Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Dodge

Both Irish boxers in action today in the afternoon session (starts at 4pm our time).

O'reilly is 7th fight in. Gardiner is 13th.

O'Reilly boxes v Mongolia. Gardiner versus Ukraine.

Dodge

http://www.sportswomen.ie/mary-cullens-oiympic-dream/

Mary Cullen has a race set up for her to qualify at 5k in Sligo. Great thinking, hope it works out

Dodge

O'Reilly won his last 16 fight. Fights the lad from Azerbaijan now. Winner goes to Rio

gordongekko

Gardiner won aswell

Dodge

gordongekko wrote: »

Gardiner won aswell

Fights a guy from Moldova, who beat the Russian, in the semi final. Still unlikely but he's done well to get this far

IABA also confirmed that Moylette will go to Venezuela for the final AIPB/WSB/pro qualify

walshb

O'Reilly still can qualify even if he loses in his QF on Thursdsy providing his conqueror wins the tournament. Yet to be confirmed, but 5 places available, with 5th place going to the man beaten by the tournament winner. Dean Gardner will find it tough to qualify! If both get through that makes 8 or 9 I believe?

Dodge

McIlroy has pulled out of the team.

Team will be (in order of ranks) Lowry and McDowell or Harrington or Seamus Power.

On the women's side Stephanie Meadow has dropped out of the ranks. She needs points quick (or gofers to pull out...)

OverRide

Dodge wrote: »

McIlroy has pulled out of the team.

Team will be (in order of ranks) Lowry and McDowell or Harrington or Seamus Power.

On the women's side Stephanie Meadow has dropped out of the ranks. She needs points quick (or gofers to pull out...)

You could tell he was delighted to have this excuse,the zika virus
He was never comfortable with standing under the tri colour

Dodge

I'd say his concerns were more about Nike than what flag he represented, but yeah, he was never too interested in the Olympics. No problem with that

Dodge

walshb wrote: »

O'Reilly still can qualify even if he loses in his QF on Thursdsy providing his conqueror wins the tournament. Yet to be confirmed, but 5 places available, with 5th place going to the man beaten by the tournament winner. Dean Gardner will find it tough to qualify! If both get through that makes 8 or 9 I believe?

Just seeing this. It's confirmed now that whoever loses the QF to the winner gets the final spot. Hopefully O'Reilly wins but in one way he's lucky as the Azerbaijani lad will be more likely to fight in the final than some others (for whom qualification is the only goal). Hopefully it doesn't matter of course.

Gardiner fights a guy from Moldova who knocked out his Russian opponent in the QF. He was behind on the scorecards. The winner of that faces the winner of Italy v the US. From results in other tournments, all 4 of these are about the same level. There isn't one stand out. The Italian also lost to the Azerbaijani fighter in the Euro qualifier (as did Dean)

We currently have 6 men and 1 woman qualified in boxing.

Strazdas

OverRide wrote: »

You could tell he was delighted to have this excuse,the zika virus
He was never comfortable with standing under the tri colour

Don't think he'll do much to enamour himself to ROI fans with this decision. It's obvious he just didn't want to be seen parading behind the tricolour or having to stand for the Irish anthem if he won.

Dodge

Strazdas wrote: »

Don't think he'll do much to enamour himself to ROI fans with this decision. It's obvious he just didn't want to be seen parading behind the tricolour or having to stand for the Irish anthem if he won.

calm down with this type of stuff. There's no evidence of any of this. He could have picked to go there under the GB flag but he chose to go with Ireland instead

Now he doesn't want to go at all. Lets not make more out of the decision than needs be

Joe_ Public

Dodge wrote: »

calm down with this type of stuff. There's no evidence of any of this. He could have picked to go there under the GB flag but he chose to go with Ireland instead

Now he doesn't want to go at all. Lets not make more out of the decision than needs be

If he didn't really want to go, I'd have preferred if he'd just came out with it like Adam Scott did, but either way I'm not bothered. Just not bothered at all.

In separate news, any word on how O'Reilly got on today? Or is he due in the ring yet? Can't figure anything out from aiba site.

Dodge

Today is a rest day in Baku. He's in action tomorrow on the early shift (10am our time)

Schedule here; http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/05/C58-C58D0623.pdf

He's 13th in, so that's about 1pm

Oldira

Strazdas wrote: »

Don't think he'll do much to enamour himself to ROI fans with this decision. It's obvious he just didn't want to be seen parading behind the tricolour or having to stand for the Irish anthem if he won.

Dont really agree. He has stood under and in fact raised the tricolour at golfs World Cup so I doubt thats the issue. The fact is the Olympics are simply not on his radar. He would have grown up dreaming of winning the Open not an Olympic medal. Also I would say Nike probably let it be known they would rather he did not be seen wearing other gear.
I honestly dont think its politics kust money. He had no interest in the Ryder Cup at the beginning as well remember and there was no tricolour involved there.

Joe_ Public

Dodge wrote: »

Today is a rest day in Baku. He's in action tomorrow on the early shift (10am our time)

Schedule here; http://d152tffy3gbaeg.cloudfront.net/2016/05/C58-C58D0623.pdf

He's 13th in, so that's about 1pm

Ah yeah, my mistake. Are they 3 or 4 hours ahead? I thought a 1300 start was 0900 here but maybe it's just a 3 hour difference?

Chivito550

Oldira wrote: »

Dont really agree. He has stood under and in fact raised the tricolour at golfs World Cup so I doubt thats the issue. The fact is the Olympics are simply not on his radar. He would have grown up dreaming of winning the Open not an Olympic medal. Also I would say Nike probably let it be known they would rather he did not be seen wearing other gear.
I honestly dont think its politics kust money. He had no interest in the Ryder Cup at the beginning as well remember and there was no tricolour involved there.

Whatever his motive, Zika virus is a feeble excuse. He went on a holiday recently to Barbados, a high risk zone, and he lives in Florida, another red alert zone. The sad thing is that some people will believe this claptrap and opt not to go to Rio as a spectator. I've heard a story of one of our Olympians wanting his/her entire family to stay at home because of his/her worry about all of this. Won't mention the name. Utter hysteria really! Ridiculous stuff. McIlroy should be called out publicly for his BS.

Joe_ Public

Michael O'Reilly in the ring right now. Live video feed seemed to be working earlier but getting nothing now for some reason.

Oldira

Michael O'Reilly wins and becomes our 8th Boxer to qualify for Rio. Great Stuff!

Cosmo Kramer

Excellent news.

Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Graeme McDowell has confirmed that he is also pulling out of consideration for the men's golf spot. It will be a bit of a trawl down the rankings to find our second golfer now.

Oldira

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Excellent news.

Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Graeme McDowell has confirmed that he is also pulling out of consideration for the men's golf spot. It will be a bit of a trawl down the rankings to find our second golfer now.

As it stands so that means Lowry and Harrington.

Dodge

Oldira wrote: »

As it stands so that means Lowry and Harrington.

Lowry, Harrington and then Seamus Power. Any lower and as it stands we'd lose a place (although Paul Dunne can move up with a decent result in the next week or so)

Dodge

Full list of all 73 qualifiers here

http://www.balls.ie/uncategorized/the-updated-list-of-every-irish-athlete-qualified-for-2016-olympics/312332

finbarrk

Very disappointed with our golfers decisions. How well it's only millionaire golfers that are withdrawing. What excuse will they have for Tokyo I wonder.

walshb

After all that hullabaloo about who Rory would represnet and he goes and pulls out over a mosquito. Sure knowing Rory he'll have called off his engagement before Rio even starts!

gordongekko

finbarrk wrote: »

Very disappointed with our golfers decisions. How well it's only millionaire golfers that are withdrawing. What excuse will they have for Tokyo I wonder.

Gmac had made himself unavailable months ago. His wife is pregnant and he wants to spend time with her.

Cosmo Kramer

Oldira wrote: »

As it stands so that means Lowry and Harrington.

I completely forgot about Harrington. I'd say he'll go, he had previously tried to talk Rory into playing for GB so that he could play for Ireland himself. At this stage of his career he's a much longer shot for a medal though, six missed cuts in his last seven starts and he hasn't had a top three since his Honda Classic win in early 2015.

breffni bogballer

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

I completely forgot about Harrington. I'd say he'll go, he had previously tried to talk Rory into playing for GB so that he could play for Ireland himself. At this stage of his career he's a much longer shot for a medal though, six missed cuts in his last seven starts and he hasn't had a top three since his Honda Classic win in early 2015.

He will probably be the only golfer in the field to have won a tour{euro) event on Brazilian soil,all the way back in 2000

Dodge

Dean Gardiner won his semi final today. Fights a guy from Italy in the final.

Gardiner was excellent. He beat the same lad in Baku last year

http://www.baku2015.com/boxing/event/men-super-heavy-more-than-91kg/match=bxm191406/index.html?intcmp=ev-brackets

The Italian beat him at the EU champs in 2014 on a split decision

O'Reilly also won his semi final very easily

Chivito550

Rory's excuse is pathetic, and GMac's isn't much better (he played the Barclay's the day before his first child was born), but every cloud has a silver lining. Harrington was behind golf's Olympic bid, and so it would be only right and just for him to be there. He has said himself that he would be honoured to compete for Ireland. That's the type of guy we want representing us in Rio. He's a great ambassador for this country and I would love to see him carry the flag during the opening ceremony.