Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Dan man

ROAD TO RIO 2016:

Time for a brand new thread to discuss Irish Olympic prospects for 2016 and follow the progress of our prospective Olympians. After one of our most successful Olympic Games in London, a brand new Olympic cycle is underway and it's time to start looking forward to Rio 2016.
The Games of the XXXIst Olympiad will be upon us sooner than you think.... 1388 days and counting.
It's time we set off on the long Road to Rio.....

Dan man

To start off with I'm going to do a round-up of some Irish results from Olympic sports post-London 2012.


Irish modern pentathlete Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe won Ireland's first ever major international medal when he claimed bronze at the World Junior Championships in Drzonkow, Poland in early September. Arthur is only 20 and already has Olympic experience having come home in 25th place in London 2012. He will be a huge prospect for Rio 2016 if he can carry his current rate of progress forward over the next few years. He actually led the field going into the combined shoot and run event in Poland but he couldn't hold onto his advantage. However, he did hang on for a magnificent bronze medal....he is World Junior Bronze medallist, a great achievement for the Kilkenny man.


Arthur after his bronze medal presentation:






Ireland's junior showjumpers claimed gold at the European Junior Championships in Austria in mid-August. The team was comprised of Bertram Allen, Shannon McKenzie, Max O'Reilly-Hyland and Sven Hadley.
In further good news for Irish equestrian, our Young rider team won silver at the European Eventing Championships in Malmo, Sweden in August. As is the norm with Irish eventing, the team got off to a slow start, lying in a solid 5th position after dressage. The team then shot up to 3rd place after the cross-country element before pipping the French to the silver medal after the showjumping phase. The team was made up of Katie Nolan, Jessica O'Driscoll, David Hannigan and Shane Power.
Shane Power claimed 7th place in the individual rankings with Katie Nolan in 8th and individual rider Melanie Young in 13th place.
This is encouraging news for the sport in Ireland and hopefully Irish equestrian will continue to flourish over the next few years.

More news to follow soon....

Dan man

Ireland's two most successful Olympians in London 2012 look set to take different paths over the next 4 years. There is superb news for Irish Olympic fans with the breaking news that Katie Taylor will stay amateur in order to attempt to defend her Olympic crown in Rio in 4 years time.
Katie confesses that representing her country and winning medals is the ultimate achievement for her. It's a great boost to our medal chances for Rio 2016, even if it is premature to be talking of Olympic medals 4 years out from the Games and of course a huge amount can happen over that period of time.... still it'll be welcome news for most Irish fans who want to see her in Rio.


Katie Taylor with her Olympic gold medal:




Elsewhere, Olympic bantamweight silver medallist John Joe Nevin has hinted strongly that he is set to turn pro, but has of yet to sign any professional contract. More light will be shed on this over the coming days and weeks no doubt.


John Joe Nevin with his Olympic silver medal:

Dan man

Ireland's young boxers performed magnificently at the European Schoolboys Championships in Anapa, Russia in early October.
The team claimed 3 golds with Oliver McCarthy, James McGivern and Michael Nevin all claiming overall titles, 1 silver from John Sweeney and 6 bronze medals with Francie Stokes, Kieran Molloy, Brett McGinley, Darragh Murray, Nevan Fannon and James Clarke all claiming podium finishes. Only Russia's young boxers bettered Ireland's incredible haul of 10 medals.
Hopefully we'll see some of these young boxers coming into the senior fold over the next few years. Irish boxing will remain in good hands in the future it seems

KevIRL

Great stuff. Sticky this Schit Dan

Skid

Dan man wrote: »

Elsewhere, Olympic bantamweight silver medallist John Joe Nevin has hinted strongly that he is set to turn pro, but has of yet to sign any professional contract. More light will be shed on this over the coming days and weeks no doubt.

Yes, John Joe had announced on RTE that was signing a Professional contract with Amir Khan, but he appears to be having second thoughts

http://www.sportsnewsireland.com/athletics_irish/boxing-nevin-on-the-brink-of-u-turn787979/

As we revealed on SportsNews Ireland earlier in the week, John Joe Nevin is having second thought about his early October decision to turn Pro.

No final decision has been reached his trainer – and mentor – at Cavan BC had this to say in today’s ‘Irish Sun’ :

McKeown told SunSport: “I have been strongly advising him to stay amateur, but I wouldn’t try impact on his decision one way or the other.

“It’s his decision, but I’m delighted he looks to be staying amateur.

“He was training with me on Wednesday night. At that stage he told me exactly where he was standing but I think it’s up to him to make that announcement himself.

Great to see the 2016 thread up and running. Roll on Rio !

KevIRL

Bronze for Ireland in World Junior Triathlon today...

Dan man

KevIRL wrote: »

Bronze for Ireland in World Junior Triathlon today...

There sure was.... an excellent performance by young Mayo man Con Doherty to claim Ireland's first ever world championship medal in the sport of triathlon (just weeks after Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe claimed Ireland's first medal in modern pentathlon).
Con put in a huge effort in the bike leg and forged a lead over the main bunch and would ultimately secure him the bronze medal at the ITU World Junior Championships in Auckland, New Zealand. He was agonisingly close to silver but was beaten in a sprint finish by Frenchman, Simon Viain.
The result came as a bit of a surprise but is a huge boost not just to Con but to the entire sport in Ireland, which has been flourishing here in recent years.
Another exciting young prospect emerging in Irish Olympic sport.


Con Doherty battling hard to the finish line, picking up the World Junior bronze medal

Skid

Jason Smyth is to remain based in Florida with the Lance Brauman group. Hopefully that will be a boost to his long term chances of qualifying for the Rio Olympics (and defending his Paralympic titles)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/20036569

feargale

Google Kate Hoey Boxing to follow what seems to be a developing controversy re. Northern Irish participation in the Irish Olympic team.

Cosmo Kramer

Nice to see the build up to 2016 starting early - really looking forward to following the various Irish prospects over the next four years.

Disappointing though to see that Joanna Mills has switched allegiance to the GB athletics team, however it is understandable after the way she was shafted through sheer nepotism by the AAI in terms of the London 2012 relay squad.

In boxing it will be great to have Katie on our side again - I'd imagine it will be a tougher challenge next time around but I'm sure she'll be well up for it. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, are introduced to men's boxing next time around - there has been talk of an element of professionalism being allowed in which might not necessarily be a good thing from an Irish perspective.

Great to see a fellow Mayo man doing so well in junior triathlon - I'm sure he will be just one of many new names we will be getting familiar with on this forum between now and Rio.

The_Kew_Tour

Great work by all to keep these updates.

Some very encouraging results since the Summer games.

I would love to think we have 10/15 medal prospects going to Rio. Not saying that we will get that many medals, but that should be the numbers with at least some chance of medal.

The Irish team should be aiming to try and beat London's medal tally. I know that will not be easy, but lets set the bar higher.

Clareman

Surely the target for all sports between now and Rio will be to have more people qualify via the A Standard. Once people have qualified then they can go after medals.

Dan man

Different sports will have different targets in the coming years.... for some, simply to qualify an athlete would be a huge achievement and a huge step forward from a very small base.

Others will look to increase the numbers of qualifers, and beyond that some sports will be looking to develop into medal winning potential.

Sailing in London 2012 went from being a sport where we have many qualifers on a consistent basis to being a sport where we genuinely were contending to medal. Rio 2016 will hopefully see this potential be strengthened and deliver with medal success.

On the athletics front, for London 2012, Ireland took a big step forward in terms of the unprecedented number of athletes we had achieving the A qualifying standard. The next progression would be to maintain those numbers but having more athletes with potential to win medals. Rob Heffernan showed his potential in London with an agonising 4th place finish in the 50km but he was the only prospect for success in 2012 in athletics. For Rio 2016 there is scope for optimism with a few promising young athletes on the horizon. A medal may not be forthcoming in Rio in this sport for Ireland but certainly you could see a situation where we could have athletes challenging for top finishes in a few disciplines. But 4 years is a long time in sport and you never know what can happen.

Ireland has made promising strides in both modern pentathlon and triathlon. Both of those sports have limited scope for medals as there are only 2 sets of medals up for grabs in each, but these sports have gone from having little or no Irish representation on the elite international stage, to having athletes capable of top finishes on a consistent basis in the most prestigious events...all in the space of just a few years.
There's every chance we could have a serious medal contender in Rio in one of these sports (Modern Pentathlon looking particularly promising).

There are also promising developments in Irish cycling with a focus on identifying and developing talent for the 2020 Olympics. This process has been in place for over a year now and should start paying off over the next few seasons. Even without this programme, the current crop of emerging juniors are achieving success on the road with Ryan Mullen recently winning silver in the European Junior Time Trial (Road) and Sean Downey performing well in the junior road race also.
Even at grassroots level, the increase in participation levels in cycling in Ireland has been phenomenal over the last couple of years, to my mind anyway. There is noticeably a big increase in the number of people out cycling on our roads and also there seems to be a big increase in the number of local races being organised....the increase in interest has been great.

Sorry, I've started rambling on now, back to the point on whether we can better our performance from London, well there's no reason why we shouldn't be aiming to to even better in Rio. The early signs 4 years out from the Games is that we have the talent to achieve huge success in 2016...some of our athletes will achieve success even when up against the odds in terms of funding, lack of facilities, lack of access to top coaching or whatever. Others have the talent to achieve but particularly in very technical sports will need a big input of investment to enable them to reach their potential and to help identify talent for the future.

Dan man

Maria McCambridge and Paul Pollock claimed the Irish national titles earlier today at the 33rd edition of the Dublin Marathon.

Maria took 1 second off her previous best time to set a new P.B. of 2:35:28hrs....very pleasing considering this course is not the most ideal for setting fast times.


Maria crossing the finish line to claim the national marathon title:



Paul Pollock (Annadale Striders A.C.) took the men's national title in a time of 2:16:30hrs, a very respectable performance by Paul, adding to his national half-marathon title from September. Paul placed an excellent 34th overall and 5th best European runner at the recent World Half-Marathon Championships in Bulgaria earlier this month. He's still only 26 so there's plenty of scope for improvement over the next few seasons and I'm sure he'll have Rio 2016 in his sights.


Paul Pollock claiming the National Marathon title:

Silvio.Dante

feargale wrote: »

Google Kate Hoey Boxing to follow what seems to be a developing controversy re. Northern Irish participation in the Irish Olympic team.

It seems to be an internal debate and understandable given the special circumstances in the North.

But it wouldn't stop Paddy Barnes still boxing for Ireland...

https://audioboo.fm/boos/981435-callers-react-to-kate-hoey-s-calls-for-an-ni-boxing-governing-body

Silvio.Dante

Great to have this thread as its re-focussed me. For the last 6 weeks I've been a bit all over the palce. The Olympics were so god in London and I felt veery de-motivated when it was all over. but maybe thats to be expected in the immediate aftermath of it ending.

Thank you Dan for the commitment and I'll be reading, posting and enjoying the build up

Just a quick observation. Rio will be a whole new bball game for our Athletes/Parathletes in 2016. Conditions and climate will be vey different from London.

I hope Annalise Murphy, as one example will get good opportunities to sail the intended courses so that she has a feel for the winds etc...:)

feargale

Silvio.Dante wrote: »

It seems to be an internal debate and understandable given the special circumstances in the North.
But it wouldn't stop Paddy Barnes still boxing for Ireland..

No but it seems to have developed, e.g. into a call for two bodies governing every sport in N.I., one Irish and one British.

Silvio.Dante

feargale wrote: »

No but it seems to have developed, e.g. into a call for two bodies governing every sport in N.I., one Irish and one British.

Or are they sggesting athletes choose between Team GB and Team Ireland at an early stage..?

feargale

Silvio.Dante wrote: »

Or are they sggesting athletes choose between Team GB and Team Ireland at an early stage..?

They are suggesting that athletes should be able to choose in each and every sport, citing the Belfast Agreement in support.

feargale

Earlier this year the World Wall Ball Association, with 33 member countries, was founded by a number of associations governing similar wall handball games, including, prominently, the GAA. Most of these countries were represented at the recent World Handball Championships in Citywest. One-wall handball has been accepted as a demonstration sport at the 2013 World Games, and the ultimate ambition is to have it included in the Olympics. Some contributors to threads are suggesting seeing it as a medal event at Rio in 2016, but clearly that is not going to happen. What I want to know is this - is it too late for inclusion as a demonstration sport in 2016? If and when it does get included it will clearly be another great medal opportunity for Ireland - at least until the Russians and the Chinese get in on the act! You can be sure that the GAA, unlike the IRFU a propos rugby sevens, will not look this gift horse in the mouth!

Dan man

Just an update on how our underage football teams have been performing lately, not entirely related to the Rio 2016 thread I know, but as the men's Olympic football tournament is an U-23 competition for the most part I thought we should cover Irish underage performances in the lead up to Rio 2016, as well as the women's football team (underage and senior level).....

Men's U-17 European Championships 2013, First Qualifying Round
Group 10: Top 2 teams qualify for Second Qualifying Round
Host nation: Macedonia
Sept.29 Republic of Ireland 1-1 Sweden
Sept.30 Romania 1-1 Macedonia
Oct.1 Republic of Ireland 4-1 Macedonia
Oct.1 Sweden 2-1 Romania
Oct.4 Romania 0-2 Republic of Ireland
Oct.4 Macedonia 0-4 Sweden

Group 10|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q Republic of Ireland|3|2|1|0|7|2|+5|7
Q Sweden|3|2|1|0|7|2|+5|7
Romania|3|0|1|2|2|5|-3|1
Macedonia|3|0|1|2|2|9|-7|1


Republic of Ireland and Sweden qualify for Second Qualifying Round

---

Men's U-19 European Championships 2013, First Qualifying Round
Group 5: Top 2 teams qualify for Second Qualifying Round
Host nation: Luxembourg
Oct.11 Germany 5-0 Macedonia
Oct.11 Republic of Ireland 5-2 Luxembourg
Oct.13 Germany 5-0 Luxembourg
Oct.13 Macedonia 0-1 Republic of Ireland
Oct.16 Republic of Ireland 2-2 Germany
Oct.16 Luxembourg 0-1 Macedonia

Group 5|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q Germany|3|2|1|0|12|2|+10|7
Q Republic of Ireland|3|2|1|0|8|4|+4|7
Macedonia|3|1|0|2|1|6|-5|3
Luxembourg|3|0|0|3|2|11|-9|0


Germany and Republic of Ireland qualify for Second Qualifying Round.

---

Women's U-17 European Championships 2013, First Qualifying Round
Group 9: Top team in each group and 5 best 2nd place teams qualify for Second Qualifying Round
Host nation: Belarus

Oct.1 Republic of Ireland 3-0 Belarus
Oct.1 Finland 11-0 Georgia
Oct.3 Republic of Ireland 7-0 Georgia
Oct.3 Belarus 0-3 Finland
Oct.6 Finland 1-2 Republic of Ireland
Oct.6 Georgia 1-4 Belarus

Group 9|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q Republic of Ireland|3|3|0|0|12|1|+11|9
Q Finland|3|2|0|1|15|2|+13|6
Belarus|3|1|0|2|4|7|-3|3
Georgia|3|0|0|3|1|22|-21|0


Republic of Ireland and Finland qualify for the Second Qualifying Round.

---

Women's U-19 European Championships 2013, First Qualifying Round
Group 1: Top two teams in each group qualify for Second Qualifying Round
Host nation: Serbia

Oct.20 Republic of Ireland 3-0 Cyprus
Oct.20 Serbia 15-0 Latvia
Oct.22 Republic of Ireland 11-0 Latvia
Oct.22 Cyprus 0-10 Serbia
Oct.25 Serbia 2-3 Republic of Ireland
Oct.25 Latvia 0-1 Cyprus

Group 1|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q Republic of Ireland|3|3|0|0|17|2|+15|9
Q Serbia|3|2|0|1|27|3|+24|6
Cyprus|3|1|0|2|1|13|-12|3
Latvia|3|0|0|3|0|27|-27|0


Republic of Ireland and Serbia qualify for Second Qualifying Round.

Dan man

feargale wrote: »

What I want to know is this - is it too late for inclusion as a demonstration sport in 2016?

I'm not entriely sure about the procedure for allowing official demonstration sports at the 2016 Olympics...my initial thoughts would be that this process could potentially be carried out at next year's IOC meeting of delegates in Buenos Aires, where they will also vote in a new IOC president as well as deciding the host city of the 2020 Olympic Games.

However, even after that, I think it is possible to include events "unofficially" such as the IOC allowed for in Beijing 2008 when they gave the green light to have a Wushu tournament taking place in the city during the Olympics. I think there may be contractual restrictions imposed by the IOC on host cities to forbid them from holding other national or international events in the host city during the Olympic Games. But the IOC gave Beijing special dispensation to hold Wushu tournaments at an Olympic venue during the Games but did not recognise Wushu as an official demonstration sport for 2008.

Dan man

Finally, the news that we've all been waiting for over the last few weeks.... Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin will remain amateur and has just signed up for British Lionhearts for the WSB (World Series of Boxing) tournament starting Novemeber 15th. Joe Ward also joined the newly formed team. It'll be welcome news to most Irish Olympic fans who want to see JJ Nevin go for gold in Rio.

Silvio.Dante

Dan man wrote: »

Finally, the news that we've all been waiting for over the last few weeks.... Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin will remain amateur and has just signed up for British Lionhearts for the WSB (World Series of Boxing) tournament starting Novemeber 15th. Joe Ward also joined the newly formed team. It'll be welcome news to most Irish Olympic fans who want to see JJ Nevin go for gold in Rio.

That is great news for john Joe aswell as the team. I wouldn't have trusted Amir Khan as far as I'd throw him.

The World Series sounds very interesting...

Dan man

Silvio.Dante wrote: »

That is great news for john Joe aswell as the team. I wouldn't have trusted Amir Khan as far as I'd throw him.

The World Series sounds very interesting...

This will be the third season of the WSB....it has been an interesting development by the AIBA (World Boxing Federation). The good thing is that it allows amateur boxers a chance to earn some decent money whilst remaining amateur and eligible for the Olympics. It's also like professional boxing in that there are no vests or protective headgear worn by competitors and there are 5 rounds of 3 minutes each and it is scored like professional boxing.... I'm really interested to see how Joe Ward will do. Let's not forget that he's a major medal hope for us going forward to Rio 2016.

Silvio.Dante

Joe is an exciting prospect as he's got talent to burn.

I hope these tournaments will be televised...

The_Kew_Tour

Great news about JJN. I really thought he made wrong move moving up Pro.

Think he got sense.

Dan man

More excellent news in Irish amateur boxing.... Amy Broadhurst (Dealgan B.C.) has won the European Junior Championship title in Poland this week. She is the only Irish female boxer after Katie Taylor to have won a gold medal at the European Championships. She came from 1 point down going into the last round to defeat Russian girl Svetlana Khilchenko 16-15 to claim the gold medal. Another exciting prospect in Irish amatuer boxing and like Katie Taylor, Amy is trained by her dad Tony.

Ireland also claimed another two bronze medals at the junior/youth event as Sally Carrig reached the semi-finals in her junior weight division, losing the semi 17-10 against a Hungarian girl and Niamh Folan also reached the semis in her youth weight division.
The success stories in Irish amateur boxing just keep coming

Clareman

Well done Sally, her father was a great boxer in his youth and puts an unbelievable amount of work into the Ennis Boxing Club.

The_Kew_Tour

Great stuff. To win in Poland against Russian in Poland was no doddle either.

KevIRL

V good article (full page) in the Sindo today on Arthur Lannigan-O Keeffe

ecoli

KevIRL wrote: »

V good article (full page) in the Sindo today on Arthur Lannigan-O Keeffe

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics-already-aiming-for-gold-in-rio-3290697.html

Silvio.Dante

ecoli wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics-already-aiming-for-gold-in-rio-3290697.html

Kev was right. A great insight into what make him tick...:)

feargale

Nobody deserves gold more than Paddy Barnes. He'll be 29 at Rio. Is that generally past one's best ?

Dan man

feargale wrote: »

Nobody deserves gold more than Paddy Barnes. He'll be 29 at Rio. Is that generally past one's best ?

Yes, Paddy was so close to beating that Chinese guy who went on to claim a second successive Olympic title...only beaten on countback.

No reason why Paddy can't be at his best by Rio at 29 which can be a prime age even in amateur boxing (every athlete is different though so there's no way of knowing). But I wouldn't be worried about his age at all, it shouldn't really be too much of an issue for him...form, mental strength and the desire to stick at it will more likely decide whether he will be in shape to succeed in Rio 2016.

Cosmo Kramer

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/1114/1224326572095.html

One of the most positive things so far since London is that our medal winners all look likely to be going back to have another shot at it - no reason at this stage why all five can't go to Rio. In the past medal wins have often been followed by retirement or, in boxing, moving to professional level.

Throw in the likes of Joe Ward and Annalise Murphy among others that we already know of and I'm sure many more that we probably aren't even familiar with yet and we could be sending our strongest ever olympic team to Rio.

Dan man

A great weekend for Ireland and 2012 Olympian Martyn Irvine at the Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow.
Martyn claimed a superb silver medal in the men's scratch race yesterday evening and has followed that success by qualifying for the final of the men's 4km Individual Pursuit.....this guarantees him at least another silver medal as he rides off for gold later today.

Dan man

Irvine has to "settle" for silver in the men's 4km Individual Pursuit Final. Lasse Norman Hansen of Denmark, the 2012 Olympic champion in men's Omnium had the beter of him in the gold medal ride off....but a second silver medal for Martyn and a superb World Cup performance in Glasgow.


Irvine showing off one of his two silver medals he won this weekend:

Silvio.Dante

Thats a fantastic performance from Martyn Irvine. He should be really proud of that weekends work...:)

Dan man

Ireland's youngest Olympian at London 2012, Sycerika McMahon has won a bronze medal at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Chartres, France today. She set 2 new Irish records today on her way to third place in the final of the women's 50m breastroke, the event she won European Long-Course silver in back in May.
She was also part of the Irish women's 4x50m freestyle relay team that set a new Irish record, finishing in 8th place in the final.
Great first day for Ireland at the European Short Course Championships!

Dan man

In other Irish Olympic news, London 2012 Olympic triathlete, Aileen Reid (previously Morrison) is targeting Rio 2016 and has changed her training set-up to help her make further improvements. She is switching her training to Australia from her previous base in Lisburn, Northern Ireland and will train alongside some top-class triathletes and is also switching to a new coach, located out in Australia. On the face of it, looks like a very encouraging move by Aileen. In 4 years time Aileen will be 34 so Rio will likely be her last shot at Olympic glory.
Positive news.

Dan man

More good news from the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Chartres, France....Sycerika McMahon set a further 2 Irish senior records today, both in the women's 100m Individual Medley. Her new Irish record of 1:01.24mins set in this evening's semi-final was enough to advance her through to tomorrow's final as 7th fastest qualifier.
Over the course of today, she took over a second off the previous Irish record held by Grainne Murphy.
Sycerika is really a special athlete, she gets the best out of herself almost every time she goes into the pool at a major event.


Sycerika with her bronze medal from the 50m breastroke:

Dan man

Another good day for Ireland at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Chartres, France. No medals today but some superb performances, particularly from 2012 Olympians Sycerika McMahon and Barry Murphy.
Sycerika's remarkable meet continued with 3 more Irish senior records from 3 races today....she is something special and when she goes into the pool you just expect her to come back in a new Irish record every single time.
Her assault on the Irish record books today came in the form of the women's 100m breaststroke and the 100m Individual Medley.
She set new Irish records in the 100m breaststroke heats and semis to qualify for tomorrow evening's final as 3rd fastest qualifier and another prospect for an Irish medal in that event tomorrow.
She backed that up by placing a creditable 7th in the 100m Individual Medley final in, you guessed it, another Irish record time!!

Barry Murphy made the final of the men's 50m breaststroke after setting a new Irish record in the semi-finals earlier in the day. He yet again bettered that time to set another Irish record when placing 6th in the final this evening. Murphy has made a positive start to his new training set up back home at the National High Performance Centre in Dublin having been previously based in America for the last few seasons.

Brendan Hyland set a new Irish Junior record in his 200m butterfly heats this morning also, so a fantastic day for the Irish swimming team in France. Best of luck to Sycerika tomorrow...I'm predicting more silverware for the young Irish star.

Dan man

In the World Series of Boxing yesterday, Irish boxers Joe Ward and Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin had contrasting fortunes when they lined out for their team British Lionhearts.
Joe Ward was adjudged to have unanimously won his light-heavyweight clash against his Italian opponent as all three judges scored the match 50-45 in favour of Ward.
His Mullingar team-mate however lost out on a split-decision to Serbian opponent Branimir Stankovic in their lightweight clash. The 3 judges scored the contest as 48-47, 48-47, 47-48 and as you can see the Serb was adjudged to have edged it from two of the judges.

Silvio.Dante

Thank you Dan for the updates.

I see Sycerika broke the Irish record in the 100M today just being edged out for a medal...:)

Silvio.Dante

All the very best to out Cross Country teams this weekend...:)

I still think it could be an Olympic Sport...:(

Dan man

Fionnuala Britton retained her European Senior Women's Cross-Country title in Budapest this afternoon.
Ireland also won the Senior Women's team gold medal capping an amazing weekend for the Irish.
Linda Byrne had a superb race to finish 8th, helping the team to the gold medal...the other team members were Ava Hutchinson (20th), Lizzie Lee (23rd), Sarah McCormack (36th) and Sarah Louise Treacy (42nd).


Fionnuala Britton and her team-mates with their gold medals:

Silvio.Dante

You just got in ahead of me Dan

Many congratulations to Fionnuala and the team on doubling up on Golds. Great day allround...

The Irish Athletics team took a good battering from supporters and people in the media alike for their showing in the Olympics but the performance in Hungary this weekend was terrific and they deserve a huge amount of credit.

I wonder if Cross Country was added to the winter and summer games how would Ireland perform? Fionnuala left some top athletes in her wake today.

Silvio.Dante

It would make an excellent Winter Olympic sport...