Road to Rio 2016 - Irish Olympic News

Dan man

On the first day of the Track Cycling World Championships in Minsk, Belarus, Ireland's Caroline Ryan finished 5th overall in the women's 3km Individual Pursuit. She agonisingly missed out on a place in the bronze medal ride-off by just one position, but still a commendable performance by the reigning World Championship bronze medallist for the Points Race.

Dan man

Fantastic news tonight from Palm Springs, California where the opening World Cup event of the season for Modern Pentathlon is taking place. Both Irish men in action Eanna Bailey and world junior bronze medallist Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe have qualified for the final. Arthur in particular impressed in qualifying finishing 3rd in his semi-final and 7th overall.
This underlines how crucial it was for Ireland that Modern Pentathlon stayed on the Olympic programme for 2020, but these two could be prospects for success in 2016, nevermind 2020.
Natalya Coyle who finished 9th at the Olympics begins her campaign tomorrow.
Exciting times for Ireland in this sport

locum-motion

A minus 29 goal difference two matches into a tournament doesn't say much about the quality of the tournament, does it?

Dan man

locum-motion wrote: »

A minus 29 goal difference two matches into a tournament doesn't say much about the quality of the tournament, does it?

It's a weak pool, but fair play to FIH (International Hockey Federation)...it's a radical new event where virtually all the nations involved in the sport are competing. This is Round 2 of the event so many of the weak nations remain in the competition. All of those will be weeded out in this round as the competition moves onto the Semi-Final stages. It's a very important tournament as it will yield World Cup qualifying berths so all nations will be taking it seriously.

Dan man

Amazing news for Irish sport as Martyn Irvine qualifies for the gold medal ride-off in the Individual Pursuit at the Track Cycling World Championships in Minsk. He'll be up against fastest qualifier Michael Hepburn of Australia in the final but he's guaranteed at least a silver medal no matter what.
The medal races are scheduled to begin at 5pm Irish time so tune in if you can on BBC red button/BBC 2.

KevIRL

Ireland currently 3-2 down v India was 1-1 at HT

Other results today

Fiji 1 China 4
Bangladesh 4 Oman 0

Dan man

KevIRL wrote: »

Ireland currently 3-2 down v India was 1-1 at HT

Other results today

Fiji 1 China 4
Bangladesh 4 Oman 0

Final score: 3-2 to India. Good performance by the Irish against their Indian hosts.

Here is the fixture list and I will be updating regularly as results come in (all times are given in Irish time):

18.02.2013 (08:30am) China 4-0 Oman
18.02.2013 (10:30am) Ireland 5-2 Bangladesh
18.02.2013 (02:30pm) India 16-0 Fiji
20.02.2013 (10:30am) Fiji 0-13 Ireland
20.02.2013 (12:30pm) China 2-3 Bangladesh
20.02.2013 (02:30pm) India 9-1 Oman
21.02.2013 (08:30am) Fiji 1-4 China
21.02.2013 (10:30am) Bangladesh 4-0 Oman
21.02.2013 (02:30pm) Ireland 2-3 India
23.02.2013 (10:30am) Bangladesh v Fiji
23.02.2013 (12:30pm) Oman v Ireland
23.02.2013 (02:30pm) China v India
24.02.2013 (06:30am) Oman v Fiji
24.02.2013 (10:30am) Ireland v China
24.02.2013 (02:30pm) India v Bangladesh

Country|P|W|WD|LD|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
India|3|3|0|0|0|28|3|+25|9
Ireland|3|3|0|0|0|20|5|+15|6
China|3|2|0|0|1|10|4|+6|6
Bangladesh|3|2|0|0|1|9|7|+2|6
Oman|3|0|0|0|3|1|17|-16|0
Fiji|3|0|0|0|3|1|33|-32|0

* Just a sidenote on the competition format....3 points for a win in regulation time. If the match is tied after regulation time, then the match goes to a penalty shoot-out to determine how the spoils are shared. The winner of the shootout receives 2 points (represented by WD in the table) with the loser receiving 1 point (represented by LD in the table).

Dan man

TRACK CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:

SILVER - Martyn Irvine (Men's Individual Pursuit)

Dan man

TRACK CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:

GOLD - Martyn Irvine (Men's Scratch Race)

Gold and Silver medal...phenomenal!!

KevIRL

Magnificent stuff and a first gold medal for Ireland in 117 years, indeed the first medal of any colour in 116 years.

Brilliant

KevIRL

Dan man

KevIRL wrote: »

Magnificent stuff and a first gold medal for Ireland in 117 years, indeed the first medal of any colour in 116 years.

Brilliant

We wait 116 years for an Irishman to win a track cycling medal....and then 2 come along in the space of 1 hour. Incredible, the scratch race was incredible to watch, I couldn't believe he hung on for the win.

Dan man

It's a magnificent 3/3 for Irish pentathletes as Natalya Coyle joins Eanna and Arthur in qualifying for the Final of the opening Modern Pentathlon World Cup of the season. Big weekend ahead for our pentathletes and it just adds more momentum to the Irish success story in this sport.
Best of luck to all 3 in the Finals.

KevIRL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMa2ZhLF7uA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzxj0E7gwnw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AyVK4lbQK0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY6Y-JNrPDg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pPNNWYHUow

feargale

Thanks Dan. "Thank" has suddenly disappeared from my tablet ( dunno why! ) so I can't officially thank you for great info and great news from India and Minsk, but thanks anyway. I'm just wondering what the implications of Martin Irvine's win are for Rio. Was everybody worth noting at Minsk? Can you translate a repeat at Rio of that performance into medals please?
Re mens' hockey, 3-2 against India is a magnificent result. Have they gone back or have we gone forward? I note you say Ireland are not as good as recently. This result would seem to belie that. I just hope they didn't spend it all, with nothing left for China.

Dan man

feargale wrote: »

Thanks Dan. "Thank" has suddenly disappeared from my tablet ( dunno why! ) so I can't officially thank you for great info and great news from India and Minsk, but thanks anyway. I'm just wondering what the implications of Martin Irvine's win are for Rio. Was everybody worth noting at Minsk? Can you translate a repeat at Rio of that performance into medals please?
Re mens' hockey, 3-2 against India is a magnificent result. Have they gone back or have we gone forward? I note you say Ireland are not as good as recently. This result would seem to belie that. I just hope they didn't spend it all, with nothing left for China.

Martyn's medals both came in non-Olympic events, however the fact he won 2 medals in the space of 1 hour gives a good indication as to how his form might translate to the Omnium (his Olympic event). Additionally, both of those events are actually part of the 6 event Omnium (events 4 and 5) and for him to be so strong in those events offers huge encouragement for his chances of success in the multi-disciplined event.
Minsk 2013 isn't the strongest event ever in terms of World Championships as is natural post-Olympics, but a rainbow jersey is a huge achievement and it is hard to get my head around the history he has created today.

In terms of hockey, the Irish performance against India was excellent. To give some perspective, India qualified for London 2012 but finished last and Ireland missed out on the Olympics by the narrowest of margins in a play-off final. That gives some insight into the form of both countries and on paper there is little between them. However, India have home advantage and that is a huge advantage for them, coupled with the fact that the Irish team seems to be in transition. The very positive thing is that a huge number of the Irish team are now playing in professional leagues across Europe and if this trend continues into the future it can only be a good thing for Irish hockey.
There are 4 tournaments taking place in Round 2 and the top 2 will qualify for the semi-finals in each tournament bar one. So one 2nd placed team will miss out. The criteria to determine the 2nd placed qualifers is a mystery as there is very little information forthcoming from the FIH.
It is a great tournament structure and is great for the sport, but organisation and clarity are lacking.
On a final note, I would be confident Ireland will beat China, but lets hope they get all 3 points as this could be crucial in terms of qualifying for the Semi-Finals, where World Cup qualifying spots will be distributed.

Dan man

Irish swimmers will have an opportunity to post World Championship qualification times this weekend in Limerick at the Dave McCullagh Memorial Meet. London 2012 Olympians Sycerika McMahon and Barry Murphy will compete and it will be interesting to see how they have wintered. The meet begins tomorrow and continues until Sunday with European Junior and World University qualification times also up for grabs. Best of luck to all competing, let's see some fast times!

The_Kew_Tour

Dan man wrote: »

Irish swimmers will have an opportunity to post World Championship qualification times this weekend in Limerick at the Dave McCullagh Memorial Meet. London 2012 Olympians Sycerika McMahon and Barry Murphy will compete and it will be interesting to see how they have wintered. The meet begins tomorrow and continues until Sunday with European Junior and World University qualification times also up for grabs. Best of luck to all competing, let's see some fast times!

My brother is swimming in this event.

He won't be up against any of top names as he is much younger but great chance for him and younger people to catch top performers in the flesh.

Congrats too to Irvine. Super achievement. Not too many people can say they are World Champion.

Dan man

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

My brother is swimming in this event.

He won't be up against any of top names as he is much younger but great chance for him and younger people to catch top performers in the flesh.

Congrats too to Irvine. Super achievement. Not too many people can say they are World Champion.

That's great! Hopefully he'll progress through the ranks and we'll be talking up his chances in the years to come on these threads
Best of luck to him!

Yes, Irvine's achievement is simply astonishing, world champion and world silver all in the space of an hour! Really delighted for him as I've been reading his blog updates for a long while now and there's been many ups and downs. But his dedication remained ever present and it's thoroughly satisfying to see him get the rewards he deserves. The other Irish sportsmen and women will have a lot to live up to if they are to top that success in 2013. Here's hoping they can!

Dan man

Live coverage of the IABA Elite National Championship finals at the National Boxing Stadium begins on RTÉ2 at 21:45 tonight. Should be worth the watch.

Dan man

Caroline Ryan finished 7th in the women's scratch race at the Track Cycling World Championships. She was in the medals towards the latter stages of the race but was caught in the last lap. Great performance nonetheless.
Last year, Caroline won Ireland's first track cycling medal in 115 years when she won bronze in the points race. The 2013 World Championship Points Race takes place tomorrow afternoon at 4:25pm.

Dan man

The first Modern Pentathlon World Cup of the season has concluded for the men and two terrific performances from the Irish guys in the final saw Eanna Bailey finish in 15th position with Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe one place behind in 16th.
Highlight of the day was Eanna's display of class horsemanship in the riding event where he finished as top performer for that discipline with a maximum score of 1200 points....a flawless ride. This pushed Eanna up to 7th place going into the combined shoot and run with Arthur in 9th place, also in a good position. However, both struggled just a little in the combined event, needing a few too many shots at the target but they held steady to claim two magnificent placings in the top 20. The more experience these 2 young lads get, the better they will become. They are superbly talented athletes and there is plenty of scope for improvement before Rio 2016 and time is certainly on their side.
Natalya Coyle goes in the women's final tomorrow. I'm hoping she can place top 15 here to really get her 2013 season into full swing.

Dan man

At the National Senior Boxing Championships, Joe Ward defeated Kenneth Egan for the 3rd consecutive year in the final to claim the national title with a comfortable 25-5 win over the Beijing Olympic silver medallist. After the bout Egan announced his retirement and what a glittering career he had, 10 consecutive national titles and of course that stunning silver medal at the 2008 Olympics will remain fondly in the memory bank of just about every Irish sports fan. Great character too, hope he's back on our screens soon!
London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Michael Conlan retained his Irish flyweight title with a comfortable 20-9 victory over Chris Phelan. Fellow Olympian Adam Nolan also retained his national title, beating Willie McLaughlin in the process on a 21-13 scoreline.
European champion Raymond Moylett lost out on the Irish title for a second successive year as he was defeated 15-11 by current Irish champion Ross Hickey.
European U-23 Champion Jason Quigley won the Irish middleweight title (he had already beaten 2012 Olympian Darren O'Neill in the semis), beating Roy Sheehan 15-6 in the final.

Olympic champion Katie Taylor easily won her match against Polish opponent Karolina Graczyk on a 28-5 scoreline.

But the moment belongs to Kenneth Egan, I wish him all the best in retirement, a super ambassasor for Irish sport!

Peter121

Thank you Kenneth. You've done yourself and your family very proud.

Dan man

In New Delhi, the Irish men won their 3rd match from 4 games, easily overcoming Oman on a 7-2 scoreline. It's almost certainly now a two-horse race between Ireland and Bangladesh for the runner-up spot in the pool which could yield a qualification spot to the Semi-Finals tournament (3 of the 4 best runner-ups advance - the criteria for choosing those 3 is via the world rankings list and the highest placed teams in world rankings will go forward to the Semi-Finals tournaments).

Here is the fixture list and I will be updating regularly as results come in (all times are given in Irish time):

18.02.2013 (08:30am) China 4-0 Oman
18.02.2013 (10:30am) Ireland 5-2 Bangladesh
18.02.2013 (02:30pm) India 16-0 Fiji
20.02.2013 (10:30am) Fiji 0-13 Ireland
20.02.2013 (12:30pm) China 2-3 Bangladesh
20.02.2013 (02:30pm) India 9-1 Oman
21.02.2013 (08:30am) Fiji 1-4 China
21.02.2013 (10:30am) Bangladesh 4-0 Oman
21.02.2013 (02:30pm) Ireland 2-3 India
23.02.2013 (10:30am) Bangladesh 8-4 Fiji
23.02.2013 (12:30pm) Oman 2-7 Ireland
23.02.2013 (02:30pm) China 0-4 India
24.02.2013 (06:30am) Oman v Fiji
24.02.2013 (10:30am) Ireland v China
24.02.2013 (02:30pm) India v Bangladesh

Country|P|W|WD|LD|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
India|4|4|0|0|0|32|3|+29|12
Ireland|4|3|0|0|1|27|7|+20|9
Bangladesh|4|3|0|0|1|17|10|+7|9
China|4|2|0|0|2|10|8|+2|6
Oman|4|0|0|0|4|3|24|-21|0
Fiji|4|0|0|0|4|5|41|-36|0

* Just a sidenote on the competition format....3 points for a win in regulation time. If the match is tied after regulation time, then the match goes to a penalty shoot-out to determine how the spoils are shared. The winner of the shootout receives 2 points (represented by WD in the table) with the loser receiving 1 point (represented by LD in the table).

Dan man

The Irish men's hockey team defeated China 4-0 in New Delhi today to secure the runner-up spot in the pool and with it qualification for Round 3 of the World League. Round 3 is the Semi-Final stages of the tournament and will consist of 2 tournaments of 8 teams each.


18.02.2013 (08:30am) China 4-0 Oman
18.02.2013 (10:30am) Ireland 5-2 Bangladesh
18.02.2013 (02:30pm) India 16-0 Fiji
20.02.2013 (10:30am) Fiji 0-13 Ireland
20.02.2013 (12:30pm) China 2-3 Bangladesh
20.02.2013 (02:30pm) India 9-1 Oman
21.02.2013 (08:30am) Fiji 1-4 China
21.02.2013 (10:30am) Bangladesh 4-0 Oman
21.02.2013 (02:30pm) Ireland 2-3 India
23.02.2013 (10:30am) Bangladesh 8-4 Fiji
23.02.2013 (12:30pm) Oman 2-7 Ireland
23.02.2013 (02:30pm) China 0-4 India
24.02.2013 (06:30am) Oman 7-3 Fiji
24.02.2013 (10:30am) Ireland 4-0 China
24.02.2013 (02:30pm) India 5-1 Bangladesh

Country|P|W|WD|LD|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Q India|5|5|0|0|0|37|4|+33|15
Q Ireland|5|4|0|0|1|31|7|+24|12
Bangladesh|5|3|0|0|2|18|17|+1|9
China|5|2|0|0|3|10|12|-2|6
Oman|5|1|0|0|4|11|27|-16|3
Fiji|5|0|0|0|5|8|48|-40|0

* Just a sidenote on the competition format....3 points for a win in regulation time. If the match is tied after regulation time, then the match goes to a penalty shoot-out to determine how the spoils are shared. The winner of the shootout receives 2 points (represented by WD in the table) with the loser receiving 1 point (represented by LD in the table).

Dan man

The Irish women's hockey team got off to a good start in their World League Round 2 campaign. A 4-1 victory over the Czech Republic, having come from a goal behind ensures all 3 points ahead of tomorrow's match against Belarus. Spain are likely to pose the biggest test for Ireland in this pool with Italy also traditionally a decent hockey nation so all 3 points will be required against the Belarussians tomorrow.

Here is the fixture list and I will be updating regularly as results come in (all times are given in Irish time):

25.02.2013 (09:30am) Ireland 4-1 Czech Republic
25.02.2013 (12:00pm) Italy 2-2 Belarus (Italy won penalty shoot out 3-1)
26.02.2013 (10:00am) Ireland v Belarus
26.02.2013 (12:30pm) Spain v Czech Republic
28.02.2013 (10:00am) Belarus v Czech Republic
28.02.2013 (12:30pm) Italy v Spain
02.03.2013 (09:30am) Czech Republic v Italy
02.03.2013 (12:00pm) Ireland v Spain
03.03.2013 (10:00am) Italy v Ireland
03.03.2013 (12:30am) Spain v Belarus


Country|P|W|WD|LD|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Ireland|1|1|0|0|0|4|1|+3|3
Italy|1|0|1|0|0|2|2|0|2
Belarus|1|0|0|1|0|2|2|0|1
Spain|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
Czech Republic|1|0|0|0|1|1|4|-3|0


* Just a sidenote on the competition format....3 points for a win in regulation time. If the match is tied after regulation time, then the match goes to a penalty shoot-out to determine how the spoils are shared. The winner of the shootout receives 2 points (represented by WD in the table) with the loser receiving 1 point (represented by LD in the table).

Dan man

The Irish women's hockey team suffered a very damaging defeat at the hands of Belarus, going down 2-0 this morning in Valencia.
In all honesty this may have closed the door of qualification for Ireland as only the top 2 advance to Round 3 and it will take some doing to get a positive result against Spain in Valencia.


Here is the fixture list and I will be updating regularly as results come in (all times are given in Irish time):

25.02.2013 (09:30am) Ireland 4-1 Czech Republic
25.02.2013 (12:00pm) Italy 2-2 Belarus (Italy won penalty shoot out 3-1)
26.02.2013 (10:00am) Ireland 0-2 Belarus
26.02.2013 (12:30pm) Spain 6-0 Czech Republic
28.02.2013 (10:00am) Belarus v Czech Republic
28.02.2013 (12:30pm) Italy v Spain
02.03.2013 (09:30am) Czech Republic v Italy
02.03.2013 (12:00pm) Ireland v Spain
03.03.2013 (10:00am) Italy v Ireland
03.03.2013 (12:30am) Spain v Belarus


Country|P|W|WD|LD|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Belarus|2|1|0|1|0|4|2|+2|4
Spain|1|1|0|0|0|6|0|+6|3
Ireland|2|1|0|0|1|4|3|+1|3
Italy|1|0|1|0|0|2|2|0|2
Czech Republic|2|0|0|0|2|1|10|-9|0


* Just a sidenote on the competition format....3 points for a win in regulation time. If the match is tied after regulation time, then the match goes to a penalty shoot-out to determine how the spoils are shared. The winner of the shootout receives 2 points (represented by WD in the table) with the loser receiving 1 point (represented by LD in the table).

KevIRL

Bronze for Ciaran O Loinard today in the 3000m at European Indoors

The_Kew_Tour

KevIRL wrote: »

Bronze for Ciaran O Loinard today in the 3000m at European Indoors

Is funny to think that only 6 Months ago he gave interview after his race at Olymipcs saying he was finished.

Glad he stuck with it.

Hopefully it brings him more success in future