Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Dodge

World boxing champs start in 11 days. We have 7 boxers in the 10 weight categories. Qualification will be very tough with only the finalists guaranteed their ticket to Rio

Our lads
49kg - Brendan Irvine (Needs final. Paddy Barnes already qualified here)
56kg - Michael Conlon (already qualified)
60kg - Sean McComb (top 3)
64kg - Dean Walshe (top 3)
69kg - Adam Nolan (top 3)
75kg - Michael O'Reilly (top 3)
81kg - Joe Ward (final)

How they qualified
Irvine - European games silver
Conlon - European Championships gold
McComb - European games bronze
Walshe - European championships bronze
Nolan - European championships top 6
O'Reilly - European games gold
Ward - European championships gold

Nolan qualified for London. Conlon medaled there of course

Dodge

Loads of marathon qualifiers today in Berlin!

Kevin Seaward, Sergiu Ciobuna, Paul Pollock and Mick Clohissey

Dodge

Lizzie Lee also gets the Olympic qualifying time in Berlin. She's the 2nd woman to do so. She finished in 2:32:51 (9 minutes inside time!)

So Ireland's Olympic team increased by 4 today

It's the first time ever we'll have more men qualified for an event than qualifying spots available

Cosmo Kramer

This was an issue with the women last time, was it not - more than three got the time and it ended up with a row? Is there a set process as to how they choose who goes?

menoscemo

Dodge wrote: »

Loads of marathon qualifiers today in Berlin!

Kevin Seaward, Sergiu Ciobuna, Paul Pollock and Mick Clohissey

It's actually Segiu Ciobanu.

If no one posts a faster time I'd expect the top 3 from today to be picked. I expect that a good few will have another go at a faster time again in the Spring though.

Dodge

Current Irish team - 30

Athletics - team of 14
Rob Heffernan - 50k walk
Brendan Boyce - 50k walk
Alex Wright - 20k walk
Tom Barr - 400m hurdles
Mark English - 800m
Tori Pena - Pole vault
Sara Treacy - 3,000m steeplechase
Michelle Finn - 3,000m steeplechase
Kerry O'Flaherty - 3,000m steeplechase
Breege Connolly - marathon
Lizzie Lee - marathon
Segiu Ciobanu* - marathon
Kevin Seaward* - marathon
Paul Pollock* - marathon
Mick Clohissey* - marathon
*3 of these 4

Boxing - team of 2
Paddy Barnes - 49kg light fly
Michael Conlon - 56kg bantam

Equestrian - team of 4
Team (inc 4 individuals) - 3 day eventing

Sailing - team of 4
Annalise Murphy - Laser radial
James Espey - laser dinghy
Ryan Seaton/Matt McGovern - 49er

Rowing - team of 4
Claire Lambe/Sinead Jennings - LW double
Gary O'Donovan/Paul O'Donovan - LW double

Modern Pentathlon - team of 1
Arthur Lannigan-O'Keeffe - Mens individual

Swimming - team of 1
Fiona Doyle - 100m breast (also has QT in 200m breast)

Hopefully by end of October we can add the hockey team and a couple of boxers.

There are plenty of others (Aileen Morrison (Triathlon), Scott Evans & Chloe Magee (badminton) and our golfers that are in great shape to qualify through rankings)

Dodge

As a comparison

2012 - 66
Athletics 43 (inc an extra 5 because of 4x400m relay)
Badminton 2
Boxing 6
Canoeing 3
Cycling 4
Equestrian 8 (5 evening, 2 showjumping, 1 dressage)
Gymnastics 1
Judo 1
Modern Pentathlon 2
Rowing 1
Sailing 8 (5 crews)
swimming 4
Triathlon 2

gordongekko

What is the current status of the showjumping team. Have they given up on the appeal or is that still progressing?

Dodge

They haven't made any statement either way since the European champs

marienbad

Strictly speaking the individual rowing people are not qualified , the boat class is qualified . The actual places are still open to trials and competition .

feargale

MEN'S HOCKEY: This is what New Zealanders are being told. There is considerable disappointment in Kiwiland about the fact that they're not already qualified, and given that they will host this eventit's far froma forgone conclusion.
"2015 Oceania Cup - Sat 24 October
Saturday 24 October 2015, 7:00am—4:00pm
The Oceania Cup is an international hockey event which will see the Black Sticks Women and Men take on Australia, Fiji and Samoa from the 21-25 October in Stratford, Taranaki.

This event is the last chance for the Black Sticks Men to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics - and so the team needs the most supportive, inspiring and vocal crowd possible!

So come along, watch world-class hockey and play your part in helping the New Zealand men's hockey team get to Rio."

Both the Oceania and Africa qualifiers run from Saturday 17th to Sunday 25th October.

Dodge

The boxing world champs started yesterday. Unfortunately Dean Walshe lost out but good wins for Irvine & O'Reilly. Here's the path to the finals for all 6 lads (Seeds in bold)

49kg - Brendan Irvine
r32 - USA - WON
r16 - Turkey
r8 - Cuba/Spain
sf - Ukraine/Australia/Azerbaijan/Uzbekistan

56kg - Michael Conlon (3rd seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Brazil
r8 - Mongolia/Azerbaijan
sf - Belarus/Ecuador/Russia/Cuba

60kg - Sean McComb
r32 - Mexico
r16 - Azebaijan
r8 - France/Bulgaria/Venezuela/Qatar
sf - GB/Australia/Uganda/North Korea/Russia/Kazakhstan/Brazil

69kg - Adam Nolan
r32 - Lithuania
r16 - Venezuela
r8 - Mongolia/Czech Republic/China
sf - NZ/GB/Australia/Qatar/Argentina/Morocco

75kg - Michael O'Reilly
r32 - Ukraine
r16 - Australia
r8 - Kazakhstan/Mexico
sf - Russia/Venezuela/Uzbekistan/France

81kg - Joe Ward (4th seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Ukraine/Algeria
r8 - Belarus/Qatar/Bosnia
sf - Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan/Syria/Argentina/Turkey/Venezuela/Uzbekistan

McComb and Nolan are in action today.

Dodge

UPDATE after morning session of October 7

Here's the path to the finals for all 6 lads (Seeds in bold)

49kg - Brendan Irvine
r32 - USA - WON
r16 - Turkey
r8 - Cuba/Spain
sf - Ukraine/Australia/Azerbaijan/Uzbekistan

56kg - Michael Conlon (3rd seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Brazil
r8 - Mongolia/Azerbaijan
sf - Belarus/Ecuador/Russia/Cuba

60kg - Sean McComb
r32 - Mexico - WON
r16 - Azebaijan
r8 - France/Bulgaria/Venezuela/Qatar
sf - GB/Australia/Uganda/North Korea/Russia/Kazakhstan/Brazil

69kg - Adam Nolan
r32 - Lithuania
r16 - Venezuela
r8 - Mongolia/Czech Republic/China
sf - NZ/GB/Australia/Qatar/Argentina/Morocco

75kg - Michael O'Reilly
r32 - Ukraine
r16 - Australia
r8 - Kazakhstan/Mexico
sf - Russia/Venezuela/Uzbekistan/France

81kg - Joe Ward (4th seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Ukraine
r8 - Belarus/Qatar
sf - Kazakhstan/Syria/Turkey/Uzbekistan

McComb won 3-0. Nolan fights in the afternoon

Dodge

UPDATE after October 7.

Here's the path to the finals for all 6 lads (Seeds in bold)

49kg - Brendan Irvine
r32 - USA - WON
r16 - Turkey
r8 - Cuba/Spain
sf - Ukraine/Australia/Azerbaijan/Uzbekistan

56kg - Michael Conlon (3rd seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Brazil
r8 - Mongolia/Azerbaijan
sf - Belarus/Ecuador/Russia/Cuba

60kg - Sean McComb
r32 - Mexico - WON
r16 - Azebaijan
r8 - France/Bulgaria/Venezuela/Qatar
sf - GB/North Korea/Russia/Brazil

75kg - Michael O'Reilly
r32 - Ukraine- WON
r16 - Australia
r8 - Kazakhstan/Mexico
sf - Russia/Venezuela/Uzbekistan/France

81kg - Joe Ward (4th seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Ukraine
r8 - Belarus/Qatar
sf - Kazakhstan/Syria/Turkey/Uzbekistan

Adam Nolan and Dean Walshe lost in thew round of 32.

Tonight sees O'Reilly, Conlon and Irvine in action.

Dodge

3 from 3 yesterday!

Here's the path to the finals for all 6 lads (Seeds in bold)

49kg - Brendan Irvine
r32 - USA - WON
r16 - Turkey - WON
r8 - Cuba
sf - Ukraine/Azerbaijan

56kg - Michael Conlon (3rd seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Brazil - WON
r8 - Azerbaijan
sf - Belarus/Cuba

60kg - Sean McComb
r32 - Mexico - WON
r16 - Azebaijan
r8 - France/Bulgaria/Venezuela/Qatar
sf - GB/North Korea/Russia/Brazil

75kg - Michael O'Reilly
r32 - Ukraine - WON
r16 - Australia - WON
r8 - Kazakhstan
sf - Russia/Uzbekistan

81kg - Joe Ward (4th seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Ukraine
r8 - Belarus/Qatar
sf - Kazakhstan/Syria/Turkey/Uzbekistan



Ward and McComb in action today

Dodge

Here's the path to the finals for all 6 lads (Seeds in bold)

49kg - Brendan Irvine
r32 - USA - WON
r16 - Turkey - WON
r8 - Cuba
sf - Ukraine/Azerbaijan

56kg - Michael Conlon (3rd seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Brazil - WON
r8 - Azerbaijan
sf - Belarus/Cuba

60kg - Sean McComb
r32 - Mexico - WON
r16 - Azebaijan
r8 - France/Bulgaria/Venezuela/Qatar
sf - GB/North Korea/Russia/Brazil

75kg - Michael O'Reilly
r32 - Ukraine - WON
r16 - Australia - WON
r8 - Kazakhstan
sf - Russia/Uzbekistan

81kg - Joe Ward (4th seed)
r32 - bye
r16 - Ukraine - WON
r8 - Belarus
sf - Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan



Ward just won. Updated list. 4/4 so far into the quarters. McComb fights tonight

Cosmo Kramer

Michael O'Reilly has beaten the Kazakh world champion, has won a medal and has qualified for the Olympics!

Conlon has guaranteed a medal also, he has now won Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic medals. Irvine beaten, Ward still to fight.

Cosmo Kramer

Three medals for Ireland after Ward's win, great stuff, if anything our boxing program seems to be improving even further.

Dodge

O'Reilly is guaranteed an Olympic spot too as Lopez of Cuba is in the semis and has already qualified via the WSB. 3 places up for grabs at 75kg so all the semi finalists are in

Ward still has to make the final. The top seed was beaten in the semis so Ward fights the lad from Uzbekistan

Dodge

Semi finals
Conlon v Belarus
(Uzbekistan v India)
Conlon the only seed left. He beat the Indian lad in the commonwealth games last year


Ward v Uzbekistan
(Russia v Cuba)
Ward and Cruz (Cuba) the seeds left. Uzbekistan lad very experienced with 2 world medals and 2 Olympic appearances. Cruz has qualified for Olympics

O'Reilly v Uzbekistan
(Cuba v Egypt)
The Cuban is ranked one and has already qualified for the Olympics. Uzbekistan lad is Asian champion. Egyptian a former Olympian

Skid X

Fionnuala McCormack (Britton) secured Olympic qualification at the Chicago Marathon, finishing 13th in 2:33:15, a run which makes her the third Irish woman to qualify for the marathon in Rio de Janeiro next year.

Though Britton’s time makes her the second fastest Irish qualifier for Rio, she is still not guaranteed selection, with Maria McCambridge and others set to make attempts at the standard in the coming months. Lizzie Lee is currently the fastest Irish qualifier, having run 2:32:51 at the Berlin Marathon last month, while Breege Connolly ran 2:37:29 in London earlier this year.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics/fionnuala-britton-has-qualified-for-the-rio-olympics-31600370.html

Dodge

Ward just won his semi. Into the world final, and qualifies for Rio.

Our boxing team is currently 4. Amazing with the European qualifiers next year to come

Strazdas

Dodge wrote: »

Ward just won his semi. Into the world final, and qualifies for Rio.

Our boxing team is currently 4. Amazing with the European qualifiers next year to come

He won in great style too. He's looking far better now than four years ago when he failed to qualify.

Dodge

Don't like reading the news about Australia's approach to the Oceania Cup

http://www.hockey.org.au/News/oceania-cup-teams-named

“This is a strong squad. I like the youth in our forward line – the likes of Blake Govers, Flynn Ogilvie and Tom Craig. We’re giving them an opportunity to step up and push for selection for a major championships. If we don’t give them these opportunities now it’s hard to know how they’ll cope with something like the Olympic Games,” he said.

“It’s no different to what we would normally do outside of a World Cup or Olympic Games. We’re still developing as a group and building for sustained success.

http://www.hockey.org.au/News/changes-for-oceania-cup

he Kookaburras have been forced to make a change to the squad announced for the forthcoming Oceania Cup in New Zealand.

ACT goalkeeper Andrew Charter has been ruled out with a hamstring injury. He will be replaced by Western Australian Tristan Clemons. Clemons, from Bunbury, was part of Tasmania’s bronze-medal winning team at the Australian Hockey League last week, playing as an inter-state import.

Clemons most recently played for the Kookaburras at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in April where Australia’s men won the silver medal after going down in a grand final shoot-out to New Zealand following a 2-2 draw. He was also part of the Australia ‘A’ squad that played against Pakistan and Korea in Hobart in May.

Dates - NZ time
Wednesday 21 October, 2015
11.30am, Australia Fiji
3.30pm, Samoa v NZ

Thursday 22 October, 2015
3.30pm, Fiji v Samoa
5.30pm, NZ v Australia

Saturday 24 October, 2015
10.00am, Australia v Samoa
12.00pm, NZ vs Fiji

FINALS DAY - Sunday 25 October, 2015
4.00pm, 1 v 2 Final (Men)

Strazdas

Dodge wrote: »

O'Reilly is guaranteed an Olympic spot too as Lopez of Cuba is in the semis and has already qualified via the WSB. 3 places up for grabs at 75kg so all the semi finalists are in

Ward still has to make the final. The top seed was beaten in the semis so Ward fights the lad from Uzbekistan

Seems Michael O'Reilly hasn't qualified for Rio yet and will have to engage in a box off with an Egyptian tomorrow in order to qualify.

Dodge

Yeah. It's fairly stupid. There's 3 spots from this tournament and one of the finalists is already qualified so the place should go to 4th, but it could be 'reallocated'

O'Reilly will win anyway but I think this fight is just for the numbers

Dodge

Details on the African Cup of Nations is hard to come by but we'll be hoping for South Africa to win in very unimpressive fashion. There is still talk they won't send a team.

http://www.africahockey.org/#!afcn/cee5

Ends on November 1st so hopefully we won't care by then (C'mon Australia!)

feargale

HOCKEY
New Zealand men seem to be gung ho about the hockey. They appear to have played a number of warm-up games against India in early October.
The good news from Africa is that the tournament has been moved from Ismailia, Egypt to Randburg, South Africa, presumably for security reasons. Surely South Africa will take part on home territory.

Dodge

They'll take part as it's the African championships. That wasn't in doubt.

What happens their Olympic spot if they win is the big one

Dodge

They'll take part as it's the African championships. That wasn't in doubt.

What happens their Olympic spot if they win is the big one

Cosmo Kramer

It seems O'Reilly has lost the box off he shouldn't have been in in the first place...

KevIRL

Michael conlon world champion

Strazdas

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

It seems O'Reilly has lost the box off he shouldn't have been in in the first place...

A hugely controversial "loss" by all accounts. Seems O'Reilly dominated all three rounds, and the judging was very suspect. We've seen this type of dodgy stuff before, such as when Joe Ward lost his Olympic qualifier four years ago.

Lots of people going nuts on Twitter, including Paddy Barnes and Kenneth Egan. It's obvious something very dodgy went down with the judging, apparently the fight wasn't even close.

Strazdas

KevIRL wrote: »

Michael conlon world champion

Is he our best ever men's amateur boxer? I can only think of someone like Wayne McCullough in the past.

Dodge

McCullough has a solitary silver medal in the Olympics to show for his efforts as an amateur with Ireland. I'm not knocking that but Michael Carruth has Olympic gold and world bronze from the same era

Paddy Barnes has 2 Olympic medals and European gold. John Joe Nevin has Olympic silver, European gold and 2 world medals. Joe Ward and Conlan might be reigning world and Olympic champions this time next year...

Strazdas

Dodge wrote: »

McCullough has a solitary silver medal in the Olympics to show for his efforts as an amateur with Ireland. I'm not knocking that but Michael Carruth has Olympic gold and world bronze from the same era

Paddy Barnes has 2 Olympic medals and European gold. John Joe Nevin has Olympic silver, European gold and 2 world medals. Joe Ward and Conlan might be reigning world and Olympic champions this time next year...

Yes, Conlan and Ward might go into the Olympics as favourites to win their weight divisions next year which would be incredible. They have everything in their favour too, they're both very young men but with just about enough experience to see anyone off.

gordongekko

joe ward beaten

Strazdas

gordongekko wrote: »

joe ward beaten

Should be a good learning curve for him though. The Cuban looked world class, but Ward can improve and has something to aim for next year.

Strazdas

Billy Walsh resigns as head coach of the High Performance Unit :

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/boxing/breaking-huge-blow-for-irish-boxing-coach-billy-walsh-resigns-to-take-up-usa-role-34121478.html

I would have thought this requires urgent intervention at the very highest level.

feargale

Awful.
Saipan, the Christle brothers, Jim Hogan, and, per Brendan Behan, the ubiquitous "first item on the agenda": we are world champions at screwing it up.

Dodge

Strazdas wrote: »

I would have thought this requires urgent intervention at the very highest level.

I don't think it can go any higher. I certainly don't want to see any government involvement in matters like this.

It's bad news for Ireland but hopefully the structures ar ein place for us to continue our success

Strazdas

Dodge wrote: »

I don't think it can go any higher. I certainly don't want to see any government involvement in matters like this.

It's bad news for Ireland but hopefully the structures ar ein place for us to continue our success

Isn't there a question of state funding for the IABA though? It's not as if they are a self funding and self financing organisation and answerable to no-one.

Dodge

They're answerable to their own members first and foremost. If the IABA say "we can't afford his demands" then what?

I certainly wouldn't be happy with government involvement in ANY Irish sporting body (outside of the Sports Council)

Strazdas

Dodge wrote: »

They're answerable to their own members first and foremost. If the IABA say "we can't afford his demands" then what?

I certainly wouldn't be happy with government involvement in ANY Irish sporting body (outside of the Sports Council)

It's still not quite the same thing as Liverpool or Man Utd sacking their manager though. Those are private companies with owners, are listed on the stock exchange and are in the business to make money.....they are answerable to absolutely nobody.

Many of our elite boxers are funded by state grants, not by the IABA.

Dodge

As much as would love to see John Delaney removed from the FAI, I just don't want to go down a road where the government of the day decides who is in charge of any sporting bodies, never mind who they employ.

Even if I completely disagree with the IABA, they're still more qualified to make the decision on Walsh than Leo Varadker

Strazdas

Dodge wrote: »

As much as would love to see John Delaney removed from the FAI, I just don't want to go down a road where the government of the day decides who is in charge of any sporting bodies, never mind who they employ.

Even if I completely disagree with the IABA, they're still more qualified to make the decision on Walsh than Leo Varadker

When I said intervention, I didn't mean that the government would forcibly get involved and order Walsh to be reinstated on higher pay. I meant that might act as a mediator between the two sides.

Simply doing nothing and everyone shrugs their shoulders sounds like a very Irish solution to an Irish problem. I bet the American boxing authorities must be flabbergasted to be getting Walsh under such circumstances and incredulous at the rank amateurism and incompetence of the IABA.

marienbad

Dodge wrote: »

As much as would love to see John Delaney removed from the FAI, I just don't want to go down a road where the government of the day decides who is in charge of any sporting bodies, never mind who they employ.

Even if I completely disagree with the IABA, they're still more qualified to make the decision on Walsh than Leo Varadker

Sometimes the national association are not more qualified to make that decision . It is the curse that bedevilled us until the Sports Council came along .

The further the Blazers are removed from the decision making process is usually for the better .

Strazdas

marienbad wrote: »

Sometimes the national association are not more qualified to make that decision . It is the curse that bedevilled us until the Sports Council came along .

The further the Blazers are removed from the decision making process is usually for the better .

According to Billy Walsh on Newstalk this evening. the Minister for Sport has been trying to intervene and broker a deal in recent weeks. It seems the imbeciles running the IABA are the problem, it all comes back to them (it seems scarcely even credible, but it appears they want Walsh out).

Clearlier

It's a sad situation. Reading between the lines it does seem very much like some in the IABA didn't value what he did and thought that he was getting too much kudos. The agreeing to a contract and then reneging on that agreement suggests that some were actively pushing him out. There's even a quote from Paddy Barnes in the Irish Times this morning saying that Mickey Mouse could train the boxers and they'd still win medals because they're so talented. Bernard Dunne was interviewed on Second Captains and intimated much the same. While no doubt unintended they're pretty insulting to one of Ireland's most successful coaches.

The whole situation reminds me of Clive Woodward and the English rugby team - in particular when the same question was put to Clive Woodward and Martin Johnson: What % of the team's success is down to the players and what % to the coach? Woodward put it at 60/40 in favour of the players, Johnson put it at 90/10.

It's obviously a silly question because success is almost always the product of a symbiotic relationship but they miss that point. You don't have to be perfect to win - you just have to be better than your opponent and the role of someone in the kind of position that Walsh was in is to set things up to get those marginal gains that make the difference between winning and losing at the highest level.

As a total outsider the correlation between the High Performance team/Billy Walsh and success seems obvious - perhaps it won't turn out badly and hopefully we're close enough to Rio for us still to do well there but post Rio I expect we'll see a gradual reduction in the level of performance of Irish boxers.

Dodge

It's interesting to see people like Carruth, Dunne and Barnes give the other side though. Basically it boiled down to power and money.

Shame for all involved

EDIT; John Treacy now says the money was agreed and it was all down to power. Something the AIBA wouldn't even present to their board. Murky stuff