Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Dan man

Sorry, been a bit hectic with me this weekend so didn't get to update anything.
Couple of quick updates....Irish women's hockey team defeated Spain 1-0 in World Hockey League and victory tomorrow against Italy will qualify Ireland to the Semi-Finals tournament.

Irish open-water swimmer Chris Bryan finished 9th in the latest stage of the Marathon Swimming World Cup series in Eilat, Israel. Great performance by Chris and you might remember that he missed out on qualifying for London 2012 Olympics by the narrowest of margins.

The_Kew_Tour

To beat Spain is pretty decent I would take it.

KevIRL

Fionnula Britton picks up a bronze in the women's 3000m at the European indoors

The_Kew_Tour

KevIRL wrote: »

Fionnula Britton picks up a bronze in the women's 3000m at the European indoors

It looked like she was going to miss out with couple laps to go .

As she came around final bend I thought she was going to get silver but the other girl got extra wind again.

Delighted for her.

Skid X

Fionnuala Britton will be a guest on The Saturday Night Show tonight (RTE1, 9.45pm) ahead of next week's World Cross Country Championships in Poland. Nice to see her getting some well deserved publicity.

feargale

Good news: Following on the Irish women's rugby success at the weekend the IRFU have opened to the idea of sending a women's sevens team to Rio.

Skid X

feargale wrote: »

Good news: Following on the Irish women's rugby success at the weekend the IRFU have opened to the idea of sending a women's sevens team to Rio.

Well spotted feargale, they do seem to making a serious effort to get the Womens Sevens Team to Rio. The IRFU will be sending teams to tournaments in Hong Kong and China in the coming weeks. It'll be interesting to see how they do, coming from a standing start. The full IRFU article is worth a read ...

With support from the Irish Sports Council, the IRFU have made the decision to commit to a long term Women's Sevens Programme with the express goal of qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The programme will entail an investment of over €1.1 million per annum to create a high performance squad with the aspiration to qualify and successfully compete in Rio in 2016.

http://www.irishrugby.ie/women/28697.php

Skid X

Bad news about Martyn Irvine - he has broken his hip in a crash. Great shame coming so soon after his terrfic performances in the recent World Championships

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/martyn-irvines-dream-season-derailed-after-breaking-hip-in-tour-of-taiwan/

Dodge

http://www.irishsportscouncil.ie/Media/Latest_News/2013/carded_athletes.pdf

List of 'carded' athletes for 2013. 19 (inc 10 paralympians) get the max of €40,000

Skid X

The Ireland Womens Rugby Sevens Team had a decent tournament at the Hong Kong Sevens. They lost narrowly to South Africa and France, before beating Hong Kong and an International Selection to win the Bowl.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/ireland-women-win-bowl-in-hong-kong-1.1335247

They now move on to China for the IRB Womens Sevens World Series event next week.

The_Kew_Tour

http://news.sky.com/story/1070338/brazilian-olympic-stadium-closed-indefinitely

A stadium in Brazil that was expected to hold some of the main events of the 2016 Olympics has been closed indefinitely because of problems with its roof.

Rio de Janeiro's Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium, which was scheduled to host athletics at the 2016 games, will have to undergo roof repairs, the city's mayor said.

The stadium, completed less than six years ago, is currently the city's main football venue while the Maracana is rebuilt for this year's Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.

Although the Joao Havelange stadium was due to host the athletics in 2016, the opening and closing ceremonies will both take place at the Maracana.

The upgrade of the Maracana is also behind schedule, however.

Rio's mayor Eduardo Paes told a news conference: "Today, they informed me that the roof has structural problems.

"I asked if this represented a risk for spectators and they told me it did, depending on the wind speed and temperature.

"On that basis, I immediately decided to close the stadium until we had more details."

Mr Paes added: "It's simply not acceptable that a stadium which was inaugurated such a short time ago now has to face this sort of situation."

The stadium was built for the 2007 Panamerican Games at a cost of 380 million reais (£125m) and opened just one month before the event.

Afterwards, it was leased to local football club Botafogo although it is frequently used by other teams.

The first event to be affected was Wednesday's Carioca championship match between Brazilian champions Fluminense and Macae.

It has not yet been announced what other effects the closure will have.

The England football team were due to play Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on June 2, but the FA said the stadium where that match was due to take place has not yet been confirmed.

The Maracana is due to re-open at the end of April, four months behind schedule.

The capacity of the Joao Havelange stadium was due to be increased from 46,000 to 60,000 ahead of the Olympics.

The stadium is named after Joao Havelange, the Brazilian former president of Fifa and later member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who has been accused of taking bribes while head of world football.

Dan man

Irish gymnast Andrew Smith has qualified for the Final of the Men's Floor at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Doha, Qatar today. His routine scored him a very competitive 14.800 points and qualified him in 3rd place for tomorrow's final (13:00 Irish time).
Well done Andrew, Irish gymnastics is making huge strides of late.

Dan man

Andrew Smith finished in 5th place in the men's floor final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Doha. He scored 14.425 points which is down on his qualification score from yesterday, but still an outstanding result.
He finished 8th in the same apparatus at the World Cup in France earlier in the season, 4th at the World Cup events in Cottbus and Maribor in 2012 and 12th place at last season's European Championships so he's a very talented and capable gymnast
Like Kieran Behan. Andrew was born in England (Nottingham) and competes for Ireland through family lineage (his maternal grandparents are Irish). He spent 14 years in Malaysia as a child and returned to Enlgand as recently as 2011.

feargale

http://afloat.ie/sail/isa/item/21152-former-isa-president-calls-for-change-in-irish-sailing-debate?utm_source=Ireland+Afloat&utm_campaign=eb39c6f383-AfloatEbulletin_Mar193_19_2013&utm_medium=email.
I hope I'm giving you the correct reference re. the magazine Ireland Afloat. Former President of the ISA Roger Bannon doesn't mince his words regarding the current state of Irish sailing. Even Annalise Murphy gets a swipe.

Dan man

At the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Palma de Mallorca, Irish sailor James Espey is in 48th position after the first 2 races of the men's Laser category. The London 2012 Olympian placed 18th and 19th in his opening 2 fleet races and will hope to move up the standings in the 116-man field over the next few days.
Annalise Murphy who finished 4th in the London 2012 Olympics had planned to participate in the women's Laser Radial but was forced to pull out of the event after suffering a broken nose during a biking accident last week. Let's hope she has a speedy recovery.

Dan man

Irish sailor James Espey is in 43rd position after 6 races of the men's Laser at the ISAF World Cup in Palma de Mallorca. He moved six places from 48th position to 42nd on day 2 with 22nd and 28th place finishes in the 3rd and 4th races. He has slipped back a place to 43rd overall after today's fleet racing with 24th and 16th place finishes in races 5 and 6 respectively.
If you only count one sailor per nation as would be replicated in the Olympics and Olympic qualifying events, James and Ireland are lying 22nd best nation.

Dan man

As a result of his performances in the first 6 races, Irish sailor James Espey qualified to race in the gold fleet of men's Laser at the ISAF World Cup in Palma de Mallorca (the top 55 racers in the 119-strong field qualified for the gold fleet).
However, he found the going very tough in the gold fleet, posting 43rd, 35th, 52nd and 35th place finishes in today's races. However, this was enough to push him up the overall standings one place to 42nd. I think tomorrow is the medal race, so I'm not sure whether or not James' campaign in Palma de Mallorca has now finished. I am assuming he has finished in 42nd place but I'll find out for sure tomorrow.

Dan man

Irish triathlete Bryan Keane has put in another top class performance this weekend in Ishigaki, Japan to claim the silver medal in the latest leg of the men's ITU Triathlon World Cup.....best ever result in history of Irish male triathlon. Despite falling off the bike (for the second weekend in a row), Keane came back strongly in the run to push himself into the medals and claiming silver in a sprint finish between himself and bronze medal winner Dan Wilson of Australia. Well done Bryan, he's having a really strong season so far.


Keane receiving his silver medal in Ishigaki:

Dan man

At the third leg of the Modern Pentathlon World Cup in Chengdu, China, Ireland's Natalya Coyle is through to Friday's final with a 13th place finish in her qualification group. Natalya will be aiming to finish as high up the order in the Final to secure valuable points that contribute towards qualification for the World Cup Final in Russia at the beginning of June.
Eanna Bailey and Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe will be in action in the men's qualification tomorrow...Eanna goes in qualification group A and Arthur in group B. Good luck to them both!

Dan man

The Irish pentathletes endured contrasting fortunes in the searing heat of Chengdu at the third stage of the men's modern pentathlon world cup 2013.
Eanna Bailey went in qualification group A and was in a comfortable position heading into the combined shoot and run event. However, it proved to be a day to forget for Eanna as he plummetted down the rankings to 26th place after the combined event and missed out on qualification for Saturday's final.
Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe coped with the tough conditions much better and easily passed through to Saturday's final by finishing 2nd in qualification group B, with consistent performances across all 4 disciplines (there is no horse riding in qualification rounds).
So two Irish into the finals, Natalya goes in the women's final tomorrow and Arthur in the men's final on Saturday. Best of luck to them both!

Skid X

The Irish Sports Council have launched a new website http://thejourney.ie/, which they describe as "an ongoing journal of Ireland's Elite Athletes.

They have video interviews with (among others) Annalise Murphy and Katie Taylor there at the moment. Annalise sounds very determined to get to Rio and win a Medal. She pretty much admits that she was naive about the tactics used against her in Weymouth when she was leading the Olympic Regatta.

Dan man

It wasn't the best of weeks for the Irish pentathletes at the World Cup in Chengdu...Natalya finished 24th in the final of the women's event, a hard round in the riding discipline effectively ended her chances of doing well.
Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe was in a very strong 6th position heading into the final combined event but unfortunately he suffered elimination and so placed 36th overall in the final....not good for his World Cup ranking.
In the mixed relay event today, Natalya Coyle paired up with Eanna Bailey for a respectable 11th place finish, but a far cry from the glorious silver they won at the first World Cup of the season in the U.S.
The field in the men's event in Chengdu wasn't particularly strong so the results will not be what the Irish were looking for. Having said that, the conditions were ultra tough and a good result in the final World Cup leg in Budapest could see them safely through to the World Cup final in Russia in June.

Dan man

The second leg of the triathlon World Series (World Championship event) took place this weekend in San Diego and Ireland's Aileen Reid finished in a decent 17th position. She had a strong swim and followed with a good bike leg, her running is still a little off where she would want to be, but she is improving. I understand that her running has been hampered due to a knee injury she sustained earlier in the year.
So, a decent result for Aileen, I think there's more to come from her as the season goes on.

Dan man

At the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in the United Arab Emirates this week, 4-time Olympian Derek Burnett finished in 21st place in the men's trap with a qualification score of 119. He missed just 6 targets in the competition and was just 2 behind the 121 score that would have seen him go into a shoot-off for a place in the 6 man final.
So a decent performance by Derek, he's still competing with the best in the world. His fellow Irish competitor Wayne Byrne scored 107 for joint 76th position overall.

Dan man

Ireland's Daniel Martin has continued his phenomenal season by winning the Liege-Bastogne-Liege Classic this afternoon....a huge win and emulating Sean Kelly who won it twice. Make no doubt about it, this is up there with some of the best performances in Irish sport, great victory!!
What a year for Irish cycling...we were saying earlier in the thread that it would be difficult to upstage Martyn Irvine's incredible gold and silver medal performances at the Track Cycling World Championships, but Dan Martin with a tour victory in the Tour a Catalunya and today's win in a classic puts him in a strong position for sportsperson of the year, especially since there is probably much more still to come from him in 2013.
One word....AMAZING!

feargale

Annalise Murphy gets a chance to cross tack with Olympic champion Xu (CHN), silver medallist Bouwmeester (NLD) and most of the world's top sailors at Hyeres, France today, in the last ISAF World Cup event of the 2012-2013 season. Competition continues from today to Saturday next 27th April. ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres Website http://swc.ffvoile.com/

Dan man

A potential huge Ireland 2016 Olympic news story developing....reports are suggesting that golf's international federation will take the "burden of choice" away from Rory McIlroy by forcing him to play for Ireland at the Olympics, since he has always represented Ireland in the World Cup events then he cannot switch national allegiance for Rio 2016. Much more will develop no doubt...very interesting indeed!

Skid X

Dan man wrote: »

A potential huge Ireland 2016 Olympic news story developing....reports are suggesting that golf's international federation will take the "burden of choice" away from Rory McIlroy by forcing him to play for Ireland at the Olympics, since he has always represented Ireland in the World Cup events then he cannot switch national allegiance for Rio 2016. Much more will develop no doubt...very interesting indeed!

If that happens I wouldn't be surprised if McIlroy gives the Olympics a miss (unfortunately). His previous comments suggested he wad inclined to compete for GB/NI if given a choice.

feargale

Skid X wrote: »

If that happens I wouldn't be surprised if McIlroy gives the Olympics a miss (unfortunately). His previous comments suggested he wad inclined to compete for GB/NI if given a choice.

That's possible. On the other hand, if the choice is out of his hands he may feel that he is offending nobody by competing. His biggest problem appeared to be the possibility of upsetting one side or the other.

Dan man

Skid X wrote: »

If that happens I wouldn't be surprised if McIlroy gives the Olympics a miss (unfortunately). His previous comments suggested he wad inclined to compete for GB/NI if given a choice.

I'm not so sure...he said he wanted the decision to be taken out of his hands, so if that's the case this is what he was hoping for...the headache removed for him I mean. I'm sure this issue has much more road left to travel before it's resolved fully.