Athletics 2022

TeaTotal

Very strong team. Thought it was surprising to leave out Michael Power on the under 23 team who was a high scorer last year? Abdul Laadjel out of the under 20 team after finishing 6th last year is mind blowing.

Tombo2001

Could be just injured. Gidey won a medal and then didnt run the next two years I think. Goes to show the strength in depth though.

TeaTotal

Yep great to see strength in teams. Michael ran at NCAA and Abdel posted that he was disappointed not to be selected after setting Irish under 20 10000 metre record and 6th last year. By not coming home for the race, you’re leaving it up to the selectors.

kirk.

Rumours of kenya being banned from athletics

Can't see it happening but crazy amount of doping going on

phelimcas

Agree that it's a strong team generally across the board.

The U20 and U23 Mens team look like being serious medal contenders as does Sarah Healy in the U23 Womens. Other teams have outside chances if all goes well.

Anyone know if Fionuala McCormack is injured. If fit she's really valuable to the team.

Pherekydes

Brian Fay ran 13:16.77 today in Boston. Barry Keane ran 13:21.57 in the same race. Both are faster than the NR Keane set at this meet a year ago. Augurs well for the Euro XC.

yerwanthere123

Gidey making her marathon debut in Valencia this morning, will be shown on Eurosport from 7am. Will definitely be one to watch, the world record will probably go down.

E.coli

Sinead Diver taking down the Aus National record this morning also puts her as fastest Irish Woman of all time

YFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119955147#Comment_119955147

Her mother in law messaged me earlier. Time 2:21:34. Beat the Australian record by 62 seconds.

Amazingly Brett Robinson broke the Australian men's record in Japan today with 2:07:31.

yerwanthere123

Heartbreaker for Griggs today, was on course to win the U20 cross country when a stumble cost him

https://twitter.com/Cathal_Dennehy/status/1601868993807237120?t=aQ_7AAduZe-NDJ2GsOEPDQ&s=19

Sarah Healy was in third place when she pulled out with an injury

https://twitter.com/Cathal_Dennehy/status/1601926027944415237?t=G-hS4LQn1SuXFTTKNdYlcw&s=19

Paddy1234

Very poor form by the RTÉ panel. They really went for Sarah - talking about her mindset without knowing anything about why she pulled out. The commentating was terrible too. They hadn’t a clue. She was obviously gone but they hadn’t a breeze. And then he thought he saw her in 6th after she had pulled out.

phelimcas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119985786#Comment_119985786

Agree with comment here. Assumption that it was a sign of mindset weakness on her part when not having the facts was really bad. She's still young enough and talented enough to have long-term success as an athlete.

Overall though really strong performance by the teams generally. The senior women without Fionuala McCormack and Ciara Mageean really did a great job. Pity Stephanie Cotter had been laid low with injury last season as her NCAA Div 2 win came too late for her to be included in the team. She's a really promising athlete.

While on paper the mixed relay team looked strong the nature of the course (technical and tough) was too alien for track runners imo.

TeaTotal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119985786#Comment_119985786

Rob is usually very good to be fair. The two commentators are awful. Dave Matthews and especially Greg Allen, he is really poor. Greg constantly makes mistakes about athletes counties and clubs etc. He clearly doesn't follow athletics or know the athletes. I turned them off and followed on the euro athletics channel.

In terms of the athletics, junior men were fantastic. Nick looked to buckle with fatigue in last few metres. The top 3 from last year dropped out of the race so it was a great run from him and Casey. McGinley who came 6th in trials finished 12th as well.

Under 23 men have great depth considering Darragh dropped back after going with the early pace. Senior women produced great result without Ciara and Finn.

Overall very good day for Ireland.

TeaTotal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119989963#Comment_119989963

I think they need to have a 1500metre/mile trial at the national cross country. its the only way to do it. England have a trial for the mixed relay. Nadia had shown form in coming 3rd on that same course few weeks previous but I dont think any of the other 3 had raced since summer (I could be wrong). They didn't show any cross country form anyway. I know andrew ran the senior race in trials last year. They should at least ask athletes to run the senior race to see some form beforehand. They were way off the pace from the gun

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119989963#Comment_119989963

I'd agree that the senior women's team did fantastic and above expectations really. Absolutely delighted for them the joy in the face's when they found out they medaled was great to watch.

But I wouldn't agree with your comments about the mixed relay team and the course no suiting them. If you look at the vast majority of the athletes taking part in the relay they are all track athletes. That's not to say that some individuals don't run well in cross country race but that's different that saying that it just didn't suit our team. Also you could argue that Jacob is a track athlete and he seemed to do alright on the same course. One of the issues could be that they don't run enough cross country.

The mens senior team were also disappointing

TeaTotal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119991629#Comment_119991629

Barry Keane and Fay ran a 5k indoors the week previous. You would wonder how wise that is after a long ncaa season. Fay obviously set Irish indoor record but during XC season you would imagine cross country would take preference.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119992520#Comment_119992520

Sometimes I often feel as a really negative hurler on the ditch. But there's times when you have to say what's on your mind.

It's all well and good setting a record and I don't want to take from both their achievements in dipping under the previous record. But the reality is, it doesn't mean much if you can't produce a performance in a championship race. There is a lot of runners that can run a fast time but the good ones produce it when it matters. Let's hope they can both reduce that performance in Istanbul.

As I said in a previous post. Not everyone is suited to xc, but Fay proved it last year in the euro Cross.

Pherekydes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119993619#Comment_119993619

I'd imagine their first priority would be the NCAAs the week after Istanbul, so they're unlikely to appear for the Euros.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119993755#Comment_119993755

That would make sense. I didn't realise that they were so close. Pity

ReeReeG

Not sure where this deserves to be posted but Sean Tobin made his marathon debut... In Antarctica!!

Course record of 2.53 😅

Seems to be organised by Richard Donovan who I believe sponsors some of the DTC runners...

TeaTotal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119996935#Comment_119996935

Serious run. He is moving to marathon for Paris olympics I believe! That surely translates to a decent normal marathon lol

yerwanthere123

New thread for the new year.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058278022/athletics-2023