malta incident

david brent

is anyone else very worries about the press coverage that the "malta incident" is getting. at a time when in my opinion the profile of irish athletics is beggining to rise, it could be a bad blow. we need to be attracting youngsters into the sport and any parent who reads the coverage will think very hard about letting their kids get involved in athletics. remember the irish swimming scandal of a few years ago? i don't want to get into the ins and outs of the case and i don't think we should but the bad publicity that irish athletics is receiving does concern me. the AAI need swift and decisive action especially with the schools track season upon us. any opinions

ecksor

I've heard that there was an 'incident' and that it was on the news and in the papers, but I haven't actually seen anything. I'm not looking for any gossip here, but has this been covered online somewhere?

[edit]Scratch that, I found some news reports. I couldn't find any when I searched this morning. Thanks.[/edit]

Fast_Mover

Hi- i missed it in the news and it in the papers-what exactly happened in the "malta incident" could someone please tell me..........? and what did they say about it in the papers and news?

ecksor

http://www.rte.ie/sport/2003/0507/athletics/athletics.html

UHcoug

was this trip for elite athletes or for aqnyone who could raise the funds? also any idea of who the coach is.first i heard of it,get no news of irsih athletics over here

ecksor

This is not the place to start mentioning names.

david brent

i wasnt on the trip but i know who the people involved were. i'm obviously not going to say. what gets me is firstly the negative coverage athletics gets but more so the actions and attitudes of the AAI. firstly all ive heard from people that were over there was that it was a good piss up. athletes were asked to sign a form to say that they wouldnt drink. some didnt sign it, others did but still went out drinking and were caught by the coaches. nothing was done about it. it was costing the aai money to have athletes there and there were people drinking! this is an organisation who wouldnt send teams to the world or euro x-c recently and yet they're throwing away money on this "training trip". any athlete who was caught drinking should not be considered for an international event this year. that would teach them a lesson. secondly, what the hell were children doing on a trip with adults. Elizebeth mcwilliams (not the person involved in "the incident") is about 14, she should be on training trips with people of similar age, not senior athletes. there were a number of under 18s on the trip which isnt right. when coaches who are supposed to be looking after what are effectively children are bringing them on nights out and misleading them in this way, well it's a complete joke.

Amz

As someone who was heavily involved in competitive swimming at the time of the abuse scandals and who knew many of the people involved, it is unfortunately the case that all coaches will be under suspicion and scrutiny by parents even by the athletes themselves. Swimming in Ireland has never fully recovered and unless the AAI have a much better PR system than Irish swimming had it will take a long time before the sports popularity will increase.

Ed Healey

David,

I quote you: "secondly, what the hell were children doing on a trip with adults."

Are we supposed to send them unaccompanied?

And who better to learn from than a senior athlete?

Ed

david brent

OK that wasnt the best layed out arguement i've ever made. the u-17 athletes were on the trip would clearly just have been following the lead set by the older ones. they would have learned very little from the young senior athletes on the trip. "adults" wasnt the right word for me to use, i was referring to the 19-23 age group who went on the trip for a good time. there is plenty to be learned from experienced senior athletes but there werent too many there (a few exceptions obviously). bring the younger athletes away with coaches from the juvenile committee and coaches who are dedicated to that age group. bringing them on a glorified drinking holiday was never going to bring anything but trouble.

LegacyUser

I agree that none of the athletes there should have been allowed to drink. The reason they were there in the first place was to train. I'm not saying that they weren't allowed have a good time. I'm just saying that they were primarily there to train - it wasn't a sun holiday.

Couldn't that have been left to after the training was finished or even when they got back to Ireland. They sell drink here too!

LegacyUser

First post said remember the swimming cases?!Swimming had those cases AND an Olympic gold medal cheat! and look what swimming has now, that massive aquatic centre in abbotstown!!
Gerladine and Malta the start of something great perhaps?!!