably outside their entry times. Also, another worrying fact is that none of our swimmers have achieved an Olympic qualifying time at the meet which could have a major impact on their chances at the Olympics. It is not ideal to have to peak early in the year to achieve qualifying times and then peak again come the Olympics. While the future of Irish swimming is secure with superb athletes of the calibre of Grainne, Sycerika and Chris Bryan, it doesn't appear that we will have much success in London 2012. I seriously hope I am very wrong about this.

swim2

I completely agree. The pool competition from an Irish point of view has been a disaster. I would have maybe expected it a few years ago when there was not as much investment into swimming in Ireland. But with 2 high performance centres in Limerick and Dublin and having Irish swimmers competing in a lot more events abroad you would hope they would do better.
it is worrying coming so close to the olympics and questions will have to be asked....
hopefully they will learn from this and do some serious re thinking

european countries dont seem to have fared too well at all at the world championships.
on a positive note Chris Byran was not well known, and as a result there was not as much of an expectation on him to do well. but he did very well and is competing this weekend in portugal for the european open water cup...

Dodge

In some ways I think this result will help Murphy. I posted earlier in the thread that there was already too much pressure on her. maybe now people don't expect her to medal

Hopefully she can learn from this meet and kick on and reach her potential at London

footie_fanatic

i would imagine once again most our medals will come from boxing, and I hope katie Taylor wins one, shes a true hero

Dan man

Ireland's open-water swimmer Chris Bryan again underlined his future potential in the sport by placing a fantastic 9th at the Olympic test event in London at the weekend. An extremely strong field took to the water in Hyde Park, London in order to gain valuable experience of the Olympic course. Bryan will have to race in the Olympic qualifying event in Portugal next year, where 15 qualification spots are up for grabs. This is by far his best result over the 10km Olympic distance and the water temperature was ideal for him. His steady improvement would suggest that he has a good chance of qualifying for the Games, although he will have to contend with much more intimidating temperatures at the qualification event in Portugal in June of next year. Great news.

Dan man

Irish triathlete Aileen Morrison placed 18th in the Olympic test event in London last weekend. Another steady performance, she was left behind a bit on the swim leg and had to work much harder than she would like on the bike leg. Nevertheless, a decent performance and given the fact that some of those who placed above her will not be competing at next year's Olympics (due to the quota per nation rule), it shows that she will be well in the mix in 12 months time. Also, Gavin Noble was putting in a storming performance in the men's event until a crash on the bike leg put an end to his hopes. The crash involved at least 3 other athletes and was due to the greasy surface after a heavy downpour. Nevertheless, his race up until the incident was very encouraging as he kept up with the lead group on the swim and was looking comfortable towards the front on the bike. To his credit he completed the course.

swim2

Ireland's Chris Bryan will fly the flag for Ireland at the upcoming Open Water Swimming Championships which are taking place this week in Eilat, Israel.

Bryan, who has shown great progression this year competes in the Men's 10k event on Wednesday 7th September (11am local time) and the Men's 5k event on Saturday 10th September (11am local time)

Dodge

Just an updated from some qualifiers I posted earlier in thread

Hockey - EuroHockey Nations Championships
Irish mens team finished 5th, with top 4 qualifying for Olympics. There’s a ‘repechage’ tournament next year

3 Day Eventing - European Championships
Again, Ireland finished 5th, just missing out on Olympic qualification. IF Ireland is to get a team there, it will be by qualifying 5 individuals (which may happen). Some individuals will certainly qualify

Athletics – World Championship
Deirdre Ryan achieved the Olympic A standard in the High Jump and finished 6th. Ciaran O’Lionaird finished 10th in the 1,500m. He’s talking about maybe medalling in London (optimistically IMO). Alistair Cragg was 15th in the 5,000m and has said he’s aiming for the Marathon in London


Some big Upcoming Events

Boxing (Mens) (September 22: World Championships, Baku, Azerbaijan)
Team selected;
49Kg - Light-flyweight): Paddy Barnes 2008 Olympic Bronze, 2010 European Gold
52Kg - Flyweight): Michael Conlon
56Kg - Bantamweight): John Joe Nevin 2009 World Bronze
60Kg - Lightweight): David Oliver Joyce
64Kg - Light-welterweight): Ray Moylette 2008 World Youth Gold, 2011 European Gold
69Kg - Welterweight): Roy Sheehan (St Michael's Athy, Kildare)
75Kg - Middleweight): Darren O'Neill (Paulstown, Kilkenny) 2010 European Silver
81Kg - Light-heavyweight): Joe Ward (Moate, Westmeath) 2011 European Gold
91Kg - Heavyweight): Ken Egan (Neilstown, Dublin) 2008 Olympic Silver, 2010 European Bronze – at Light heavy
91+Kg - Super-heavyweight): Con Sheehan (Clonmel, Tipperary)

Should be noted too that some here have beaten European medallists just to become Irish champion. The likes of Ross Hickey, Tyrone McCullough etc

Show Jumping (Sept 13-18: European Championships, Madrid, Spain)
Ireland will be looking to medal, team to be selected soon

swim2

Chris Bryan finished 11th in this mornings Open Water European Cup race, in a very good time of 1:53.31, 13 seconds off the winner