Road to Tokyo 2020 - Irish Olympic News

The athletics relays have been hit with numerous drop outs and they’re are only 14 entered in the women’s 4x100 with Nigeria and India the latest to pull out

Only 2 of the 8 qualified are there (Italy and Switzerland) so ireland getting to a final isn’t out of the question. We don’t have our strongest team going though (Covid travel and injuries)

The mixed 4x400 looks stronger for Ireland but it’s a tougher field

In other sports we should have triathlon spots confirmed in May. The rankings close on May 11

Brilliant run by the mixed 4x400m to qualify for the final and qualify for Rio. Amazing runs by all of them

And another addition to the Tokyo list, well done to her:

https://twitter.com/IrishTimesSport/status/1389603416914210825

Anyone know how we are doing in terms of overall numbers compared to previous years - any prospect of this being our largest ever team or anything like that? Having a full hockey squad going may help towards that.

That's excellent. It does feel like we have managed to diversify away from the old reliance on boxing and long distance running for medal hopes in recent years. Obviously a lot of our competitors will be nowhere near to the medals - the same for every country really - but it's good to see us improving in a wide range of sports in recent years. Of course the focus of soccer and Gaelic games in Ireland will always limit our potential somewhat.

Very informative, thanks. Looks like it will be our largest team then and 90 looks a possibility with six or seven medal possibilities. Would need the 7s rugby team to qualify to break 100. Obviously the near miss in men's hockey was a disappointment in terms of the squad size.

In slalom canoeing Hannah Craig and Maddison Corcoran just missed out on the semi final. Only one non qualified nation made it (Switzerland) and there’s talk they’ll refuse the quota. We’ll see

We got 2 men through to the semi but it’ll be very hard to beat the Polish paddlers here. We’ll find out on Saturday morning

Liam Jegou has already been selected for C1 boat. They go tomorrow

Good day for the rowers but poor day for Modern Pentathlon. Arthur Lannigan-O’Keefes injury has flared again and he had to drop out of World Cup final. Now a serious doubt for Tokyo.
Also our triathletes finished well down the field in the first event this year. As both are on the qualification bubble they will need at least one good result in the next few weeks.

Wow, incredible finish in the lightweight doubles. Ireland coming from behind to take third off the Chinese in the final hundred or so metres and they take the last qualification place for Tokyo. Fantastic effort.

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Also Rhasidat Adeleke running some very fast times in a college meet in the US this weekend. Broke the Irish 200m national record and closing in on the 100m record as well. She runs in the finals today so may go faster again.

Possibly coming in a bit late for Tokyo but running those times at 18 years old makes her one to keep an eye on for 2024 at the very least.

She's a phenomenal talent - to be breaking senior Irish national records at age 18 is incredible stuff.

11:36 in the 100m final for second place, so the Irish record survives for another little while at least. Ran in the winning relay team as well. Terrible weather conditions for it today though.

And 23:03 in the 200m final for second again. Really consistent running.

Chivito550 wrote: »

Sanita only third in World Cup in Lucerne. What looked like a nailed on gold last year is no longer the case one year on. Had a terrible feeling this would happen.

The <new> Russian will win and Sanita will win silver. Sanita and Irish rowing happy with her performance today as she’s later to the programme than the others

The lightweight double will ease to gold if it not injured or ill

Important not to read too much into World Cup races in an Olympics year. It’s all about peaking for Tokyo

Dodge wrote: »

The <new> Russian will win and Sanita will win silver. Sanita and Irish rowing happy with her performance today as she’s later to the programme than the others

The lightweight double will ease to gold if it not injured or ill

Important not to read too much into World Cup races in an Olympics year. It’s all about peaking for Tokyo

What is up with Sanita? Was she sick or injured earlier this year?

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Anyone know how we are doing in terms of overall numbers compared to previous years - any prospect of this being our largest ever team or anything like that? Having a full hockey squad going may help towards that.

If both our swim relay teams qualify, I think there is an excellent chance our team will hit 100. Depends on how many athletes and boxers make the cut even a conservative figure of 10 and 3 respectively then 100 is near nailed on.

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Decent first day at the boxing qualifiers - five Irish fighters in action and all five won their bouts. That puts each of them one win from Olympic qualification, although there's a suggestion that Michaela Walsh's win today by itself may have given her enough ranking points to qualify regardless of how she does from here.

A great start in fact. Hopefully the likes of Harrington and Walsh can win their way straight through now and don't need any backdoor route or to win a box off.