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Sinead Diver runs 2:34 in Melbourne Marathon

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    #32
    RayCun
    Registered Users Posts: 15,704 ✭✭✭✭RayCun


    She lives in Australia. Why wouldn't she represent the country where she lives? What kind of support could she get here that she couldn't more easily get there?
    And I don't see that it makes much difference anyway. I'm sure people are happy to see her do well in whatever colours.


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    #33
    axe2grind
    Registered Users Posts: 577 ✭✭✭axe2grind


    Thread title looks like a typo now


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    #34
    average_runner
    Registered Users Posts: 12,845 ✭✭✭✭average_runner


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    Can we start talking about the idiocy of AAI for letting her slip through the net?

    3 years ago I wrote this piece when many didn’t care.

    http://therunningreview.com/divers-coach-they-went-well-out-of-their-way-to-make-it-difficult/

    It was a howler of a decision then, and it’s a howler now.

    She’s easily one of the most inspirational stories in the history of Irish athletics.

    What a lost opportunity.


    Has she done any races in Ireland or always based in Australia?

    To be honest if she never raced in Ireland or trained here and all the money invested on her is from Australia, it be little cheeking for Ireland to claim her and the right thing to do is represent Australia.

    Now also did Irish Atheltics reach out at all? Did both teams even sit down and talk to find a way that she spends sometime here and add to athletics in Ireland, thats the big question?


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    #35
    Chivito550
    Registered Users Posts: 7,694 ✭✭✭Chivito550


    RayCun wrote: »
    She lives in Australia. Why wouldn't she represent the country where she lives? What kind of support could she get here that she couldn't more easily get there?
    And I don't see that it makes much difference anyway. I'm sure people are happy to see her do well in whatever colours.

    How is that relevant regarding AAI deliberately manipulating qualification standards so they wouldn’t have to select her?


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    #36
    average_runner
    Registered Users Posts: 12,845 ✭✭✭✭average_runner


    To be honest, your link doesn't answer any of my questions. Looking at those world champs, no irish women were in it, so it wasn't just against one person.


    She is living in Australia and getting club support from there etc, so should run for the country that invested in her.

    She has never raced in Ireland even, how come she never ran the Dublin marathon since it's Ireland's biggest marathon?


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    #37
    RayCun
    Registered Users Posts: 15,704 ✭✭✭✭RayCun


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    Irrelevant. She looked into representing us and was shut out by the powers that be.

    Read this: http://therunningreview.com/divers-coach-they-went-well-out-of-their-way-to-make-it-difficult/

    "Shut out" is putting it very harshly, going by your article.

    They set a qualifying time for the Beijing marathon of 2:33, which ruled her out. They didn't do it with the intention of ruling her out, and she didn't (as far as I can tell) contact them about the change.

    Her coach also talks about the decision not to send an Irish team to the World XC, but as far as I know she didn't run XC for the Australians either.

    She was never a member of an Irish club, she only started running after she'd been in Australia for years, so she doesn't have a connection to Irish athletics as such. She's a product of Australian athletics more than Irish athletics.

    Nationality is not clear-cut any more. People move from place to place a lot more than they used to. There are plenty of people like her, who could legitimately run for one country or another, and are pulled both ways.

    In the end, I don't really care what country she runs for. Is she an inspirational figure for Irish athletes? To some extent, yes. And an inspirational figure to Australian athletes. I'm sure if/when she runs in an international competition that is being covered by RTE, she'll get plenty of mentions, even running for Australia. And I'm sure the people she trains and competes with in Australia would give her as much recognition even if she'd decided to run for Ireland.


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    #38
    Chivito550
    Registered Users Posts: 7,694 ✭✭✭Chivito550


    average_runner wrote: »
    To be honest, your link doesn't answer any of my questions. Looking at those world champs, no irish women were in it, so it wasn't just against one person.


    She is living in Australia and getting club support from there etc, so should run for the country that invested in her.

    She has never raced in Ireland even, how come she never ran the Dublin marathon since it's Ireland's biggest marathon?

    She has raced in Ireland and is a member of a club.

    They changed the standards to prevent her from going. It was a late change. Other Irish runners didn’t want to go to Beijing as Rio was the goal.

    I know more but don’t want to post it publicly.


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    #39
    Working class heroes
    Registered Users Posts: 3,507 ✭✭✭Working class heroes


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    How is that relevant regarding AAI deliberately manipulating qualification standards so they wouldn’t have to select her?

    If I was connected to the AAI I’d be asking that statement to be backed up with actual prove.

    Racism is now hiding behind the cloak of Community activism.



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    #40
    RayCun
    Registered Users Posts: 15,704 ✭✭✭✭RayCun


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    How is that relevant regarding AAI deliberately manipulating qualification standards so they wouldn’t have to select her?

    Did they do that? It isn't clear from your article.

    AAI set higher standards for qualification for a bunch of competitions over the years (as did Australia). Did they set the marathon standard that year to a particular level deliberately to exclude Diver? It seems unlikely.

    I could well believe that, 5 years ago, no-one expected her to run 2:25. If you were a betting man, would you expect a 38 year old latecomer to the sport to keep improving that much? Fair play to her for doing it, obviously, she must have worked extremely hard, but it wasn't predictable.


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    #41
    average_runner
    Registered Users Posts: 12,845 ✭✭✭✭average_runner


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    She has raced in Ireland and is a member of a club.

    They changed the standards to prevent her from going. It was a late change. Other Irish runners didn’t want to go to Beijing as Rio was the goal.

    I know more but don’t want to post it publicly.

    According to her IAAF Profile, she hasn't raced in Ireland.


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    #42
    Tigerandahalf
    Registered Users Posts: 7,811 ✭✭✭Tigerandahalf


    She won the West of Ireland mini marathon 10km a couple of years back in the Mayo AC vest. Just like Sonia it is possible she is registered with a club in Ireland and Australia.

    She is listed on the AAI marathon rankings so she must be eligible.


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    #43
    RayCun
    Registered Users Posts: 15,704 ✭✭✭✭RayCun


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    She has raced in Ireland and is a member of a club.

    As I understand it, she wasn't a member of a club, and wasn't a runner, before moving to Australia.

    She started running in Australia, after she'd been living there 8 years, and her first child was born there. She trains in Australia and competes for an Australian club regularly.

    She may have raced in Ireland on a visit home, but Ireland is not the centre of her sporting life.


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    #44
    ultrapercy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,605 ✭✭✭ultrapercy


    average_runner wrote: »
    According to her IAAF Profile, she hasn't raced in Ireland.

    She ran and won the West of Ireland womens Mini Marathon in Castlebar in 2015. She is a member of Mayo AC. I presume the logistics of traveling to the far side of the planet with all the associated problems like jet lag and cost make racing in Ireland difficult for her. She tries to tie in local races with her trips home to see her family.
    Im not well informed enough to comment on the AAIs roll in her running for Australia but she is certainly a huge loss to Ireland. She is the countrys 3rd fastest woman over several distances now.


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    #45
    Chivito550
    Registered Users Posts: 7,694 ✭✭✭Chivito550


    RayCun wrote: »
    "Shut out" is putting it very harshly, going by your article.

    They set a qualifying time for the Beijing marathon of 2:33, which ruled her out. They didn't do it with the intention of ruling her out, and she didn't (as far as I can tell) contact them about the change.

    Her coach also talks about the decision not to send an Irish team to the World XC, but as far as I know she didn't run XC for the Australians either.

    She was never a member of an Irish club, she only started running after she'd been in Australia for years, so she doesn't have a connection to Irish athletics as such. She's a product of Australian athletics more than Irish athletics.

    Nationality is not clear-cut any more. People move from place to place a lot more than they used to. There are plenty of people like her, who could legitimately run for one country or another, and are pulled both ways.

    In the end, I don't really care what country she runs for. Is she an inspirational figure for Irish athletes? To some extent, yes. And an inspirational figure to Australian athletes. I'm sure if/when she runs in an international competition that is being covered by RTE, she'll get plenty of mentions, even running for Australia. And I'm sure the people she trains and competes with in Australia would give her as much recognition even if she'd decided to run for Ireland.

    I’m just going by what her coach told me. I have no reason to believe what he says is not true. You can believe me or not, but that’s what I was told.


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    #46
    Chivito550
    Registered Users Posts: 7,694 ✭✭✭Chivito550


    Regarding Sinead, she’s a massive inspiration. Taking up the sport at 33, having a full time job and a mother of 2 children, to run that time at 41 is phenomenal. Also she did it in Melbourne. Could she go faster in Berlin?


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    #47
    ultrapercy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,605 ✭✭✭ultrapercy


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    Regarding Sinead, she’s a massive inspiration. Taking up the sport at 33, having a full time job and a mother of 2 children, to run that time at 41 is phenomenal. Also she did it in Melbourne. Could she go faster in Berlin?

    Well that cant be argued with. Whats that Melbourne course like? Or the city profile? Also Sonia mentioned in her article that the temp was high near the end.
    On a side note I have noticed greatly improved performances from agood few Irish athletes (accross a range of standards) after relocating to Aus. Its a small sample and purely anchedotal but is there simething in their culture diet climate? Probably just coincedental but it has struck me over the years.


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    #48
    RayCun
    Registered Users Posts: 15,704 ✭✭✭✭RayCun


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    Regarding Sinead, she’s a massive inspiration. Taking up the sport at 33, having a full time job and a mother of 2 children, to run that time at 41 is phenomenal. Also she did it in Melbourne. Could she go faster in Berlin?

    The course looks pretty good, flat, with a lot of long straights

    But you've got to think she can go faster in Berlin, or London, somewhere set up for fast times. The male winner ran 2:15, and there were only 10 men under 2:30.


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    #49
    Working class heroes
    Registered Users Posts: 3,507 ✭✭✭Working class heroes


    RayCun wrote: »
    The course looks pretty good, flat, with a lot of long straights

    But you've got to think she can go faster in Berlin, or London, somewhere set up for fast times. The male winner ran 2:15, and there were only 10 men under 2:30.

    The article I linked seemed to suggest she'll run London next year.

    Racism is now hiding behind the cloak of Community activism.



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    #50
    Abhainn
    Registered Users Posts: 2,236 ✭✭✭Abhainn


    What's exceptional to me and shows just how strong she is that she completed the last 2.195k in 7:06 or 3:14/km pace. This is just slightly slower than her 10k best pace -3:12

    The men's winner did the last 2.195k in 7:25 or 3:22 pace.


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    #51
    Working class heroes
    Registered Users Posts: 3,507 ✭✭✭Working class heroes


    Abhainn wrote: »
    What's exceptional to me and shows just how strong she is that she completed the last 2.195k in 7:06 or 3:14/km pace. This is just slightly slower than her 10k best pace -3:12

    The men's winner did the last 2.195k in 7:25 or 3:22 pace.

    That's fecking awesome!

    Racism is now hiding behind the cloak of Community activism.



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    #52
    Tigerandahalf
    Registered Users Posts: 7,811 ✭✭✭Tigerandahalf


    Sonia mentioned in an article how she did a 39km long run and then came along to a parkrun and ran it in 16 minutes.

    She looks like she could break McKiernan's NR.

    Apparently it was warm and windy in Melbourne on race day.


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    #53
    El CabaIIo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 354 ✭✭El CabaIIo


    Sinead ran 31:50 in the Zatopek 10k this morning for second place. Just to add to the insanity, that is the second fastest 10,000m ever recorded by an over 40 just 17 seconds behind Jo Pavey's World record.


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    #54
    sideswipe
    Registered Users Posts: 2,431 ✭✭✭sideswipe


    https://twitter.com/David_Tarbotton/status/1073154853512212480

    Awesome stuff!!


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    #55
    eyrie
    Registered Users Posts: 1,338 ✭✭✭eyrie


    :eek:
    Unreal!! Massively inspirational. I was about to say I wish she'd do more interviews as I'd love to hear more of her story, but then I found her instagram and she has linked to a few podcasts she's been interviewed on so I'll go have a listen


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    #56
    El CabaIIo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 354 ✭✭El CabaIIo


    Sinead has a bit of a post-race interview up here. Says she is considering trying the 10,000m in the Doha World Champs instead of the marathon because of the heat.

    https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/zatopek10-aussie-distance-star-stewart-mcsweyn-dominates-with-10000m-personal-best/news-story/c088ba869e470afbeb2895b88753e327


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    #57
    Duanington
    Registered Users Posts: 2,982 ✭✭✭Duanington


    She was guest presenter on the Inside Running Podcast last week, did a great job and gave some good insights into her training too


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    #58
    Chivito550
    Registered Users Posts: 7,694 ✭✭✭Chivito550


    Good piece here on how Diver has slipped through the net. She wanted to run for Ireland.

    https://m.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics/irish-chiefs-left-to-rue-standards-call-as-diver-makes-a-splash-down-under-37631992.html


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    #59
    Duanington
    Registered Users Posts: 2,982 ✭✭✭Duanington


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    Good piece here on how Diver has slipped through the net. She wanted to run for Ireland.

    https://m.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics/irish-chiefs-left-to-rue-standards-call-as-diver-makes-a-splash-down-under-37631992.html


    Our loss is most definitely Australia's gain, damn it


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    #60
    Chivito550
    Registered Users Posts: 7,694 ✭✭✭Chivito550


    Diver runs 15:23 for 5000m now. That’s only 1 second off the world standard.


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    #61
    Working class heroes
    Registered Users Posts: 3,507 ✭✭✭Working class heroes


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    Diver runs 15:23 for 5000m now. That’s only 1 second off the world standard.

    On the track?

    Racism is now hiding behind the cloak of Community activism.



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