Bronze Medal for Ireland at World Mountainbike Championships.

Eamonnator

Today at The UCI Mountainbike World Championships, Jacob Dickson of Ireland won the Bronze medal in the Junior Men's Downhill Race.
This is the first time, that an irish person has medalled at these Championships.
Link below to Cycling News report and result sheet.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-mountain-bike-world-championships-2014/junior-men-downhill/results

Eamonnator

Photograph, courtesy of Jacob's FaceBook page

Sorry, I can't get it right.

MarkG1975

Amazing result! Well done

12 sprocket

Eamonnator wrote: »

Today at The UCI Mountainbike World Championships, Jacob Dickson of Ireland won the Bronze medal in the Junior Men's Downhill Race.
This is the first time, that an irish person has medalled at these Championships.
Link below to Cycling News report and result sheet.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-mountain-bike-world-championships-2014/junior-men-downhill/results

Its great to see an irish rider at the top of the world, well done and best wishes for the future. Obviously capable of more world class results as a senior if he continues to get support

Eamonnator

Unfortunately, because Downhill is not an Olympic sport, Jacob gets no support from The Irish Sports Council.

nak

A few of the Enduro guys are also getting great results internationally.

12 sprocket

Eamonnator wrote: »

Unfortunately, because Downhill is not an Olympic sport, Jacob gets no support from The Irish Sports Council.

I would be surprised if there is not support for him, as fa r as i know there is no longer any difference in how non olympic disciplines are funded. A worlds medal is a worlds medal and only talented athletes who work very hard usually win them.

Eamonnator

12 sprocket wrote: »

I would be surprised if there is not support for him, as fa r as i know there is no longer any difference in how non olympic disciplines are funded. A worlds medal is a worlds medal and only talented athletes who work very hard usually win them.

Downhill athletes get no support from The Irish Sports Council.
Funding was cut off from them, about 10 years ago.

sy

Congrats Jacob on an impressive result and thanks for posting Eamonnator.

12 sprocket

Eamonnator wrote: »

Downhill athletes get no support from The Irish Sports Council.
Funding was cut off from them, about 10 years ago.

Well Eamonnator it looks like it should be revisited so. If its researched properly I think It will be found that he has a good case for support.

Eamonnator

12 sprocket wrote: »

Well Eamonnator it looks like it should be revisited so. If its researched properly I think It will be found that he has a good case for support.

I'm afraid, at this stage, it's a dead duck. The Sports Council have their priorities. In their wisdom, they decided, to only support Olympic Sports. Downhill is not the only sport to suffer.

On the plus side, as far as Jacob is concerned, He is a 1st year junior, so he will be eligible for next year's Junior championships, and quite a few of the top juniors, including this year's winner, will be moving to the senior ranks. So hopefully, he will do even better next year. He also has a great support team, his dad Mark was quite a useful domestic downhiller. His manager is Ben Reid, who raced at the highest level for years, and who knows the game inside out. He has good sponsors in Dirt Magazine, Orange Bikes and others.
On the back of his results this year, I'm sure Jacob will be able to race all the World Cup races next year, and so should be be in an even better position to challenge for Gold, next year.

12 sprocket

Eamonnator wrote: »

I'm afraid, at this stage, it's a dead duck. The Sports Council have their priorities. In their wisdom, they decided, to only support Olympic Sports. Downhill is not the only sport to suffer.

On the plus side, as far as Jacob is concerned, He is a 1st year junior, so he will be eligible for next year's Junior championships, and quite a few of the top juniors, including this year's winner, will be moving to the senior ranks. So hopefully, he will do even better next year. He also has a great support team, his dad Mark was quite a useful domestic downhiller. His manager is Ben Reid, who raced at the highest level for years, and who knows the game inside out. He has good sponsors in Dirt Magazine, Orange Bikes and others.
On the back of his results this year, I'm sure Jacob will be able to race all the World Cup races next year, and so should be be in an even better position to challenge for Gold, next year.

I don't want to drag this out but I think if you look at cycling Irelands track programme, medals have been won in non Olympic events and I presume some of the riders are being carded for their results and place in the Rankings.

Eamonnator

@12sprocket, I refer you to Section 1 of the attached document.

http://www.irishsportscouncil.ie/High_Performance/High_Performance_Unit/International%20Carding%20Scheme/Carding-Scheme-General-Guidelines-2014.pdf

The following article from Sticky Bottle gives the names of Cyclists, who received funding from the ISC in 2014. As far as I can see, they are all Olympic or Paralympic athletes.

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/irish-sports-council-unveils-2014-funding-for-nine-irish-cyclists-e12000-to-e40000-each/

The bottom line is that as of now, no downhiller gets any support from the ISC.
This situation is not likely to change any time soon, pity, but, what can one do??

rab!dmonkey

Strange how the 'Irish Team for Cycling World Championships' article on CI website makes no mention of Jacob :rolleyes:

What hope have budding downhillers got of support from the ISC when CI often appear to act as though they don't exist?

Eamonnator

Here's the sum total of Cycling Ireland's report on Jacob's fantastic race.

http://www.cyclingireland.ie/cycling-news-item/bronze-medal-for-jacob-dickson-at-junior-dh-world-championships/356

nak

rab!dmonkey wrote: »

Strange how the 'Irish Team for Cycling World Championships' article on CI website makes no mention of Jacob :rolleyes:

What hope have budding downhillers got of support from the ISC when CI often appear to act as though they don't exist?

Get the impression any form of offroad cycling doesn't exist as far as CI are concerned.

12 sprocket

Eamonnator wrote: »

@12sprocket, I refer you to Section 1 of the attached document.

http://www.irishsportscouncil.ie/High_Performance/High_Performance_Unit/International%20Carding%20Scheme/Carding-Scheme-General-Guidelines-2014.pdf

The following article from Sticky Bottle gives the names of Cyclists, who received funding from the ISC in 2014. As far as I can see, they are all Olympic or Paralympic athletes.

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/irish-sports-council-unveils-2014-funding-for-nine-irish-cyclists-e12000-to-e40000-each/

The bottom line is that as of now, no downhiller gets any support from the ISC.
This situation is not likely to change any time soon, pity, but, what can one do??

one could make a special case to the sports council and Cycling Ireland, They might support someone with world class talent and maybe even try to integrate him into their squads in some way.

Eamonnator

12 sprocket wrote: »

one could make a special case to the sports council and Cycling Ireland, They might support someone with world class talent and maybe even try to integrate him into their squads in some way.

"special cases" has been tried before, without success. As I said before, it's a dead duck.
I don't see how Jacob could, honestly, be integrated into any other squad. For Jacob to qualify for a grant, he would have to have results in an Olympic discipline,

I remember a lot of years ago, a number of downhillers went to the University of Limerick for testing. They spent a couple of days there, doing various tests, endurance, strength etc. Their results were really impressive. Cycling Ireland's reaction was to encourage the riders to abandon DH and concentrate on track racing. So much for CI's interest in Downhill.