AAI Awards 2015

Chivito550

Here's the list of award winners:

GloHealth National Athletics Awards winners

Athlete of the Year: Thomas Barr (Ferrybank)
Hall of Fame: Frank O’Mara
Lifetime service to Athletics: Dick Hodgins (Cork City Sports)
Outstanding Official Award: John McDermott (Annalee AC)
Junior Athlete: Kevin Mulcaire (Ennis Track)
U23 Athlete: Mark English (UCD)
Endurance: Rob Heffernan (Togher)
Track & Field: Thomas Barr (Ferrybank)
Inspirational Performance: Brian Murphy (Crusaders)
Performance Club: Clonliffe Harriers
Development Club: Finn Valley AC
Team of the Year: Women’s Senior Team European Cross Country Championships
Service to Coaching: John Shields (Clonliffe Harriers)
Mountain Runner: Ian Conroy (Raheny Shamrock)
Master Athlete: Mick Traynor (Raheny Shamrock)
Ultra Athlete: Eoin Keith (Sportsworld)
University Athlete: Thomas Barr (Ferrybank)
Irish Schools Tailteann Awards – Girl: Phoebe Murphy (Loreto Clonmel)
Irish Schools Tailteann Award – Boy: Matthew Behan (CUS)

Djoucer

Congrats Enduro.

Enduro

Djoucer wrote: »

Congrats Enduro.

Merci! Always nice to get to these occasions.

Highlight of the day was undoubtedly the hall of fame award to Frank O'Meara. Unfortunately he was too ill to attend himself in person, but they had a recorded skype interview with him that was superb. A true great of Irish athletics.

Have to say as well we are very lucky to have Thomas Barr... he is an outstanding representive for Athletics (As well as being a super competitor of course). He's a great natural speaker and interviewee. A worthy winner of athlete of the year on many levels.

RacoonQueen

Out of interest, who nominates / votes for these? Assuming it's not an open vote? Is it county boards or something?
With Triathlon Ireland all members get an opportunity to vote for the awards.

youngrun

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Out of interest, who nominates / votes for these? Assuming it's not an open vote? Is it county boards or something?
With Triathlon Ireland all members get an opportunity to vote for the awards.

Not seen anything via county board or club bar maybe two categories so I dont think its open.

RayCun

I think there are only a few categories where nominations are open - inspirational performance, development club?
Not sure who makes the decisions

Enduro

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Out of interest, who nominates / votes for these? Assuming it's not an open vote? Is it county boards or something?
With Triathlon Ireland all members get an opportunity to vote for the awards.

AFAIK the only open voting is for Inspirational performance of the year.

The only one I know for sure is the Mountain Runner award, which is nominated by the IMRA committee. I'm pretty sure that the Ultrarunner of the year is nominated by the AAI Ultrarunning committee.

Chivito550

Enduro wrote: »

Highlight of the day was undoubtedly the hall of fame award to Frank O'Meara. Unfortunately he was too ill to attend himself in person, but they had a recorded skype interview with him that was superb. A true great of Irish athletics.

Is he ok? Hope nothing serious.

Enduro

Chivito550 wrote: »

Is he ok? Hope nothing serious.

I'm not 100% sure TBH, and as I can't google it, I won't start a rumour/theory here. But he seemed to be in great spirits. The interview had the entire audience in wrapt attention.

Notwork Error

Absolute legend!

tang1

Notwork Error wrote: »

Absolute legend!

Serious kick in that final 200m, himself & Marcus O Sullivan were a joy to watch in there prime.

Notwork Error

tang1 wrote: »

Serious kick in that final 200m, himself & Marcus O Sullivan were a joy to watch in there prime.

Some athletes alright B. You gotta love the Spanish Commentators "oooooeeer" when O'Mara puts the foot down, some kick in a race at what was close to iWR pace at the time.

tang1

Notwork Error wrote: »

Some athletes alright B. You gotta love the Spanish Commentators "oooooeeer" when O'Mara puts the foot down, some kick in a race at what was close to iWR pace at the time.

He appeared to ease up a bit in the last 50m say if he kept the foot down he would have broke it. O' Sullivans 3 1,500m golds indoors in a row doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

Chivito550

tang1 wrote: »

He appeared to ease up a bit in the last 50m say if he kept the foot down he would have broke it. O' Sullivans 3 1,500m golds indoors in a row doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

Pedantic hat on. Not 3 in a row. 1987, 1989 and 1993. He was 4th in 1991 I think. You are correct though in that it is an astonishing achievement and isn't talked about all that much, not just in the general sporting community, but in the athletics community too.

tang1

Chivito550 wrote: »

Pedantic hat on. Not 3 in a row. 1987, 1989 and 1993. He was 4th in 1991 I think. You are correct though in that it is an astonishing achievement and isn't talked about all that much, not just in the general sporting community, but in the athletics community too.

It was 3 World Championships in a row so my original statement stands does it not, I never said 3 years in a row. He was indeed 4th in '91 in Seville if my memory is correct. When people think of great Irish Athletics achievements they mention Sonia, Ronnie Delaney, Eamon Coghlan, John Treacy. Marcus O Sullivan deserves to mentioned in the same breath does he not?

tang1

Actually on a side note the 1987 indoors Ireland finished 4th on the medal table with 2 gold(O Sullivan and O Mara) and 1 silver medal(Paul Donovan) ahead of athletic super powers of GB, West Germany, France and Spain.

Myles Splitz

tang1 wrote: »

Marcus O Sullivan deserves to mentioned in the same breath does he not?

Not to mention the great work he is doing as head coach in Villanova these days with arguably one of the best middle distance programs in the NCAA

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nova/sports/m-track/auto_pdf/2013-14/misc_non_event/osullivan_bio.pdf

Chivito550

tang1 wrote: »

It was 3 World Championships in a row so my original statement stands does it not, I never said 3 years in a row. He was indeed 4th in '91 in Seville if my memory is correct. When people think of great Irish Athletics achievements they mention Sonia, Ronnie Delaney, Eamon Coghlan, John Treacy. Marcus O Sullivan deserves to mentioned in the same breath does he not?

How was it 3 in a row, when he finished 4th in between his 2nd and 3rd victory?

tang1

Chivito550 wrote: »

How was it 3 in a row, when he finished 4th in between his 2nd and 3rd victory?

Stand corrected, it was 2 in a row.

Chivito550

tang1 wrote: »

Stand corrected, it was 2 in a row.

3 out of 4, spanning 6 years is a remarkable achievement. Pity, like Coghlan, he wasn't as formidable outdoors. Still has a respectable 8th place in the 1988 Seoul 1500m to his name though.

Clearlier

Chivito550 wrote: »

3 out of 4, spanning 6 years is a remarkable achievement. Pity, like Coghlan, he wasn't as formidable outdoors. Still has a respectable 8th place in the 1988 Seoul 1500m to his name though.

Ironic that we had so many good indoor runners considering the number of indoor tracks that there were in Ireland when they were growing up!

Enduro

tang1 wrote: »

Actually on a side note the 1987 indoors Ireland finished 4th on the medal table with 2 gold(O Sullivan and O Mara) and 1 silver medal(Paul Donovan) ahead of athletic super powers of GB, West Germany, France and Spain.

The more I think about it the more amazing that fact is! Has any Irish team in any major sport finished a world champs with that high a ranking? Even the rugby team with only 10 or so real rivals has never managed to get that high.

Chivito550

Enduro wrote: »

The more I think about it the more amazing that fact is! Has any Irish team in any major sport finished a world champs with that high a ranking? Even the rugby team with only 10 or so real rivals has never managed to get that high.

+1. Though I never think medals table is a good basis for these things. It's skewed a bit. One gold beats a country with 7 silver, 5 bronze, and 20 other top 8 placings. That's not right. The placing table is the best method, which the IAAF have been using alongside the medals table for some time now. 8 points for gold, 7 for silver, all the way to 1 for 8th place.

In the 2001 World Rowing Championships we were 3rd on the medals table I recall (3 gold, Sam Lynch, Sinead Jennings, and O'Connor/Towey).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_World_Rowing_Championships

tang1

Chivito550 wrote: »

+1. Though I never think medals table is a good basis for these things. It's skewed a bit. One gold beats a country with 7 silver, 5 bronze, and 20 other top 8 placings. That's not right. The placing table is the best method, which the IAAF have been using alongside the medals table for some time now. 8 points for gold, 7 for silver, all the way to 1 for 8th place.

In the 2001 World Rowing Championships we were 3rd on the medals table I recall (3 gold, Sam Lynch, Sinead Jennings, and O'Connor/Towey).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_World_Rowing_Championships

Correct and the only country that gained more medals than us was Bulgaria who won 5 medals and finished a place below us in the medals table. GB and West Germany won a solitary bronze medal each at those Championships while the super power that was Ireland achieved 2 gold & 1 silver.

Enduro

Chivito550 wrote: »

+1. Though I never think medals table is a good basis for these things. It's skewed a bit. One gold beats a country with 7 silver, 5 bronze, and 20 other top 8 placings. That's not right. The placing table is the best method, which the IAAF have been using alongside the medals table for some time now. 8 points for gold, 7 for silver, all the way to 1 for 8th place.

In the 2001 World Rowing Championships we were 3rd on the medals table I recall (3 gold, Sam Lynch, Sinead Jennings, and O'Connor/Towey).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_World_Rowing_Championships

Nice one. Yeh, I agree that the placings table seems like a more rounded measure. Good find on the rowing. Another golden generation right there.

average_runner

Enduro wrote: »

The more I think about it the more amazing that fact is! Has any Irish team in any major sport finished a world champs with that high a ranking? Even the rugby team with only 10 or so real rivals has never managed to get that high.

We won World cup team events in Snooker.
Think we won u18 world cup rubgy
Equestrain team has won world medals.


I am sure there is others.

Chivito550

Enduro wrote: »

Nice one. Yeh, I agree that the placings table seems like a more rounded measure. Good find on the rowing. Another golden generation right there.

Unfortunately we could never seem to get in done in Olympics, but we won a lot of medals between 1994 and 2006 at World Championship level. The one that got away was Lynch and Towey in Athens. After getting bronze at Worlds the year before, after just one year together, they should have been gold medal contenders. Looked great in the heats, and then crashed out in semi finals. From what I heard, one of them had to workout that morning to get the weight down, as they were a lightweight crew, so he was probably jaded come the race. How that was allowed happen I don't know. Our best chance of an Olympic medal went with it!

Dodge

Don't think you can compare one off championships with medal counts. We finished 28th in the 1996 Olympics ahead of the likes of GB, Sweden, Ethiopia, Kenya, Belgium, Belarus and loads of others we wouldn't normally...

Can also understand how indoor medals don't have the same cache as outdoor medals. Still terrific achievements of course

Enduro

Chivito550 wrote: »

Unfortunately we could never seem to get in done in Olympics, but we won a lot of medals between 1994 and 2006 at World Championship level. The one that got away was Lynch and Towey in Athens. After getting bronze at Worlds the year before, after just one year together, they should have been gold medal contenders. Looked great in the heats, and then crashed out in semi finals. From what I heard, one of them had to workout that morning to get the weight down, as they were a lightweight crew, so he was probably jaded come the race. How that was allowed happen I don't know. Our best chance of an Olympic medal went with it!

I've trained with and raced against and alongside Mr Towey (Hill running and Adventure Racing), so I know all about that one alright! They had a dodgy scales IIRC, so when they went to the official weigh in they were heavier than they realised, and as a result they both had to sweat off extra weight though a big effoty on an erg in a short space of time. End result was exactly as you say, our best medal hope (and they were absolutely genuine gold contenders, our #1 hope at Sydney) drifted away. Small margins at the top.

Clearlier

Chivito550 wrote: »

Unfortunately we could never seem to get in done in Olympics, but we won a lot of medals between 1994 and 2006 at World Championship level. The one that got away was Lynch and Towey in Athens. After getting bronze at Worlds the year before, after just one year together, they should have been gold medal contenders. Looked great in the heats, and then crashed out in semi finals. From what I heard, one of them had to workout that morning to get the weight down, as they were a lightweight crew, so he was probably jaded come the race. How that was allowed happen I don't know. Our best chance of an Olympic medal went with it!

They were always on the limit for weight and the scales were broken for the weigh in or their morning weight check IIRC which screwed up their timings.

We won the world cup of golf in 1997. You could argue that the world cup isn't the biggest deal in golf but you'd have to concede the same for the world indoors in athletics.