Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Dan man · 17-10-2012 7:37pm #1

ROAD TO RIO 2016:

Time for a brand new thread to discuss Irish Olympic prospects for 2016 and follow the progress of our prospective Olympians. After one of our most successful Olympic Games in London, a brand new Olympic cycle is underway and it's time to start looking forward to Rio 2016.
The Games of the XXXIst Olympiad will be upon us sooner than you think.... 1388 days and counting.
It's time we set off on the long Road to Rio.....

Dan man · 17-10-2012 10:17pm

To start off with I'm going to do a round-up of some Irish results from Olympic sports post-London 2012.

Irish modern pentathlete Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe won Ireland's first ever major international medal when he claimed bronze at the World Junior Championships in Drzonkow, Poland in early September. Arthur is only 20 and already has Olympic experience having come home in 25th place in London 2012. He will be a huge prospect for Rio 2016 if he can carry his current rate of progress forward over the next few years. He actually led the field going into the combined shoot and run event in Poland but he couldn't hold onto his advantage. However, he did hang on for a magnificent bronze medal....he is World Junior Bronze medallist, a great achievement for the Kilkenny man.

Arthur after his bronze medal presentation:

Ireland's junior showjumpers claimed gold at the European Junior Championships in Austria in mid-August. The team was comprised of Bertram Allen, Shannon McKenzie, Max O'Reilly-Hyland and Sven Hadley.
In further good news for Irish equestrian, our Young rider team won silver at the European Eventing Championships in Malmo, Sweden in August. As is the norm with Irish eventing, the team got off to a slow start, lying in a solid 5th position after dressage. The team then shot up to 3rd place after the cross-country element before pipping the French to the silver medal after the showjumping phase. The team was made up of Katie Nolan, Jessica O'Driscoll, David Hannigan and Shane Power.
Shane Power claimed 7th place in the individual rankings with Katie Nolan in 8th and individual rider Melanie Young in 13th place.
This is encouraging news for the sport in Ireland and hopefully Irish equestrian will continue to flourish over the next few years.

More news to follow soon....

Dan man · 18-10-2012 12:00pm

Ireland's two most successful Olympians in London 2012 look set to take different paths over the next 4 years. There is superb news for Irish Olympic fans with the breaking news that Katie Taylor will stay amateur in order to attempt to defend her Olympic crown in Rio in 4 years time.
Katie confesses that representing her country and winning medals is the ultimate achievement for her. It's a great boost to our medal chances for Rio 2016, even if it is premature to be talking of Olympic medals 4 years out from the Games and of course a huge amount can happen over that period of time.... still it'll be welcome news for most Irish fans who want to see her in Rio.

Katie Taylor with her Olympic gold medal:

Elsewhere, Olympic bantamweight silver medallist John Joe Nevin has hinted strongly that he is set to turn pro, but has of yet to sign any professional contract. More light will be shed on this over the coming days and weeks no doubt.

John Joe Nevin with his Olympic silver medal:

Dan man · 18-10-2012 2:49pm

Ireland's young boxers performed magnificently at the European Schoolboys Championships in Anapa, Russia in early October.
The team claimed 3 golds with Oliver McCarthy, James McGivern and Michael Nevin all claiming overall titles, 1 silver from John Sweeney and 6 bronze medals with Francie Stokes, Kieran Molloy, Brett McGinley, Darragh Murray, Nevan Fannon and James Clarke all claiming podium finishes. Only Russia's young boxers bettered Ireland's incredible haul of 10 medals.
Hopefully we'll see some of these young boxers coming into the senior fold over the next few years. Irish boxing will remain in good hands in the future it seems

KevIRL · 18-10-2012 4:32pm

Great stuff. Sticky this Schit Dan

Skid · 21-10-2012 1:18pm

Dan man wrote: »

Elsewhere, Olympic bantamweight silver medallist John Joe Nevin has hinted strongly that he is set to turn pro, but has of yet to sign any professional contract. More light will be shed on this over the coming days and weeks no doubt.

Yes, John Joe had announced on RTE that was signing a Professional contract with Amir Khan, but he appears to be having second thoughts

http://www.sportsnewsireland.com/athletics_irish/boxing-nevin-on-the-brink-of-u-turn787979/

As we revealed on SportsNews Ireland earlier in the week, John Joe Nevin is having second thought about his early October decision to turn Pro.

No final decision has been reached his trainer – and mentor – at Cavan BC had this to say in today’s ‘Irish Sun’ :

McKeown told SunSport: “I have been strongly advising him to stay amateur, but I wouldn’t try impact on his decision one way or the other.

“It’s his decision, but I’m delighted he looks to be staying amateur.

“He was training with me on Wednesday night. At that stage he told me exactly where he was standing but I think it’s up to him to make that announcement himself.

Great to see the 2016 thread up and running. Roll on Rio !

KevIRL · 21-10-2012 6:23pm

Bronze for Ireland in World Junior Triathlon today...

Dan man · 21-10-2012 7:23pm

KevIRL wrote: »

Bronze for Ireland in World Junior Triathlon today...

There sure was.... an excellent performance by young Mayo man Con Doherty to claim Ireland's first ever world championship medal in the sport of triathlon (just weeks after Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe claimed Ireland's first medal in modern pentathlon).
Con put in a huge effort in the bike leg and forged a lead over the main bunch and would ultimately secure him the bronze medal at the ITU World Junior Championships in Auckland, New Zealand. He was agonisingly close to silver but was beaten in a sprint finish by Frenchman, Simon Viain.
The result came as a bit of a surprise but is a huge boost not just to Con but to the entire sport in Ireland, which has been flourishing here in recent years.
Another exciting young prospect emerging in Irish Olympic sport.

Con Doherty battling hard to the finish line, picking up the World Junior bronze medal
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Skid · 25-10-2012 8:21pm

Jason Smyth is to remain based in Florida with the Lance Brauman group. Hopefully that will be a boost to his long term chances of qualifying for the Rio Olympics (and defending his Paralympic titles)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/20036569

feargale · 25-10-2012 10:22pm

Google Kate Hoey Boxing to follow what seems to be a developing controversy re. Northern Irish participation in the Irish Olympic team.

Cosmo Kramer · 27-10-2012 4:19pm

Nice to see the build up to 2016 starting early - really looking forward to following the various Irish prospects over the next four years.

Disappointing though to see that Joanna Mills has switched allegiance to the GB athletics team, however it is understandable after the way she was shafted through sheer nepotism by the AAI in terms of the London 2012 relay squad.

In boxing it will be great to have Katie on our side again - I'd imagine it will be a tougher challenge next time around but I'm sure she'll be well up for it. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, are introduced to men's boxing next time around - there has been talk of an element of professionalism being allowed in which might not necessarily be a good thing from an Irish perspective.

Great to see a fellow Mayo man doing so well in junior triathlon - I'm sure he will be just one of many new names we will be getting familiar with on this forum between now and Rio.

The_Kew_Tour · 28-10-2012 11:45am

Great work by all to keep these updates.

Some very encouraging results since the Summer games.

I would love to think we have 10/15 medal prospects going to Rio. Not saying that we will get that many medals, but that should be the numbers with at least some chance of medal.

The Irish team should be aiming to try and beat London's medal tally. I know that will not be easy, but lets set the bar higher.

Clareman · 28-10-2012 4:46pm

Surely the target for all sports between now and Rio will be to have more people qualify via the A Standard. Once people have qualified then they can go after medals.

Dan man · 28-10-2012 6:11pm

Different sports will have different targets in the coming years.... for some, simply to qualify an athlete would be a huge achievement and a huge step forward from a very small base.

Others will look to increase the numbers of qualifers, and beyond that some sports will be looking to develop into medal winning potential.

Sailing in London 2012 went from being a sport where we have many qualifers on a consistent basis to being a sport where we genuinely were contending to medal. Rio 2016 will hopefully see this potential be strengthened and deliver with medal success.

On the athletics front, for London 2012, Ireland took a big step forward in terms of the unprecedented number of athletes we had achieving the A qualifying standard. The next progression would be to maintain those numbers but having more athletes with potential to win medals. Rob Heffernan showed his potential in London with an agonising 4th place finish in the 50km but he was the only prospect for success in 2012 in athletics. For Rio 2016 there is scope for optimism with a few promising young athletes on the horizon. A medal may not be forthcoming in Rio in this sport for Ireland but certainly you could see a situation where we could have athletes challenging for top finishes in a few disciplines. But 4 years is a long time in sport and you never know what can happen.

Ireland has made promising strides in both modern pentathlon and triathlon. Both of those sports have limited scope for medals as there are only 2 sets of medals up for grabs in each, but these sports have gone from having little or no Irish representation on the elite international stage, to having athletes capable of top finishes on a consistent basis in the most prestigious events...all in the space of just a few years.
There's every chance we could have a serious medal contender in Rio in one of these sports (Modern Pentathlon looking particularly promising).

There are also promising developments in Irish cycling with a focus on identifying and developing talent for the 2020 Olympics. This process has been in place for over a year now and should start paying off over the next few seasons. Even without this programme, the current crop of emerging juniors are achieving success on the road with Ryan Mullen recently winning silver in the European Junior Time Trial (Road) and Sean Downey performing well in the junior road race also.
Even at grassroots level, the increase in participation levels in cycling in Ireland has been phenomenal over the last couple of years, to my mind anyway. There is noticeably a big increase in the number of people out cycling on our roads and also there seems to be a big increase in the number of local races being organised....the increase in interest has been great.

Sorry, I've started rambling on now, back to the point on whether we can better our performance from London, well there's no reason why we shouldn't be aiming to to even better in Rio. The early signs 4 years out from the Games is that we have the talent to achieve huge success in 2016...some of our athletes will achieve success even when up against the odds in terms of funding, lack of facilities, lack of access to top coaching or whatever. Others have the talent to achieve but particularly in very technical sports will need a big input of investment to enable them to reach their potential and to help identify talent for the future.

Dan man · 29-10-2012 2:35pm

Maria McCambridge and Paul Pollock claimed the Irish national titles earlier today at the 33rd edition of the Dublin Marathon.

Maria took 1 second off her previous best time to set a new P.B. of 2:35:28hrs....very pleasing considering this course is not the most ideal for setting fast times.

Maria crossing the finish line to claim the national marathon title:

Paul Pollock (Annadale Striders A.C.) took the men's national title in a time of 2:16:30hrs, a very respectable performance by Paul, adding to his national half-marathon title from September. Paul placed an excellent 34th overall and 5th best European runner at the recent World Half-Marathon Championships in Bulgaria earlier this month. He's still only 26 so there's plenty of scope for improvement over the next few seasons and I'm sure he'll have Rio 2016 in his sights.

Paul Pollock claiming the National Marathon title:

Silvio.Dante · 02-11-2012 8:13pm

feargale wrote: »

Google Kate Hoey Boxing to follow what seems to be a developing controversy re. Northern Irish participation in the Irish Olympic team.

It seems to be an internal debate and understandable given the special circumstances in the North.

But it wouldn't stop Paddy Barnes still boxing for Ireland...

https://audioboo.fm/boos/981435-callers-react-to-kate-hoey-s-calls-for-an-ni-boxing-governing-body

Silvio.Dante · 02-11-2012 8:23pm

Great to have this thread as its re-focussed me. For the last 6 weeks I've been a bit all over the palce. The Olympics were so god in London and I felt veery de-motivated when it was all over. but maybe thats to be expected in the immediate aftermath of it ending.

Thank you Dan for the commitment and I'll be reading, posting and enjoying the build up

Just a quick observation. Rio will be a whole new bball game for our Athletes/Parathletes in 2016. Conditions and climate will be vey different from London.

I hope Annalise Murphy, as one example will get good opportunities to sail the intended courses so that she has a feel for the winds etc...:)

feargale · 03-11-2012 12:52am

Silvio.Dante wrote: »

It seems to be an internal debate and understandable given the special circumstances in the North.
But it wouldn't stop Paddy Barnes still boxing for Ireland..

No but it seems to have developed, e.g. into a call for two bodies governing every sport in N.I., one Irish and one British.

Silvio.Dante · 03-11-2012 3:44pm

feargale wrote: »

No but it seems to have developed, e.g. into a call for two bodies governing every sport in N.I., one Irish and one British.

Or are they sggesting athletes choose between Team GB and Team Ireland at an early stage..?

feargale · 04-11-2012 1:35am

Silvio.Dante wrote: »

Or are they sggesting athletes choose between Team GB and Team Ireland at an early stage..?

They are suggesting that athletes should be able to choose in each and every sport, citing the Belfast Agreement in support.

feargale · 04-11-2012 2:38am

Earlier this year the World Wall Ball Association, with 33 member countries, was founded by a number of associations governing similar wall handball games, including, prominently, the GAA. Most of these countries were represented at the recent World Handball Championships in Citywest. One-wall handball has been accepted as a demonstration sport at the 2013 World Games, and the ultimate ambition is to have it included in the Olympics. Some contributors to threads are suggesting seeing it as a medal event at Rio in 2016, but clearly that is not going to happen. What I want to know is this - is it too late for inclusion as a demonstration sport in 2016? If and when it does get included it will clearly be another great medal opportunity for Ireland - at least until the Russians and the Chinese get in on the act! You can be sure that the GAA, unlike the IRFU a propos rugby sevens, will not look this gift horse in the mouth!

Dan man · 04-11-2012 3:54pm

Just an update on how our underage football teams have been performing lately, not entirely related to the Rio 2016 thread I know, but as the men's Olympic football tournament is an U-23 competition for the most part I thought we should cover Irish underage performances in the lead up to Rio 2016, as well as the women's football team (underage and senior level).....

Men's U-17 European Championships 2013, First Qualifying Round
Group 10: Top 2 teams qualify for Second Qualifying Round
Host nation: Macedonia
Sept.29 Republic of Ireland 1-1 Sweden
Sept.30 Romania 1-1 Macedonia
Oct.1 Republic of Ireland 4-1 Macedonia
Oct.1 Sweden 2-1 Romania
Oct.4 Romania 0-2 Republic of Ireland
Oct.4 Macedonia 0-4 Sweden

Group 10|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q Republic of Ireland|3|2|1|0|7|2|+5|7
Q Sweden|3|2|1|0|7|2|+5|7
Romania|3|0|1|2|2|5|-3|1
Macedonia|3|0|1|2|2|9|-7|1

Republic of Ireland and Sweden qualify for Second Qualifying Round

Men's U-19 European Championships 2013, First Qualifying Round
Group 5: Top 2 teams qualify for Second Qualifying Round
Host nation: Luxembourg
Oct.11 Germany 5-0 Macedonia
Oct.11 Republic of Ireland 5-2 Luxembourg
Oct.13 Germany 5-0 Luxembourg
Oct.13 Macedonia 0-1 Republic of Ireland
Oct.16 Republic of Ireland 2-2 Germany
Oct.16 Luxembourg 0-1 Macedonia

Group 5|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q Germany|3|2|1|0|12|2|+10|7
Q Republic of Ireland|3|2|1|0|8|4|+4|7
Macedonia|3|1|0|2|1|6|-5|3
Luxembourg|3|0|0|3|2|11|-9|0

Germany and Republic of Ireland qualify for Second Qualifying Round.

Women's U-17 European Championships 2013, First Qualifying Round
Group 9: Top team in each group and 5 best 2nd place teams qualify for Second Qualifying Round
Host nation: Belarus

Oct.1 Republic of Ireland 3-0 Belarus
Oct.1 Finland 11-0 Georgia
Oct.3 Republic of Ireland 7-0 Georgia
Oct.3 Belarus 0-3 Finland
Oct.6 Finland 1-2 Republic of Ireland
Oct.6 Georgia 1-4 Belarus

Group 9|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q Republic of Ireland|3|3|0|0|12|1|+11|9
Q Finland|3|2|0|1|15|2|+13|6
Belarus|3|1|0|2|4|7|-3|3
Georgia|3|0|0|3|1|22|-21|0

Republic of Ireland and Finland qualify for the Second Qualifying Round.

Women's U-19 European Championships 2013, First Qualifying Round
Group 1: Top two teams in each group qualify for Second Qualifying Round
Host nation: Serbia

Oct.20 Republic of Ireland 3-0 Cyprus
Oct.20 Serbia 15-0 Latvia
Oct.22 Republic of Ireland 11-0 Latvia
Oct.22 Cyprus 0-10 Serbia
Oct.25 Serbia 2-3 Republic of Ireland
Oct.25 Latvia 0-1 Cyprus

Group 1|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q Republic of Ireland|3|3|0|0|17|2|+15|9
Q Serbia|3|2|0|1|27|3|+24|6
Cyprus|3|1|0|2|1|13|-12|3
Latvia|3|0|0|3|0|27|-27|0

Republic of Ireland and Serbia qualify for Second Qualifying Round.

Dan man · 05-11-2012 11:27pm

feargale wrote: »

What I want to know is this - is it too late for inclusion as a demonstration sport in 2016?

I'm not entriely sure about the procedure for allowing official demonstration sports at the 2016 Olympics...my initial thoughts would be that this process could potentially be carried out at next year's IOC meeting of delegates in Buenos Aires, where they will also vote in a new IOC president as well as deciding the host city of the 2020 Olympic Games.

However, even after that, I think it is possible to include events "unofficially" such as the IOC allowed for in Beijing 2008 when they gave the green light to have a Wushu tournament taking place in the city during the Olympics. I think there may be contractual restrictions imposed by the IOC on host cities to forbid them from holding other national or international events in the host city during the Olympic Games. But the IOC gave Beijing special dispensation to hold Wushu tournaments at an Olympic venue during the Games but did not recognise Wushu as an official demonstration sport for 2008.

Dan man · 06-11-2012 4:13pm

Finally, the news that we've all been waiting for over the last few weeks.... Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin will remain amateur and has just signed up for British Lionhearts for the WSB (World Series of Boxing) tournament starting Novemeber 15th. Joe Ward also joined the newly formed team. It'll be welcome news to most Irish Olympic fans who want to see JJ Nevin go for gold in Rio.

Silvio.Dante · 06-11-2012 7:31pm

Dan man wrote: »

Finally, the news that we've all been waiting for over the last few weeks.... Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin will remain amateur and has just signed up for British Lionhearts for the WSB (World Series of Boxing) tournament starting Novemeber 15th. Joe Ward also joined the newly formed team. It'll be welcome news to most Irish Olympic fans who want to see JJ Nevin go for gold in Rio.

That is great news for john Joe aswell as the team.

I wouldn't have trusted Amir Khan as far as I'd throw him.

The World Series sounds very interesting...

Dan man · 06-11-2012 8:05pm

Silvio.Dante wrote: »

That is great news for john Joe aswell as the team. I wouldn't have trusted Amir Khan as far as I'd throw him.

The World Series sounds very interesting...

This will be the third season of the WSB....it has been an interesting development by the AIBA (World Boxing Federation). The good thing is that it allows amateur boxers a chance to earn some decent money whilst remaining amateur and eligible for the Olympics. It's also like professional boxing in that there are no vests or protective headgear worn by competitors and there are 5 rounds of 3 minutes each and it is scored like professional boxing.... I'm really interested to see how Joe Ward will do. Let's not forget that he's a major medal hope for us going forward to Rio 2016.

Silvio.Dante · 07-11-2012 2:30pm

Joe is an exciting prospect as he's got talent to burn.

I hope these tournaments will be televised...

The_Kew_Tour · 08-11-2012 8:52am

Great news about JJN. I really thought he made wrong move moving up Pro.

Think he got sense.

Dan man · 10-11-2012 10:55pm

More excellent news in Irish amateur boxing.... Amy Broadhurst (Dealgan B.C.) has won the European Junior Championship title in Poland this week. She is the only Irish female boxer after Katie Taylor to have won a gold medal at the European Championships. She came from 1 point down going into the last round to defeat Russian girl Svetlana Khilchenko 16-15 to claim the gold medal. Another exciting prospect in Irish amatuer boxing and like Katie Taylor, Amy is trained by her dad Tony.

Ireland also claimed another two bronze medals at the junior/youth event as Sally Carrig reached the semi-finals in her junior weight division, losing the semi 17-10 against a Hungarian girl and Niamh Folan also reached the semis in her youth weight division.
The success stories in Irish amateur boxing just keep coming

Clareman · 11-11-2012 3:53pm

Well done Sally, her father was a great boxer in his youth and puts an unbelievable amount of work into the Ennis Boxing Club.

The_Kew_Tour · 11-11-2012 5:22pm

Great stuff. To win in Poland against Russian in Poland was no doddle either.

Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

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