Olympics daily thread

The Rings The Flame · 08-08-2016 04:52PM

Strazdas wrote: »

And in a very fast time too : these guys could medal with a bit of luck

Yes indeed. I'm hoping some of the results here can inspire a boost for rowing. It's always been a sport where we had the potential for success and now we've got a better system in place it could really be a source of medals in the future.

Would be nice to expand the potential medal sources beyond the traditional boxing.

walshb · 08-08-2016 04:53PM

Strazdas wrote: »

Conlan and Taylor still looking good you would think, given their sheer quality and class.

No way. Nobody "looks good" for gold. This tournament is top class. All quality. Yes, we have the talent to get gold, but so do other countries. Paddy's loss today to a virtual "unknown" proves this.

Joe_ Public · 08-08-2016 04:57PM

walshb wrote: »

No way. Nobody "looks good" for gold. This tournament is top class. All quality. Yes, we have the talent to get gold, but so do other countries. Paddy's loss today to a virtual "unknown" proves this.

Have to agree. Watching the 49s today, I was taken aback at the quality of all the fights. I don't recall all the divisions having so much strength in depth as they do now, I think it's as likely we get no gold medals as two quite frankly. One would probably be an acceptable compromise!

Strazdas · 08-08-2016 05:14PM

walshb wrote: »

No way. Nobody "looks good" for gold. This tournament is top class. All quality. Yes, we have the talent to get gold, but so do other countries. Paddy's loss today to a virtual "unknown" proves this.

Not sure about Conlan, but I expect Katie to come good in Rio. Losing to Alekseevna and Mossely will have done her no harm and means she is the one on a revenge mission, not the one who is there to be picked off.

08-08-2016 05:16PM

mansize wrote: »

???

The Irish commentators said Guy hadnt made the final so I bet against him winning a gold medal on betfair then they turned around and said he made it be 1/100rd of a second. My own fault of course but I then said jokingly will rte give me my money back if he wins

Strazdas · 08-08-2016 05:17PM

The Rings The Flame wrote: »

Yes indeed. I'm hoping some of the results here can inspire a boost for rowing. It's always been a sport where we had the potential for success and now we've got a better system in place it could really be a source of medals in the future.

Would be nice to expand the potential medal sources beyond the traditional boxing.

We've always been good at world championship level but it would be a great boost to the sport to see a crew break through and medal at an Olympic Games.

biZrb · 08-08-2016 05:21PM

The Rings The Flame wrote: »

Would be nice to expand the potential medal sources beyond the traditional boxing.

Absolutely. It'd be so great too have Ireland be world players at this sport. All we seem to win medals for is boxing and horse events.

I live in London and have only rowed there, one of the women in the lightweight doubles that rowed today is from my club. Unfortunately she didn't qualify today but the Irish team did, I was so happy, the British are so good at the sport it was a great feeling knowing we bet them at something they are traditionally very good at.

I'm definitely watch both semi-final events, fingers crossed they both make it into the finals.

walshb · 08-08-2016 05:21PM

Strazdas wrote: »

Not sure about Conlan, but I expect Katie to come good in Rio. Losing to Alekseevna and Mossely will have done her no harm and means she is the one on a revenge mission, not the one who is there to be picked off.

Conlan's division is ridiculously loaded.

Joe_ Public · 08-08-2016 05:22PM

Strazdas wrote: »

We've always been good at world championship level but it would be a great boost to the sport to see a crew break through and medal at an Olympic Games.

Remember rowing was the hype sport all through the noughties. Lynch and Towey were practically being given the medal before they left for Athens. Disaster! Seemed there was a bit of a golden generation during those years. If only they had the structures that are in place now back then, might have been a different story for those guys.

VinLieger · 08-08-2016 05:23PM

Women's Laser radial race 1 is delayed but men's laser full rig is started, I'm on mobile so can only see mark roundings but you can watch live tracking here
http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/multimedia/live_tracking.php#.V6ix21RenCT

Strazdas · 08-08-2016 05:30PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Remember rowing was the hype sport all through the noughties. Lynch and Towey were practically being given the medal before they left for Athens. Disaster! Seemed there was a bit of a golden generation during those years. If only they had the structures that are in place now back then, might have been a different story for those guys.

Going right back to Sean Drea in 1976, he broke the world record in the semi final in Montreal only to have a disappointing final and finish fourth.

These O'Donovan brothers look handy though and as if they're capable of anything this week.

marienbad · 08-08-2016 05:34PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Remember rowing was the hype sport all through the noughties. Lynch and Towey were practically being given the medal before they left for Athens. Disaster! Seemed there was a bit of a golden generation during those years. If only they had the structures that are in place now back then, might have been a different story for those guys.

well they did win quite a few world title golds and lots of silver and bronzes so the hype wasn't completely undeserved . I don't know about been given the medal though - the Italian and Poles were the overwhelming favourites .

I wouldn't call it a golden generation though - it was just the same few athletes all the time . And we never really built on it . Lets hope this time is different

Strazdas · 08-08-2016 05:39PM

marienbad wrote: »

well they did win quite a few world title golds and lots of silver and bronzes so the hype wasn't completely undeserved . I don't know about been given the medal though - the Italian and Poles were the overwhelming favourites .

I wouldn't call it a golden generation though - it was just the same few athletes all the time . And we never really built on it . Lets hope this time is different

We've a long tradition in rowing and have produced world champions like Niall O'Toole and Sinead Jennings. It's almost a surprise that we haven't picked up an Olympic medal or two.

HeidiHeidi · 08-08-2016 05:39PM

marienbad wrote: »

Rowing - womens lightweight double skull through to the semis .

biZrb wrote: »

So are the men, they won their heat, fantastic rowing today

Re the above two quotes - anyone know why both teams appeared to kill themselves to win their heat, when in both cases the first two boats qualified, and the third-places were a good distance behind (in one case a full 10 seconds if I remember rightly). Surely they'd save themselves for the next round/final?

REBELSAFC wrote: »

What are all the whistles at the eventing? They seem to be very distracting?

This! Anyone?

VinLieger wrote: »

Women's Laser radial race 1 is delayed but men's laser full rig is started, I'm on mobile so can only see mark roundings but you can watch live tracking here
http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/multimedia/live_tracking.php#.V6ix21RenCT

Is this being broadcast at all on the telly?

Joe_ Public · 08-08-2016 05:42PM

marienbad wrote: »

well they did win quite a few world title golds and lots of silver and bronzes so the hype wasn't completely undeserved . I don't know about been given the medal though - the Italian and Poles were the overwhelming favourites .

I wouldn't call it a golden generation though - it was just the same few athletes all the time . And we never really built on it . Lets hope this time is different

Yeah that's fair, they achieved quite a bit in those years, it's not all about the Olympics. But I do recall they were a medal favourite in 2004, and it was just there was a lot of media attention around them probably helped build it. Sam Lynch had a great weekly column in the Times I remember, ghosted by Tom Humphries. Anyway, they were unlucky, think there was a cut finger in the lead-up to it and maybe a problem with weight and in the end they missed a qualifying mark by a tiny fraction. So it goes.

The O'Donovan bros look a bit tasty alright, hopefully can make further progress.

VinLieger · 08-08-2016 05:42PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Is this being broadcast at all on the telly?

Not by rte, if you can access the BBC extra channel stuff via red button or VPN for the BBC sports site streams you can probably watch it

VinLieger · 08-08-2016 05:44PM

Analise 8th at her first mark and Finn was 13th at his second both doing well from the looks of it

marienbad · 08-08-2016 05:44PM

Strazdas wrote: »

We've a long tradition in rowing and have produced world champions like Niall O'Toole and Sinead Jennings. It's almost a surprise that we haven't picked up an Olympic medal or two.

We are basically a Lightweight nation in rowing ( with the exception of Drea) and as there are only two lightweight events - the fours and the double skulls - our options are limited . O'Toole and Jennings (until now ) could never find a partner in the same league as they were to team up for a double .

Chivito550 · 08-08-2016 05:46PM

marienbad wrote: »

We are basically a Lightweight nation in rowing ( with the exception of Drea) and as there are only two lightweight events - the fours and the double skulls - our options are limited . O'Toole and Jennings (until now ) could never find a partner in the same league as they were to team up for a double .

Why is it that we are a lightweight nation?

The_Kew_Tour · 08-08-2016 05:47PM

Never heard of Sean Drea until now even though he was before my time.

Looked at his wiki page seemed a excellent rower.

Also we always seem to have least 1 "Fourth" place finish at these games

HeidiHeidi · 08-08-2016 05:48PM

VinLieger wrote: »

Analise 8th at her first mark and Finn was 13th at his second both doing well from the looks of it

Gah - where are you seeing this??

Can only find windsurfing on the BBC channels, and can't get the tracker linked to above to work :mad:

VinLieger · 08-08-2016 05:49PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Gah - where are you seeing this??

Can only find windsurfing on the BBC channels, and can't get the tracker linked to above to work :mad:

I'm on mobile right now I'll post more in a bit when I get home, Finn dropped to 27th unfortunately

marienbad · 08-08-2016 05:50PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yeah that's fair, they achieved quite a bit in those years, it's not all about the Olympics. But I do recall they were a medal favourite in 2004, and it was just there was a lot of media attention around them probably helped build it. Sam Lynch had a great weekly column in the Times I remember, ghosted by Tom Humphries. Anyway, they were unlucky, think there was a cut finger in the lead-up to it and maybe a problem with weight and in the end they missed a qualifying mark by a tiny fraction. So it goes.

The O'Donovan bros look a bit tasty alright, hopefully can make further progress.

It wasn't so much the cut finger as much as a fairly serious illness a few months before the games - they never really recovered .

As far as I know that column that was mostly Lynch's own work , your man just cut it down to size and such for each edition.

Joe_ Public · 08-08-2016 05:50PM

marienbad wrote: »

We are basically a Lightweight nation in rowing ( with the exception of Drea) and as there are only two lightweight events - the fours and the double skulls - our options are limited . O'Toole and Jennings (until now ) could never find a partner in the same league as they were to team up for a double .

I'm no rowing expert but I always thought the lack of success in 2012 was a fairly damning indictment of whatever system was in place. That was virtually a "home" games and they could have been targeting boats for that years previously. I know I said golden generation, maybe that was overegging it, but there were a lot of great guys around like Paul Griffin, Archibald, the Coakleys etc while the likes of Towey and Lynch and others could still have been there if they'd been managed properly. It was failure on a near epic scale imo.

marienbad · 08-08-2016 05:53PM

Chivito550 wrote: »

Why is it that we are a lightweight nation?

As a nation we are not lightweight ( recent stats would say we are anything but

) but we just don't seem to produce top class heavyweights in rowing - why I don't know , maybe rugby creams them all off ?

Joe_ Public · 08-08-2016 05:54PM

marienbad wrote: »

It wasn't so much the cut finger as much as a fairly serious illness a few months before the games - they never really recovered .

As far as I know that column that was mostly Lynch's own work , your man just cut it down to size and such for each edition.

It was a terrific column either way. I have them clipped out and filed away somewhere, terrific lads the pair of them.

marienbad · 08-08-2016 05:56PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I'm no rowing expert but I always thought the lack of success in 2012 was a fairly damning indictment of whatever system was in place. That was virtually a "home" games and they could have been targeting boats for that years previously. I know I said golden generation, maybe that was overegging it, but there were a lot of great guys around like Paul Griffin, Archibald, the Coakleys etc while the likes of Towey and Lynch and others could still have been there if they'd been managed properly. It was failure on a near epic scale imo.

Couldn't agree more , Lynch was only 27/28 after Athens

Oldira · 08-08-2016 05:57PM

Murphy up to 3rd now in Laser Radial.

clairewithani · 08-08-2016 05:58PM

Mr.Prodston wrote: »

That seems like such an awkwardly dangerous fence though? If I were a horse I wouldn't have a clue how to approach it!

Ha ha. For some reason that made me laugh.

I hate working when Olympics are on ðŸ˜¢

Oldira · 08-08-2016 05:59PM

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I'm no rowing expert but I always thought the lack of success in 2012 was a fairly damning indictment of whatever system was in place. That was virtually a "home" games and they could have been targeting boats for that years previously. I know I said golden generation, maybe that was overegging it, but there were a lot of great guys around like Paul Griffin, Archibald, the Coakleys etc while the likes of Towey and Lynch and others could still have been there if they'd been managed properly. It was failure on a near epic scale imo.

Britain target rowing and cycling from years back. They reckoned that while talent is important in those strenght nad endurance events they could 'make' medalists. Seems to have paid off in fairness.

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