Irish Performance at Worlds?

Testosterscone

The usual assessment that naturally occurs post championships

Thomas Barr (400m hurdles) - DNF - Illness
Brian Gregan (400m) - 19th Overall - Semi Finals
Ciara Mageean (800m) - 34th - Failed to make out of heats
Mark English (800m) - 34th - Failed to make out of heats
Fionnuala McCormack - DNS
Mick Clohisey (Marathon) - 22nd
Paul Pollock (Marathon) - DNS
Sean Hehir (Marathon) - 63rd
Claire McCarthy (Marathon) - 33rd
Alex Wright (20km walk) - DQ
Brendan Boyce (50km walk) - DNS
Robert Heffernan (50km walk) - 8th

Good Championship? Poor? To form?

Overachievers? Underachievers?

Chivito550

No buttering it up. It was utterly dreadful. There was a 6 day period (Days 4-9) where the only Irish action was a Siofra heat. Ireland has never been so invisible at a World Championships.

ger664

While they got no medals I think Mick Clohisey, Claire McCarthy and Rob Heffernan performed well.

IvoryTower

Gregan making semi final was good, good run from mick too

average_runner

ger664 wrote: »

While they got no medals I think Mick Clohisey, Claire McCarthy and Rob Heffernan performed well.

Heffernan always puts a good performance in, enjoy the retirement


Gregan and Clohisey for me were the stand out performance.

English and Barr can be excused.

Mageean had a race to forget about, happens to us all. Hopefully she can learn from it and push on.

walshb

I also think that the fact that RTE did not cover this and that we heard from nobody Irish on it all adds to the poor showing.

pconn062

A pretty dismal championships all round for the Irish. A good result by Heffernan in the walk, plus solid results from McCarthy and Clohissey in the marathon. Gregan had the most to be happy about IMO, and a semi final was a very good performance from him given the insane depth in the 400m. English and Mageann, for whatever reason (injury or otherwise) were flat and underperformed. Barr was unlucky but still think he would have struggled in a semi, and Cleirigh-Buttner got some much needed big championship performance.

Hard to say what it going wrong but all the recent talk about coaching is a good thing and will hopefully kick AI into gear and consider hiring a sprint, walks and middle distance coach.

Good article here from Jeremy Lyons:

http://irishcoachescorner.blogspot.ie/2017/08/we-need-to-accept-we-have-coaching.html?spref=tw

Tombo2001

I think the team itself did ok.

There was one outstanding performance; however since it was from an athlete of exceptionally high quality that has delivered strong performances for such a long period of time, its perhaps not being recognised as such in the national press. There was nobody in Croke Park over the weekend that comes anywhere close to the work and preparation that this man puts in.

After that, Clohissey did well as did Gregan, as mentioned.

As for the others - really Barr was the only one who might have been a final contender and we know what happened there.

Mageean and English were disappointing; Mageean I'd be more worried about as she's had a series of racing setbacks now and it will be difficult to lift herself.

The bigger issue for me is lack of depth in the squad - there seems to be an aspirational thing of 'trying to make the Olympic team' - a lot of athletes who went to Rio didnt push on when they might have. Particularly here I'd mention the 3 steeplechasers from last year; none participated in what was arguably the single best race of the Championships.

Similarly both mens and womens marathon, between them there are 5-6 athletes who ran in Rio that didnt run in London. Why not?

Probably the reality is that these are not professional athletes in the way for example that the Americans are - and they cant dedicate their whole lives to an event two years in a row when there are day jobs going on as well.

Outside of this, we have a number of mid-distance athletes who are now in their late 20s, and with a different career trajectory could have been in finals in London.

And finally that we certainly have potential in for example 4x400m relay, and yet werent there.

average_runner

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I think the team itself did ok.

There was one outstanding performance; however since it was from an athlete of exceptionally high quality that has delivered strong performances for such a long period of time, its perhaps not being recognised as such in the national press. There was nobody in Croke Park over the weekend that comes anywhere close to the work and preparation that this man puts in.

After that, Clohissey did well as did Gregan, as mentioned.

As for the others - really Barr was the only one who might have been a final contender and we know what happened there.

Mageean and English were disappointing; Mageean I'd be more worried about as she's had a series of racing setbacks now and it will be difficult to lift herself.

The bigger issue for me is lack of depth in the squad - there seems to be an aspirational thing of 'trying to make the Olympic team' - a lot of athletes who went to Rio didnt push on when they might have. Particularly here I'd mention the 3 steeplechasers from last year; none participated in what was arguably the single best race of the Championships.

Similarly both mens and womens marathon, between them there are 5-6 athletes who ran in Rio that didnt run in London. Why not?

Probably the reality is that these are not professional athletes in the way for example that the Americans are - and they cant dedicate their whole lives to an event two years in a row when there are day jobs going on as well.

Outside of this, we have a number of mid-distance athletes who are now in their late 20s, and with a different career trajectory could have been in finals in London.

And finally that we certainly have potential in for example 4x400m relay, and yet werent there.

I think you make a good point about two years in a row and the day job.
Something that we lack here in Athletics is the money.

Athletics is getting more like soccer, the countries with the most money are getting stronger.

pconn062

average_runner wrote: »

I think you make a good point about two years in a row and the day job.
Something that we lack here in Athletics is the money.

Athletics is getting more like soccer, the countries with the most money are getting stronger.

It's not all about money though, good tweet here from Michael Johnson about the British performance:

https://twitter.com/MJGold/status/897021159702712321

They seem to be going through the same coaching dilemma as we are.

Testosterscone

Tombo2001 wrote: »

The bigger issue for me is lack of depth in the squad - there seems to be an aspirational thing of 'trying to make the Olympic team' - a lot of athletes who went to Rio didnt push on when they might have. Particularly here I'd mention the 3 steeplechasers from last year; none participated in what was arguably the single best race of the Championships.

Similarly both mens and womens marathon, between them there are 5-6 athletes who ran in Rio that didnt run in London. Why not?

Sarah Treacy was injured for most of the season, Kerry Flaherty injured early season and didn't regain fitness in time to hit the qualifying time. Michelle Finn??

Pollock injured, Britton out of form, Lizzie Lee had a baby this year.

Testosterscone

average_runner wrote: »

Something that we lack here in Athletics is the money.

While I agree to an extent I think at the moment even if the money was there wouldn't have huge impact as the money being used at the moment is not being used effectively.

Tombo2001

pconn062 wrote: »

It's not all about money though, good tweet here from Michael Johnson about the British performance:

https://twitter.com/MJGold/status/897021159702712321

They seem to be going through the same coaching dilemma as we are.

I think the reality is that the team didnt do too badly, for what we sent out.

Look at the medals table - who is the comparable to Ireland that really outperformed?

Poland was a standout performer with contenders in many events, but their population is ten times larger.

Norway is the most comparable I would think. But the medals table is all large countries.

The unfortunate thing though is that the wider public thinks no medal = no good.

Chivito - I'm surprised you think the performance was so awful, a few athletes underperformed expectations; a few others outperformed. What was so bad about it?

Tombo2001

Testosterscone wrote: »

Sarah Treacy was injured for most of the season, Kerry Flaherty injured early season and didn't regain fitness in time to hit the qualifying time. Michelle Finn??

Pollock injured, Britton out of form, Lizzie Lee had a baby this year.

Thats all fair and maybe its all coincidence, it just seems that a lot of the team that went to Rio werent involved in London a year later.

Tombo2001

pconn062 wrote: »

A pretty dismal championships all round for the Irish. A good result by Heffernan in the walk, plus solid results from McCarthy and Clohissey in the marathon. Gregan had the most to be happy about IMO, and a semi final was a very good performance from him given the insane depth in the 400m. English and Mageann, for whatever reason (injury or otherwise) were flat and underperformed. Barr was unlucky but still think he would have struggled in a semi, and Cleirigh-Buttner got some much needed big championship performance.

Hard to say what it going wrong but all the recent talk about coaching is a good thing and will hopefully kick AI into gear and consider hiring a sprint, walks and middle distance coach.

Good article here from Jeremy Lyons:

http://irishcoachescorner.blogspot.ie/2017/08/we-need-to-accept-we-have-coaching.html?spref=tw

Well written article however what it fails to look at is the trend over time.

I had a quick look, and as far as I can see, in the inaugural 1983 world champs, we had only 1 performer in the top 16 in any event, and that was Coghlan. And this was the 'golden age' of Irish mid distance runners.

I suspect that the 2007 world champs were the aberattion rather than the norm.

Also, to throw into that mix - Alistair Cragg made a lot of finals; he wasnt a product of the local system in any way.

Similarly, Gillick was in Loughborough.

What arguably has changed is that we arent getting athletes coming through the US collegiate system to represent Ireland in a way that the we once did.
What I'd be interested in is - for a country of comparable size, what or who is best in class.

My suspicion is that if we want to have consistent performers in the top ten, then we we need to specialise in the way Jamaica or Kenya does.

However that probably wont happen - as kids dont take up athletics just to help the country get more medals. They take it up because they enjoy it, and the run the events they want run, or throw or jump, and that means diversity.

A disappointment for me in London is that we had so few female athletes on in track and field. I think this should be looked at in particular.

An additional point - none of the Dublin universities are backing athletics in any meaningful way. None have a track on campus. I think this could make a big difference, in terms of discussing what we COULD do differently.

RayCun

Tombo2001 wrote: »

My suspicion is that if we want to have consistent performers in the top ten, then we we need to specialise in the way Jamaica or Kenya does.

Make everyone take up race walking :pac:

Jamaica and Kenya consistently punch above their weight in athletics, but athletics is the national sport in those countries. The Poles aren't ****ing around with rugby or GAA. The British poured millions into athletics to do well in the Olympics and these championships.

I don't know why people expect a minority sport in a small country to perform much better than we have.

Tombo2001

RayCun wrote: »

Make everyone take up race walking :pac:

Jamaica and Kenya consistently punch above their weight in athletics, but athletics is the national sport in those countries. The Poles aren't ****ing around with rugby or GAA. The British poured millions into athletics to do well in the Olympics and these championships.

I don't know why people expect a minority sport in a small country to perform much better than we have.

I completely agree and I'd say the emphasis should really be on managing expectations, and to celebrate achievements that arent necessarily medals.

As mentioned - the country goes nuts when we qualify for a major soccer tournament - absolutely no discussion about ever winning the thing.

But for example Brian Gregan ran one of the top European times of the year in Santry, didnt even get a mention on the news.

average_runner

RayCun wrote: »

Make everyone take up race walking :pac:

Jamaica and Kenya consistently punch above their weight in athletics, but athletics is the national sport in those countries. The Poles aren't ****ing around with rugby or GAA. The British poured millions into athletics to do well in the Olympics and these championships.

I don't know why people expect a minority sport in a small country to perform much better than we have.

Athletics is quiet low down in Poland, soccer, basketball are way up the list along with skiing.

average_runner

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I completely agree and I'd say the emphasis should really be on managing expectations, and to celebrate achievements that arent necessarily medals.

As mentioned - the country goes nuts when we qualify for a major soccer tournament - absolutely no discussion about ever winning the thing.

But for example Brian Gregan ran one of the top European times of the year in Santry, didnt even get a mention on the news.

Managing expectations is the right thing to do, considering the facilities we have here.
Most other sports in Ireland have a good organization behind them, backing them, except for the FAI!

YFlyer

Testosterscone wrote: »

Sarah Treacy was injured for most of the season, Kerry Flaherty injured early season and didn't regain fitness in time to hit the qualifying time. Michelle Finn??

Pollock injured, Britton out of form, Lizzie Lee had a baby this year.

Final exams.

Tombo2001

average_runner wrote: »

Managing expectations is the right thing to do, considering the facilities we have here.
Most other sports in Ireland have a good organization behind them, backing them, except for the FAI!

Lets talk about other individual sports
Tennis - when do we ever have anyone play in a Major.
Badminton - we won our first ever European medal recently (bronze in mixed doubles).
Swimming - Very rare for any of our competitors to go beyond the semifinal stage of a major meet.
Rowing/ Sailing - yes we have done well in recent years, but it has nothing like the depth of other sports. On the other hand, these are definitely sports where we have a bit of a natural advantage and should focus.
Cycling......since Kelly and Roche, very few high level performers

Over time, boxing golf and athletics have been the outliers.

I'm not here to knock AI.

average_runner

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Lets talk about other individual sports
Tennis - when do we ever have anyone play in a Major.
Badminton - we won our first ever European medal recently (bronze in mixed doubles).
Swimming - Very rare for any of our competitors to go beyond the semifinal stage of a major meet.
Rowing/ Sailing - yes we have done well in recent years, but it has nothing like the depth of other sports. On the other hand, these are definitely sports where we have a bit of a natural advantage and should focus.
Cycling......since Kelly and Roche, very few high level performers

Over time, boxing golf and athletics have been the outliers.

I'm not here to knock AI.

Tennis we had a guy in the Oz open in 2016
Badminton we had some guy do well in the olympics
Cycling we had Dan martin twice in top ten of the tour and roche twice in top ten of a grand tour also.


I never said other sports were more successful, just said most other sports have good organisations behind them.

Tombo2001

average_runner wrote: »

Tennis we had a guy in the Oz open in 2016
Badminton we had some guy do well in the olympics
Cycling we had Dan martin twice in top ten of the tour and roche twice in top ten of a grand tour also.


I never said other sports were more successful, just said most other sports have good organisations behind them.

Your implication is that athletics doesnt.? maybe I'm wrong.

By the way, the badminton player you mentioned moved to Denmark at age 16. (incidentally, i would personally rate him very highly, he is up there with Robert Heffernan as one of Ireland's most underrated sports people).

Dan Martin as you know is as Irish as Andy Townsend or Jon Walters.

average_runner

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Your implication is that athletics doesnt.? maybe I'm wrong.

By the way, the badminton player you mentioned moved to Denmark at age 16. (incidentally, i would personally rate him very highly, he is up there with Robert Heffernan as one of Ireland's most underrated sports people).

Dan Martin as you know is as Irish as Andy Townsend or Jon Walters.

I don't believe athletics has a good professional organisation behind them. Our athlete's got public transport to events in Rio!!! Lack of funds for facilities, lack of a PR machine, i can go on!

Tombo2001

average_runner wrote: »

I don't believe athletics has a good professional organisation behind them. Our athlete's got public transport to events in Rio!!! Lack of funds for facilities, lack of a PR machine, i can go on!

Well again, what are you comparing it to...who does it better? What does 'good' look like. Because I dont see it in Ireland, and I dont particularly see it overseas either.

There are limited resources and a lot of the people are part-time or volunteers.

Chivito550

average_runner wrote: »

I don't believe athletics has a good professional organisation behind them. Our athlete's got public transport to events in Rio!!! Lack of funds for facilities, lack of a PR machine, i can go on!

Link to this? Sounds like utter nonsense.

Djoucer

Off the ball discussing this at 8.05pm this evening. Ian O'Riordain and Ewan McKenna.

I'm sure there will be room for doping talk.

average_runner

Djoucer wrote: »

Off the ball discussing this at 8.05pm this evening. Ian O'Riordain and Ewan McKenna.

I'm sure there will be room for doping talk.

Its very good.

average_runner

Chivito550 wrote: »

Link to this? Sounds like utter nonsense.

http://m.independent.ie/sport/rio-2016-olympics/irish-athletes-had-to-catch-public-buses-to-their-events-in-rio-amid-tickets-debacle-36028582.html

average_runner

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Well again, what are you comparing it to...who does it better? What does 'good' look like. Because I dont see it in Ireland, and I dont particularly see it overseas either.

There are limited resources and a lot of the people are part-time or volunteers.

Compare it to rugby and gaa. I mean David gillick said athletes would go off to their hotel room to get their gear and it be too small. Basic things like.

RayCun

average_runner wrote: »

http://m.independent.ie/sport/rio-2016-olympics/irish-athletes-had-to-catch-public-buses-to-their-events-in-rio-amid-tickets-debacle-36028582.html

'Athletes' in that story doesn't mean the people in athletics, it means the people competing at the Olympics, whether they are boxers, swimmers, runners, jumpers, rowers...

RayCun

average_runner wrote: »

Athletics is quiet low down in Poland, soccer, basketball are way up the list along with skiing.

Athletics in Ireland is behind soccer and GAA, and doesn't have the funding of rugby or golf.
Poland has more of a gym/weight-lifting culture, which crosses over into the throwing events.

average_runner

RayCun wrote: »

'Athletes' in that story doesn't mean the people in athletics, it means the people competing at the Olympics, whether they are boxers, swimmers, runners, jumpers, rowers...

So are you saying it does not mean athletes in track and field?

"In some instances, athletes and coaches were sharing accreditation and the inquiry heard that athletes without passes had to travel to their events by public bus.

"The result of the shortage of accreditation is that often athletes would have to share coaches, and often accreditation would not be provided to specialist coaches," the report states.

"Some professed that it was a mystery as to how accreditations were allocated, not only in the number of accreditations made available but also as to the level of accreditation."

average_runner

RayCun wrote: »

Athletics in Ireland is behind soccer and GAA, and doesn't have the funding of rugby or golf.
Poland has more of a gym/weight-lifting culture, which crosses over into the throwing events.

Yes the weight lifting crosses over into the shot putt etc, but not the track where they are doing so well.

Track is behind basketball, soccer, skiing and a few others. I work with a good few from Poland, one of them is a runner he would tell you its not one of the top sports there.

RayCun

average_runner wrote: »

So are you saying it does not mean athletes in track and field?

They might be referring to track and field athletes, but they don't specify that in the article, you can't tell either way.
They talk about athletes, as opposed to coaches, athletes' families, and other spectators.
Not athletes, as opposed to boxers and rowers.

Like here,

The Olympic Council of Ireland fielded a team of 77 athletes, 51 men and 26 women, across 14 sports at the Games

average_runner

RayCun wrote: »

They might be referring to track and field athletes, but they don't specify that in the article, you can't tell either way.
They talk about athletes, as opposed to coaches, athletes' families, and other spectators.
Not athletes, as opposed to boxers and rowers.

Like here,

Fair enough, so it could be a mixture of athletes but no one really knows for sure, except its another balls up.

These things shouldn't be happening, our athlete's deserve so much more from the authorities.

Tombo2001

average_runner wrote: »

Fair enough, so it could be a mixture of athletes but no one really knows for sure, except its another balls up.

These things shouldn't be happening, our athlete's deserve so much more from the authorities.

Is that not on the Olympic Council of Ireland - I dont think anyone would argue its (historic) capacity to balls things up, or to prioritise senior officials over athletes*

*includes Boxers, Rowers, Swimmers, Hockey team, Badminton

Tombo2001

To be fair, Derval is not mincing her words on the subject of lack of coaches.

Here's the thing:

(i) We dont have a climate that suits track athletics, its difficult to train all year round for sprinting in particular.
(ii) We are not* a doping nation, and no doubt many countries are
(iii) Yes there appears to be an absence or shortage of professional coaches.
(iv) I think the GAA at grassroots level has grown in strength in recent years and is hoovering up a lot more kids than it used to. The facilities the GAA has at club level are really impressive.

With respect to (iv) I do think more could be done to make athletics available to kids; how many kids run the community games once a year and dont see the track again for another 12 months.

Having said that, I would note that the summer camps run by Athletics Ireland this year were run extremely well and were well attended.

*my opinion.

Testosterscone

Tombo2001 wrote: »

To be fair, Derval is not mincing her words on the subject of lack of coaches.

Here's the thing:

(i) We dont have a climate that suits track athletics, its difficult to train all year round for sprinting in particular.
(ii) We are not* a doping nation, and no doubt many countries are
(iii) Yes there appears to be an absence or shortage of professional coaches.
(iv) I think the GAA at grassroots level has grown in strength in recent years and is hoovering up a lot more kids than it used to. The facilities the GAA has at club level are really impressive.

With respect to (iv) I do think more could be done to make athletics available to kids; how many kids run the community games once a year and dont see the track again for another 12 months.

Having said that, I would note that the summer camps run by Athletics Ireland this year were run extremely well and were well attended.

*my opinion.

In relation to climate we have a very mild climate in comparison to some,

Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Norway have shown this to be a mute point.

Also I think the kids aspect is a bit of a mute point, we have waiting lists in most clubs the issue is retention. I think secondary school/college infrastructure is where attention needs to be focused not so much in terms of facilities but cultures of high performance and coaching focal points

average_runner

Testosterscone wrote: »

In relation to climate we have a very mild climate in comparison to some,

Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Norway have shown this to be a mute point.

Also I think the kids aspect is a bit of a mute point, we have waiting lists in most clubs the issue is retention. I think secondary school/college infrastructure is where attention needs to be focused not so much in terms of facilities but cultures of high performance and coaching focal points

The bad thing about the waiting lists, is that Athletics can't gain from the Wimbledon effect where everyone plays tennis for two weeks, only 1% might join a club but better than nothing.

My daughter watched alot of the World champs with me, it's the first big sporting event that she watched. The kids started racing on the street etc. She asked if she could go to my club but I had to say no, as there is a waiting list.

Now she might of given up after a month or maybe not. It worked out well for me, as she is also swimming, which I think is more important asset to her in the long term, she can pick up running at any stage.

Testosterscone

average_runner wrote: »

The bad thing about the waiting lists, is that Athletics can't gain from the Wimbledon effect where everyone plays tennis for two weeks, only 1% might join a club but better than nothing.

My daughter watched alot of the World champs with me, it's the first big sporting event that she watched. The kids started racing on the street etc. She asked if she could go to my club but I had to say no, as there is a waiting list.

Now she might of given up after a month or maybe not. It worked out well for me, as she is also swimming, which I think is more important asset to her in the long term, she can pick up running at any stage.

But is that a failing of the AAI or just a mentality of parents wanting to drop kids off and leave it at that?

Go to coaching courses, championship races and it's same faces helping out, the same people coaching and the same people spectating.


In 2016 there were 74 coaching courses for athletics leaders, assistant coaches and level one (the courses which would impact these waiting list figures) Most clubs are willing to cover costs of these courses as well looking at the figures there was an average of 13 in attendances per course. Despite this juvenile membership levels have steadily grown to beyond 30,000

average_runner

Testosterscone wrote: »

But is that a failing of the AAI or just a mentality of parents wanting to drop kids off and leave it at that?

Go to coaching courses, championship races and it's same faces helping out, the same people coaching and the same people spectating.


In 2016 there were 74 coaching courses for athletics leaders, assistant coaches and level one (the courses which would impact these waiting list figures) Most clubs are willing to cover costs of these courses as well looking at the figures there was an average of 13 in attendances per course. Despite this juvenile membership levels have steadily grown to beyond 30,000

From what I thought it was, its the maximum number of kids that can be supported on a track ?

Is the AAI fault or parents fault? To be honest alot of it is to do with the timing of the training sessions.

When you have two parents working with more than one kid, its very hard for both of them to get home before 630 in the evening, maybe one can get home, but they have more than one kid, so therefore have to drop more than one kid off to other sports that evening or its a younger kid that needs to go to bed.

The same with track meets, the organizers expect kids to stay around all day and expect parents to stay around all day, sorry but that is not a reasonable thing if you have kids going to different sports. I know kids on our street refuse to do track races because of this as they are bored for most of the day. These backward meets need to get with the times, use a online facility for signing up to races and checking in.

Testosterscone

average_runner wrote: »

From what I thought it was, its the maximum number of kids that can be supported on a track ?

Is the AAI fault or parents fault? To be honest alot of it is to do with the timing of the training sessions.

When you have two parents working with more than one kid, its very hard for both of them to get home before 630 in the evening, maybe one can get home, but they have more than one kid, so therefore have to drop more than one kid off to other sports that evening or its a younger kid that needs to go to bed.

The same with track meets, the organizers expect kids to stay around all day and expect parents to stay around all day, sorry but that is not a reasonable thing if you have kids going to different sports. I know kids on our street refuse to do track races because of this as they are bored for most of the day. These backward meets need to get with the times, use a online facility for signing up to races and checking in.

Actually most of it is due to kid to coach ratio s

Keep hearing the mention of other sports though that's a choice by parents hardly the issue of the AAI, sure Football and GAA intentionally schedule games at same time in localities to make them make a choice.

As for races the time tables can get messy no doubt but wonder how more efficient they could be if parents actually gave an hour while they were at these meets to help with measuring jumps, raking jump pits, adjusting HJ bar.

If these delays could be shored up with extra man power people could plan being at an event for 2-3 hours max unless kid was in multiple events and be able to help out for 45 min to an hour) but again the sport is being ran on less than 100 people very easy to criticise when feck all are willing to actually pull together and help.

average_runner

Testosterscone wrote: »

Actually most of it is due to kid to coach ratio s

Keep hearing the mention of other sports though that's a choice by parents hardly the issue of the AAI, sure Football and GAA intentionally schedule games at same time in localities to make them make a choice.

As for races the time tables can get messy no doubt but wonder how more efficient they could be if parents actually gave an hour while they were at these meets to help with measuring jumps, raking jump pits, adjusting HJ bar.

If these delays could be shored up with extra man power people could plan being at an event for 2-3 hours max unless kid was in multiple events and be able to help out for 45 min to an hour) but again the sport is being ran on less than 100 people very easy to criticise when feck all are willing to actually pull together and help.

Fair enough some good points. I do agree that people should help when their kids are there. Nothing better than getting involved with the kids.

I never thought I be holding a hurl again but its brilliant fun.

Braken

When I was going to college in the early seventies Athletics had a high profile in the rugby playing colleges and also in the press,the national and provincial press reported on the schools championships extensively in the same way as the schools rugby cup is now days..all that is gone....

ThisRegard

Article in the Irish Times today by Sonya O'Sullivan on the issues surrounding the kit the Irish team wear.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/sonia-o-sullivan-irish-athletes-not-helped-by-the-non-wearing-of-the-green-1.3188948

average_runner

ThisRegard wrote: »

Article in the Irish Times today by Sonya O'Sullivan on the issues surrounding the kit the Irish team wear.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/sonia-o-sullivan-irish-athletes-not-helped-by-the-non-wearing-of-the-green-1.3188948

Apparently we have no kit sponsors for the next championship, they said it on newstalk.

ThePiedPiper

Something that hasn't been mentioned here at all is the lack of any Irish athletes doing field events. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm struggling to remember any Irish doing field events at worlds or olympics in my lifetime.

At the Olympic stadium in London, there's a long jump challenge painted on the ground outside, see how far you can jump relative to Rutherfords Gold medal jump. It's simple, it captures the imagination. Likewise I've seen 'Run with Mo' screens, challenging kids to keep up with Mo's pace for 30 metres. We don't do any of that, the public at large know nothing about Athletics in Ireland. Most people I told I was going to the World Championships asked me if I was competing, for crying out loud!!!

There are excellent facilities all around the country for Athletics. I can only comment on the fantastic facility right in the heart of one of Irelands biggest towns and how incredibly underused it is during the day. Every year, I take a class or two there from my school for a very basic introduction to athletics over maybe 8 sessions. There is massive enthusiasm amongst the kids, particularly for the long jump and triple jump. My point is that on scanning through the sign-in book, it appears that no other schools in the town use the facilities on even a semi-regular basis. Unless you're Usain Bolt, it's important that you explore athletics as a pre-teen or young teenager in order to have any chance.

Ireland have been doing very well in participating in the marathon, and the excellence of Heffernan has been great. However, as a couple of posters said, our other qualifiers are in some of the most competitive and toughest events. The quality on show in some events in London was pretty terrible across the board. Women's steeplechase, and some of the field events heats in particular were fun for the fans, but in reality, poor standard. Surely, there's got to be some lads/lassies that have excellent potential coming from a failed GAA/rugby/ soccer career that could step up in the throwing events. However, AAI probably doesn't do scouting.

It may be defeatist, but it's probably a reality that Irelands greatest athletes did incredibly well at international level as a result of their own enormous commitment and talent, and not due to institutional structures or investment in the sport. Despite all of the adults engaged in, let's be honest, recreational running, Athletics is, and likely will remain a minority sport here. On that basis, maybe we're doing alright.

Jnealon

average_runner wrote: »

Apparently we have no kit sponsors for the next championship, they said it on newstalk.

I heard NB pulled the plug over the Rio fiasco. CX sports supplied the kit for the worlds afaik and they also supply the kit for Dundalk FC

Chivito550

ThePiedPiper wrote: »

Something that hasn't been mentioned here at all is the lack of any Irish athletes doing field events. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm struggling to remember any Irish doing field events at worlds or olympics in my lifetime.

At the Olympic stadium in London, there's a long jump challenge painted on the ground outside, see how far you can jump relative to Rutherfords Gold medal jump. It's simple, it captures the imagination. Likewise I've seen 'Run with Mo' screens, challenging kids to keep up with Mo's pace for 30 metres. We don't do any of that, the public at large know nothing about Athletics in Ireland. Most people I told I was going to the World Championships asked me if I was competing, for crying out loud!!!

There are excellent facilities all around the country for Athletics. I can only comment on the fantastic facility right in the heart of one of Irelands biggest towns and how incredibly underused it is during the day. Every year, I take a class or two there from my school for a very basic introduction to athletics over maybe 8 sessions. There is massive enthusiasm amongst the kids, particularly for the long jump and triple jump. My point is that on scanning through the sign-in book, it appears that no other schools in the town use the facilities on even a semi-regular basis. Unless you're Usain Bolt, it's important that you explore athletics as a pre-teen or young teenager in order to have any chance.

Ireland have been doing very well in participating in the marathon, and the excellence of Heffernan has been great. However, as a couple of posters said, our other qualifiers are in some of the most competitive and toughest events. The quality on show in some events in London was pretty terrible across the board. Women's steeplechase, and some of the field events heats in particular were fun for the fans, but in reality, poor standard. Surely, there's got to be some lads/lassies that have excellent potential coming from a failed GAA/rugby/ soccer career that could step up in the throwing events. However, AAI probably doesn't do scouting.

It may be defeatist, but it's probably a reality that Irelands greatest athletes did incredibly well at international level as a result of their own enormous commitment and talent, and not due to institutional structures or investment in the sport. Despite all of the adults engaged in, let's be honest, recreational running, Athletics is, and likely will remain a minority sport here. On that basis, maybe we're doing alright.

We are dreadful at field events in general but I think you are OTT by saying we have never had a field eventer in your lifetime.

Deirdre Ryan 6th in high jump at 2011 Worlds
Eileen O'Keefe 6th in hammer at 2007 Worlds
Brendan Reilly 8th in high jump at 1999 Worlds
Ciaran McDonagh 10th in long jump at 1999 Worlds
Terry McHugh 10th in javelin at 1993 Worlds
Nick Sweeney 4th in discus at 1993 Worlds

There have been others who qualified but those were the most successful ones.

Braken

ThePiedPiper wrote: »

Something that hasn't been mentioned here at all is the lack of any Irish athletes doing field events. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm struggling to remember any Irish doing field events at worlds or olympics in my lifetime.

At the Olympic stadium in London, there's a long jump challenge painted on the ground outside, see how far you can jump relative to Rutherfords Gold medal jump. It's simple, it captures the imagination. Likewise I've seen 'Run with Mo' screens, challenging kids to keep up with Mo's pace for 30 metres. We don't do any of that, the public at large know nothing about Athletics in Ireland. Most people I told I was going to the World Championships asked me if I was competing, for crying out loud!!!

There are excellent facilities all around the country for Athletics. I can only comment on the fantastic facility right in the heart of one of Irelands biggest towns and how incredibly underused it is during the day. Every year, I take a class or two there from my school for a very basic introduction to athletics over maybe 8 sessions. There is massive enthusiasm amongst the kids, particularly for the long jump and triple jump. My point is that on scanning through the sign-in book, it appears that no other schools in the town use the facilities on even a semi-regular basis. Unless you're Usain Bolt, it's important that you explore athletics as a pre-teen or young teenager in order to have any chance.

Ireland have been doing very well in participating in the marathon, and the excellence of Heffernan has been great. However, as a couple of posters said, our other qualifiers are in some of the most competitive and toughest events. The quality on show in some events in London was pretty terrible across the board. Women's steeplechase, and some of the field events heats in particular were fun for the fans, but in reality, poor standard. Surely, there's got to be some lads/lassies that have excellent potential coming from a failed GAA/rugby/ soccer career that could step up in the throwing events. However, AAI probably doesn't do scouting.

It may be defeatist, but it's probably a reality that Irelands greatest athletes did incredibly well at international level as a result of their own enormous commitment and talent, and not due to institutional structures or investment in the sport. Despite all of the adults engaged in, let's be honest, recreational running, Athletics is, and likely will remain a minority sport here. On that basis, maybe we're doing alright.

There are many reasons for our failure at field events,it was not always the case of course ,in the early years of the Olympics before independence we were very successful competing for the US and GB specially at the jumps and the weight events ,after independence we had Pat O Callaghan winning gold in the Hammer in 1928/32 and probably would have won also in 36 if he was allowed compete..there was a decline after that due to the increasing popularity of team sports particularly the Gaelic Athletics Association promotion of hurling/football to the exclusion of athletics which had the same standing in the association at one time..European countries don't have a tradition of physical contact team sports so most of their big guys go into the Shot/hammer/discus etc..here and England it's rugby...