Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Dodge

Paddy Barnes will.

Anyway best of luck to Dean Gardiner and our women's sevens team today

walshb

Dodge wrote: »

Paddy Barnes will.

Anyway best of luck to Dean Gardiner and our women's sevens team today

IMO a much better selection to carry out flag vs. a multi millionaire golfer. Barnes's 3rd straight games. Brilliant.

Dodge

I agree. Not the money part; that doesn't bother me but Barnes has been a great Olympian and this is clearly a thrill for him

Chivito550

walshb wrote: »

IMO a much better selection to carry out flag vs. a multi millionaire golfer. Barnes's 3rd straight games. Brilliant.

Dodge wrote: »

I agree. Not the money part; that doesn't bother me but Barnes has been a great Olympian and this is clearly a thrill for him

I'd be happy with Barnes too. But nothing wrong with Padraig doing so either. Roger Federer carried the Swiss flag in 2004 and 2008 and at both points still hadn't won an Olympic medal yet. He looked immensely proud to do so. That's the most important thing. Don't care how much money they earn.

walshb

Fair points, Chivito. My reason was the history behind boxing-Barnes and the Olympics. Padraig is really a nobody in Olympic terms. Paddy's an Irish Olympian stalwart. Earned his way!

My mentioning money was more to do with what I believe to be the amateur aspect of the Games. It's not the point! So I take that back.

feargale

WOMEN'S RUGBY 7s OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION TOURNAMENT AT UCD

POOL C:
Irl 51 Trinidad 0
Irl 24 Portugal 12
China 24 Portugal 5.
China 34 Trinidad 5
Irl v. China at 6.46 p.m.

Quarterfinals tomorrow:
C1 v. B2. and C2 v. B1

POOL B
Spain 38 Tunisia 0.
No doubt Spain will head the group with Tunisia as runner-up.

POOL A
Russia 58 Madagascar 0
Samoa 22 Madagascar 10.
Decider at 6.02 p.m. = Russia v. Samoa

POOL D
Kazakhstan 36 Argentina 5
Kazakhstan take top place, Argentina probably runners-up.

Edit: Irl 12 China 0
Russia 47 Samoa 0.

Dodge

Quarter finals

1) Russia v Argentina
2) Ireland v Tunisia
3) Kazakhstan v Samoa
4) Spain v China

Semi finals
1 v 2
3 v 4

As expected looks to be between Russia, Spain and Ireland. The first 2 there haven't conceded a point yet

Skid X

Don't really blame Rory for pulling out. He has been the subject of relentless unwarranted criticism since his decision.

Who needs supporters who would cheer him if he a) Wins Gold and b) Represents Ireland, but who would give him no support under any other circumstances?

feargale

Dodge wrote: »

As expected looks to be between Russia, Spain and Ireland. The first 2 there haven't conceded a point yet

Ireland are out.

Semi-final: Russia 19 Ireland 10. - a very honourable defeat.

Ireland 17 Kazakhstan 5 for third place.

Ireland's women, having had so little time to get it together, seemed to improve dramatically with almost every tournament they took part in.. The men in a similar situation finished strongly and were also pipped by a whisker for Rio. One can only wonder what might have been achieved in both men's and women's Olympic sevens if they hadn't been treated as an afterthought. Russia, China etc. didn't bother with women's boxing until it became an Olympic event, and then they went into overdrive. But Paddy prefers to bide his time.And by the time Tokyo 2020 comes around half the world will be at sevens.

walshb

Skid X wrote: »

Don't really blame Rory for pulling out. He has been the subject of relentless unwarranted criticism since his decision.

Who needs supporters who would cheer him if he a) Wins Gold and b) Represents Ireland, but who would give him no support under any other circumstances?

Just not getting this excuse.

NiallBoo

Skid X wrote: »

Who needs supporters who would cheer him if he a) Wins Gold and b) Represents Ireland, but who would give him no support under any other circumstances?

Most athletes only get "a)" and nobody has even heard of their sport the rest of the time.

Clearlier

feargale wrote: »

Ireland are out.

Semi-final: Russia 19 Ireland 10. - a very honourable defeat.

Ireland 17 Kazakhstan 5 for third place.

Ireland's women, having had so little time to get it together, seemed to improve dramatically with almost every tournament they took part in.. The men in a similar situation finished strongly and were also pipped by a whisker for Rio. One can only wonder what might have been achieved in both men's and women's Olympic sevens if they hadn't been treated as an afterthought. Russia, China etc. didn't bother with women's boxing until it became an Olympic event, and then they went into overdrive. But Paddy prefers to bide his time.And by the time Tokyo 2020 comes around half the world will be at sevens.

To be fair to the IRFU the Irish women's 7's team have been relatively well funded for 3 years now. Here's a report on the original announcement.

Not going earlier for the men's team was a strategic decision to focus resources on the 15 man game which is by a distance the main source of funding for the game. You might disagree with the prioritisation but the decision was taken in full knowledge of what it would mean. This isn't your typical 'Oh my god, we could have qualified for the olympics if only we have thought of it earlier' situation.

The Lost Sheep

feargale wrote: »

Ireland are out.

Semi-final: Russia 19 Ireland 10. - a very honourable defeat.

Ireland 17 Kazakhstan 5 for third place.

Ireland's women, having had so little time to get it together, seemed to improve dramatically with almost every tournament they took part in.. The men in a similar situation finished strongly and were also pipped by a whisker for Rio. One can only wonder what might have been achieved in both men's and women's Olympic sevens if they hadn't been treated as an afterthought. Russia, China etc. didn't bother with women's boxing until it became an Olympic event, and then they went into overdrive. But Paddy prefers to bide his time.And by the time Tokyo 2020 comes around half the world will be at sevens.

As Clearier says the womens team has been funded for quite a few years. Theyve a few years experience playing on the world series and will be back on it next season. The mens set up only started because of the Olympics and due to Nucifora the IRFUs relatively new Highperformance director insisting on it.-We will be competing in a world series qualifier very soon and if/when we make it we will be much better off.
I dont see half the world playing 7s even in a few olympics time and considering how well weve done without much playing 7s we will be fine considering our 15 a side background that other nations wont have

walshb

Lowry's gone. This poxy Zica virus is killing us.

Dodge

walshb wrote: »

Lowry's gone. This poxy Zica virus is killing us.

11 golfers have pulled out so far. 3 from Ireland, 3 from Australia and 3 from South Africa. This is clearly not about a virus

Also no women golfers have pulled out despite it supposedly being about their health

walshb

Kind of strange. I kind of recall quite a wanting and lobbying to get golf back into the games, and now they can't seem to attract the stars.

Dodge

4x400m mens relay

Dodge wrote: »

The last 3/4* sports are between
Kenya (Current average 3:02.52
Japan (3:02.70)
Colombia (3:03.3)
Ireland (3:03.16)
Qatar (3.03.2)
Venezuela (3:03.21)
India (3:03.65) - ran 3:02.17 last week

A 3.03.80 for Ireland would see us jump to the top of those times.

The next few days sees the start of the African championships. So we're looking for slow times from Kenya, Algeria, Nigeria and the rest

*3 if Russia is allowed in, 4 if they're banned

Kenya lowered their average to 3:02.29 after the African championships. Turkey moved to within 0.05 of Ireland too with a 3:04.21 at the weekend.

Current ranks

Kenya (3:02.29)
Japan (3:02.70)
Colombia (3:03.3)
Ireland (3:03.16)
---
Qatar (3.03.2)
Turkey (3:02.21)
Venezuela (3:03.21)
Algeria (3:03.42)
India (3:03.65)

Good to see Ireland's 400m runners in good form at the nationals this weekend. Hopefully we can lower the time at the Europeans

Cosmo Kramer

This whole golf shambles is not reflecting well at all on Paul McGinley. He was the man tasked with managing our golf team and we've ended up with our three best players refusing to participate, presumably for the real reason that they can't be arsed when there's serious golf to be played elsewhere this summer. He hasn't done his job here at all well.

On a wider scale this could now become contagious with top 100 players dropping out on an almost daily basis over the coming weeks.

Chivito550

Dodge wrote: »

4x400m mens relay



Kenya lowered their average to 3:02.29 after the African championships. Turkey moved to within 0.05 of Ireland too with a 3:04.21 at the weekend.

Current ranks

Kenya (3:02.29)
Japan (3:02.70)
Colombia (3:03.3)
Ireland (3:03.16)
---
Qatar (3.03.2)
Turkey (3:02.21)
Venezuela (3:03.21)
Algeria (3:03.42)
India (3:03.65)

Good to see Ireland's 400m runners in good form at the nationals this weekend. Hopefully we can lower the time at the Europeans

Seeing the lads run so well on Sunday I am pretty confident they will do the business in Amsterdam now. Also Qatar may be in trouble given their top athlete is coached by Jama Aden.

Joe_ Public

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

This whole golf shambles is not reflecting well at all on Paul McGinley. He was the man tasked with managing our golf team and we've ended up with our three best players refusing to participate, presumably for the real reason that they can't be arsed when there's serious golf to be played elsewhere this summer. He hasn't done his job here at all well.

On a wider scale this could now become contagious with top 100 players dropping out on an almost daily basis over the coming weeks.

With respect what can Paul McGinley do make golfers who aren't apparently arsed arsed?

Oldira

Dodge wrote: »

11 golfers have pulled out so far. 3 from Ireland, 3 from Australia and 3 from South Africa. This is clearly not about a virus

Also no women golfers have pulled out despite it supposedly being about their health

How many of the top tennis players have withdrawn because of Zeka? The Olympics is now a serious event in the tennis Calander probably ranking just below a grand slam. Shamefully this is not about a virus or nationality but plain and simple money and more than likely sponsors. Now that's fine as they are professional sportsmen but at least be upfront. I certainly don't believe a tough guy like Lowry is scared of a virus that doesn't seem to scare women.

Strazdas

Oldira wrote: »

How many of the top tennis players have withdrawn because of Zeka? The Olympics is now a serious event in the tennis Calander probably ranking just below a grand slam. Shamefully this is not about a virus or nationality but plain and simple money and more than likely sponsors. Now that's fine as they are professional sportsmen but at least be upfront. I certainly don't believe a tough guy like Lowry is scared of a virus that doesn't seem to scare women.

Looks very bad to see potential Irish Olympians refusing to compete when everyone else who has qualified is going to Rio.

feargale

It's probably a safe bet that golf's return to the Olympics will be of short duration.

Chivito550

Check out the golf forum. The 3 boys can do no wrong. Any type of criticism of their decision not to go to Rio is considered trolling, particularly by the mods.

NiallBoo

feargale wrote: »

It's probably a safe bet that golf's return to the Olympics will be of short duration.

The way I look at it, the Olympics should be the pinnacle of achievement in a sport.

If it can't at least be on par then it's not a good fit. I can't see golf ever getting close to that.

finbarrk

Dodge wrote: »

11 golfers have pulled out so far. 3 from Ireland, 3 from Australia and 3 from South Africa. This is clearly not about a virus

Also no women golfers have pulled out despite it supposedly being about their health

They are an embarrassment with their decision. WHO have said the risk is minimal as it's winter time there in August.

Oldira

finbarrk wrote: »

They are an embarrassment with their decision. WHO have said the risk is minimal as it's winter time there in August.

What is the drug desting protocol in professional golf? Are there random tests and are all winners etc tested after events?

finbarrk

This is what David Walsh was on about on the radio earlier.
http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i3233

Strazdas

Chivito550 wrote: »

Check out the golf forum. The 3 boys can do no wrong. Any type of criticism of their decision not to go to Rio is considered trolling, particularly by the mods.

I think criticism of the players is perfectly justified. They're effectively refusing to represent Ireland at the Olympic Games - all of our other Olympians are desperate to get to Rio and consider it the highest honour.

finbarrk

Chivito550 wrote: »

Check out the golf forum. The 3 boys can do no wrong. Any type of criticism of their decision not to go to Rio is considered trolling, particularly by the mods.

Yep. I got a post deleted when I criticised Lowry over there.