Athletics 2022

Pherekydes

Interesting to see Breda Dennehy's daughter, Róisín Willis, winning the 800 at the World juniors last night. Her time was faster than the Irish senior record at 1:59.13. She only turns 18 on Saturday.

Oh what might have been? 🤔

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119426268#Comment_119426268

Very exciting race. She said afterwards that the crowd noise really lifted her on that last lap and she's not sure she could have won without them.

ariana`

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119427647#Comment_119427647

That's a very gracious thing to say. She was phenomenal on that last lap, the pain in her face gave me goose bumps, I was roaring at the screen like she was Irish, she has some kick on her. She's had an amazing year bar the Worlds where covid and a few things went against her. I've heard her hinting at moving to the marathon so that will be very interesting to see how things go in time but she is still achieving great things at 5 & 10k. And as P said she seems so down to earth with it.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119427758#Comment_119427758

Yes indeed, she seems a very humble and gracious woman. That was an incredibly brave last lap from her....many a lesser athlete would have been dropped by Cheptai going down the back straight, but McColgan stuck to her like a limpet and refused to bend. Sheer willpower gained her the victory.

yerwanthere123

Nick Griggs up at 11:04pm tonight, fingers crossed he's in contention.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119434690#Comment_119434690

Those guys that finished ahead of him looked red hot. If he could get a top 8 finish or so, I'd say he'd be happy enough.

Pussyhands

Have to hand it to the brits, they really get behind the athletics. Great to see packed stadiums.

yerwanthere123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119435181#Comment_119435181

Yeah, it's great to see. I'd love to see a Worlds or Olympics back in London (or elsewhere in the UK) asap.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119435181#Comment_119435181

The atmosphere here is actually way better than it was in Oregon (God knows how that place was ever given a world championship).

Dodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119435247#Comment_119435247

Nike

Anyway, the u20s postponed because of storms. Nicola Tuthill in 6th after 2 rounds of the hammer. They have a provisional restart time of 11:30 our time. A few races to fit in

yerwanthere123

Griggs' final rescheduled to 12:09am our time.

Dodge

Finished 9th. Insane pace at the start and he wouldn’t/couldn’t go with it. Finished about 20s behind a very classy looking Ethiopian lad

yerwanthere123

9th place in 8:04 for Nick Griggs. Pace was very hard from the gun and was never in it unfortunately. Onwards and upwards.

Dodge

8th for Nicola Tuthill in the hammer. Didn’t improve on her round one throw. Round 3 started 4 hours after round 2 ended

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119435643#Comment_119435643

Yes, it looked like he just couldn't go with them in the first couple of laps. It does illustrate what European distance runners are up against when they compete on the world stage. The Danish guy tried to go with them for a few laps but quickly got burned off.

yerwanthere123

Made a mistake choosing to ignore the Commonwealth games, I've missed some good races.

Dodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119437078#Comment_119437078

Post race interview suggests he thought he’d be dragged back to the leaders by the Africans who didn’t go with pace when they decided to go

Danish guy finished 6th which is a terrific placing to be fair to him

Strazdas

Great silver medal for Ciara Mageean in the 1500m in the Commonwealth Games (behind Laura Muir). She was hugely impressive and finished well ahead of the rest of the field.

ariana`

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119442234#Comment_119442234

Delighted to see her medal at these games. She ran very well, never a threat to Muir but likewise there was no real threat to her silver.

Roisín Flanagan ran a pb in the 5000m also and of course Eilish McColgan got a fantastic Silver there.

Two fantastic races to watch.

yerwanthere123

Phenemonal race from Ciara Mageean, just superbly judged and executed. I'll be honest and say I didn't think she'd be in the medals at all. Rounding into shape nicely for Munich... you never know.

Fantastic silver for McColgan, knew she wouldn't beat Chebet and was always running for silver.

Fun race in the women's 4x400m relay also, fair play to Jess Knight for hanging on.

Edit: Jess Knight's efforts were for nothing; just read England were stripped of the title for a lane infringement 🙃

BeepBeep67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119438658#Comment_119438658

Selective coverage beginning to appear on YouTube and if you happen to be viewing from the UK <cough-cough> iPlayer has a good selection

Hamachi

Good run by John Fitzsimons in Hungary last night over 800m. He ran 1:45.70 to finish second in a reasonably classy international field, beating out Isaiah Jewitt in the process.

Excellent indicator of decent form heading into Munich. Would be great to see John and Mark English do some damage over 800m at the Europeans.

deisedude

Speaking of Europeans do we have any potential medal prospects?

Hamachi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119449327#Comment_119449327

Ciara Mageean, after her excellent silver in the commonwealth games, is certainly a medal threat over 1500m. If Mark English has retained his Eugene form, he should be in the mix. Thomas Barr almost always pulls it out on the bag on the big stage; I wouldn't discount him, assuming he's injury-free.

I would have said that Rhasidat Adeleke has potential over 400m. However, this is one of the most competitive events. Femke Bol and Natalia Kaczmarek recently ran 49.75 and 49.86 respectively in Poland. Lieke Klaver ran low 50s consistently in Eugene. For context, 50s is truly world class in the women's 400m. Frankly, I think those three are almost locks for the medals there.

Our dark-horse prospect is the women's 4x400m relay. We have a very solid squad in Adeleke, Phil Healy, Sophie Becker, and Sharlene Mawdsley. A little bit of luck and we might nab a medal. Keep an eye out for Chris O'Donnell over 400m too.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119449468#Comment_119449468

Adeleke is capable of going faster. She clearly underperformed in that 400m semi in Oregon and wasn't happy herself with that run.

Mageean must be the best medal prospect alright. Difficult to predict with any certainty of course, as those 1500m races can be very tactical and messy but she seems to be in great shape anyway.

yerwanthere123

Mageean is entered in both the 800 and 1500, will be interesting to see if she runs both. She's actually ran the 800 better this year, but would probably be more competitive over 1500 at European level.

Will I start a thread for the Europeans? The world's thread didn't get a lot of traction at all, but I suppose Munich is obviously much more time friendly and with more competitive Irish athletes then there'll surely be more interest. If we had one for the Commonwealths then I guess we should do Europeans too.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119450706#Comment_119450706

Yes, the fact that the whole thing is live on RTE next week probably makes it worth a thread of its own.

deisedude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119450706#Comment_119450706

Do. I started the thread for Commonwealths but in hindsight should have posted in here to let more people know

yerwanthere123

Monaco Diamond League live on BBC Three tonight from 7pm. Highlight could be the women's 1500m, I think Faith Kipyegon could take down Dibaba's dirty world record tonight 🤞

Dubh Geannain

National record for McCann over 1km - 2:16.40