Athletics 2024

Ceepo

Tbh I'd say for some it's all of the above mentioned. Money from AI perspective, and training cycle from the athletes perspective.

While it may not be xc season, the world cross has always been held at this time of the year. So it's not a shock for that these championship were coming up. If AI were serious about sending a team /teams, that could have been comunactated to the athletes in plenty of time. No doubt the timing wouldn't have suited some people. But others might have jumped at the chance.

Duanington

I don't get the rationale behind not sending full teams, can only assume its budget related.

I heard the lads on inside running earlier, chatting about how Australian Athletics are charging their selected athletes 3,500 dollars to compete.

Rossi7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121886735#Comment_121886735

I think that only applies if they don't finish in the top 20, not that it makes it right. Them boys aren't too fond of the Aus Athletics Association.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121886856#Comment_121886856

I can see why country's don't see the financial sense to send teams to the world cross, for one thing it's expensive to send 6 teams of 4 plus managers and officials etc. For the most part save from a few African countries their the aren't going to make top 10,20 or even top 50, so you'll always get the hurlers on the ditch saying "what's the point". I'm also sure from some athletes pov, that there no benefit to finishing down the field at these championship.

The flip side is if every country took the pov, then there would only be a handful of athletes competing an world cross.

I think it's a great opportunity for some athletes to get big championship experience and for the most part without huge expectations.

Not that I'd put Mo Farah up as role model but I remember when he couldn't make the top 50 at junior wc. An Irish junior beat him that day and it strengthen his claim for a scholarship to the US. (not the fact that he beat Farah, but the fact that he was 2nd European).

I also think that the running the likes of a European or world cross can't take some of the pressure off if they don't perform to their best as the don't look as exposed in a way that they might in say a track race where 20/30 seconds in a small field looks like huge gaps.

I think AI should giving young athletes every opportunity to gain international experience, especially when these championship are held in a European country.

yerwanthere123

Ingebrigtsen, Kerr and Nuguse will race the mile at Eugene diamond league on may 25th. Will be great if all show up on the start line, but I see one of Ingebrigtsen or Kerr dropping out if training isn't going well.

Duanington

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121886856#Comment_121886856

Ah - ok, so not everyone has to fund it? Still seems a bit odd doesn't it?

Duanington

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121886996#Comment_121886996

Yeah, I suppose at a high level, a national organisation has to ask themselves if their approach is good or bad for the sport.

Not sending full teams surely cannot be good for the sport....that has to be the starting point in my view. I get that budgets and logistics might be an issue but you're either trying to promote and build a sport or you're not.

I'm also not a fan of not showing up if you can't compete at the very top level, XC is a strange beast, form can go out the window, strange things happen + if only the people who are potentially winners turn up, its a pretty small field. We're seeing this creep in at all levels of running really and its a shame to see.

Some of our finest could probably do with finishing outside of the top 50 in a world class field over the muck, couldn't agree more re championship experience etc

walshb

As mentioned here, we reckon Jakob gets the mile record May 25?

yerwanthere123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889291#Comment_121889291

He had an achilles injury recently, so might not be in world record shape. If it's a fast race though rule nothing out, but maybe Nuguse is in with a shot too.

SuspectZero

Brian Fay ran 27:43 last night at the Ten in US, just 4 seconds shy of taking down Alistar Cragg's 27:39 National Record. 38 second pb and for him and second fastest Irish performance in history

In the B race, Peter Lynch ran 27:49. Efrem Gidey 27:53 and Barry Keane 28:27

Ceepo

Andrew Coscoran 2.19. Won 1000m race in Oz this morning , Paul Robinson 3rd in 2.20

Split by Stewart McSweyn

secman

I know this is prominently about irish athletes but just putting a name up here for what may look like a future star in 100 meters sprinting, only 16 years old now and doing phenomenonal times, kids name is Gout Gout, no it's not a joke, google him. Exciting if he can maintain his impressive sprinting as he matures.

yerwanthere123

Athletics Weekly made some early medal predictions for Paris

https://athleticsweekly.com/stats/paris-2024-podium-predictions-1039974844/

They have Adeleke winning the bronze, which I'd be thrilled with.

yerwanthere123

Entry lists for the Diamond League opener in Xiamen are already up. Over three weeks away though so chance of a few withdrawals.

https://xiamen.diamondleague.com/program-results/program-2024/

The women's 1500 looks unreal, will be a real treat to get Kipyegon, Tsegay and Hailu in a race together to open the season, with Welteji and Haylom thrown in for good measure too. Mark English will run the 800m.

yerwanthere123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904212#Comment_121904212

Forgot to post it at the time, but Megan Keith had a huge run here too. 30:36 and an Olympic qualifier on her debut at the distance and at 21 years of age, definitely a name to watch out for. Won the European u23 5000m and cross country championships last year too.

She's not really a fan of the distance though, admits she finds watching it "pretty boring" 😅

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/68682536

Elsewhere at The Ten, Gebreselama ran 29:48 to move to #9 on the women's all time list. Alicia Monson had a disaster and dropped out before halfway, disappointing for her as she planned her winter training around this race. She was aiming for a very fast time as the wavelight had been set to 29:37.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925101#Comment_121925101

Thanks for the heads up! Had never heard of him before, but will be keeping an eye out now. And this thread definitely isn't for Irish athletes only so keep the updates coming 🙂

yerwanthere123

World Cross Country championships live on Virgin Media Two from 9:50am

4Ad

That ladies race was great, 31.05 in 27°C...

Water John

Adeleke showing her class, with this relay run in Texas, going under world record time;

https://www.rte.ie/sport/athletics/2024/0330/1440909-adeleke-and-team-mates-scorch-to-4x200m-relay-victory/

Pherekydes

The same quartet ran 3:25 for the 4x4 a short while later, almost as fast the Dutch ran in the world indoor.

Julien Alfred, Adeleke, Lanae Thomas and Dina Asher-Smith.

Hamachi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121958389#Comment_121958389

Does anybody know if Adeleke is committed to running world relays for Ireland in early May?

I know the relay squad has a training camp scheduled in Florida during the last week of April, before heading to the Bahamas for world relays. She could potentially link up with them without it being too disruptive to her training schedule.

Either way, with a fully fit Mawdsley and Healy, I think they have enough firepower to qualify in both the mixed and the women’s 4x400m. Obviously it would be good to have the turbo injection that Adeleke would provide, but I’ve no idea if it’s in her plans?

Dodge

She spoke at a recent press event that she was “committed” to the world relays. The reports I read didn’t indicate which teams she’d be on

Initial heats of all events are within 2 hours of each other so unlikely any/many will run in both mixed and women’s. Our men haven’t qualified so they’ll be running mixed only

Top 2 in each of 4 heats qualifies for the final and also for the Olympics.

On second day there are a further 3 repechage heats with the top 2 in each qualifying for the Olympics.

What smaller countries like ours might do is hope to qualify in one event on day one, and then switch to repechage in the other event on day two (forgoing the final in the other event). Draws will be critical

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121964107#Comment_121964107

Clearly herself and Mawdsley are our two best runners over 400m, male or female- the question then probably is whether the two strongest men are better ranked than the 3rd and 4th fastest women. i'd guess thats the way it would be looked at. And that would actually be a tight enough call - tbh, we will never ever have a better 4x400m team than Adeleke, Mawdsley, Becker, Healy.

Water John

The other issue is, does it affect individual races?

Hamachi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121967224#Comment_121967224

In my opinion, they should go all in on the Women’s 4x400m. It’s serendipitous that we happen to have four world class women competing concurrently in a single event. That might never happen again.

Adeleke and Mawdsley can both run sub-50 relay legs. Healy is clearly getting back to her best, as was evidenced in Glasgow and is capable of a high 50 leg. If Becker could step it up a notch, I feel like they could do some damage in the Olympics. The final is well within their capabilities. After that, who knows..

Dodge

I’ll say it again, the draws will be crucial. If we get (say) the US or Netherlands in the heat, then there’s only one spot likely available

Hamachi

The Netherlands face the same conundrum as us. They have two stellar athletes, Bol and Klaver, but outside of that, their talent pool is fairly shallow. Our numbers 3 and 4 (Healy and Becker) are on par with their Dutch peers (DeWitte, Peeters/Saalberg).

Same story with Belgium, Poland etc. The only nations with a sufficiently deep squad to cover to mixed + the women’s relay and assure qualification to the final are the US, Jamaica, and possibly GB.

Will be very interesting to see how countries balance this.

Dodge

The Dutch women are world champions. The Dutch men finished 6th. The Dutch mixed would have been world champions only for the slip. And they subbed in one runner for every final too

I don’t think we can be compared at all

Musicrules

How has Dutch sprinting got so good? I know we're improving hugely as well but what plans did the Dutch put in place to get to where they are?

Hamachi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121977065#Comment_121977065

To the best of my knowledge, there’s a few reasons.

The first was the emergence of Dafne Schippers who first competed in the world championships in 2011 in Daegu. Seeing her win World and Olympic medals gave them confidence that the talent exists in their country and that they can compete globally.

Second, was the establishment of their high performance training center in Papendal. I think it was upgraded to support athletes like Schippers and Nadine Visser, but has grown and evolved from there. Basically, it’s a center for athletic excellence.

Third, was hiring Laurent Meuwly as their head coach. Meuwly is one of the most accomplished coaches in the world right now, with a particular specialisation on the 400m/400m hurdles. He used to coach Lea Sprunger in Switzerland. He was excited to take the job in the Netherlands because he knew that they are genetically suited to those events i.e. strong, tall women with a solid aerobic base.

Contrary to what another poster suggested, I still don’t think their talent pool is particularly deep. Take Bol and Klaver out of the equation and they suddenly look relatively ordinary. Take Sharlene Mawdsley, she’s far superior to any of the other Dutch 400m runners. The only exception is Lisanne DeWitte. She ran sub-51 once, but that was back in Berlin 2018. She’s 31/32 now and has never since come anywhere near that time again. They have some young talent coming through like Myrte Van Der Schoot, but it remains to be seen how they will perform at senior level.

My 2 cents..

Dodge

all the big names are travelling anyway

Mixed: Adeleke, Mawdsley, Healy, Becker (reserve) - Barr, Greene, Raftery, O’Donnell (reserve)

Women - the four above plus Roisin Harrison, Lauren Cadden @ Rachel McCane