World Half Marathon team

OOnegative

https://www.fastrunning.com/events-and-races/events-news/ireland-announce-team-for-world-half-marathon-championships/13394

OOnegative

So what’s a good result for our lads tomorrow? A top 25 for one? Picking Scullion to be our top finisher.

Kamworwor for the treble or Yimer to win his first title? Leonard Korir from the States is my dark horse.

Testosterscone

Few hiccups leave two of the big women's teams in precarious positions (late withdrawals for US and Kenya mean that if there are any DNF's they will miss out on team scoring.

Pollock's record at Championship races is hard to sniff at though this close to CW marathon it is really anyone's guess how he will run. His form this time around (a few good build up races) and no talk of injury bodes well though.

Interested to see hour Shaughnessy goes. Her debut was a big performance and she is naturally suited to the longer distances. Anyone know where McCormack is ?

My money is on Kamworir. In the absence of Karoki I don't think Yimer is in the same league just yet despite the fast times. For me Kamworir is arguably even better than Tadese at the distance and has had a good cross country build up to this. Would love to see conditions be more favourable for him compared to Cardiff (probably the best performance ever IMO)

Testosterscone

OOnegative wrote: »

So what’s a good result for our lads tomorrow? A top 25 for one? Picking Scullion to be our top finisher.

Pollock has been our top performer the last 3 iterations

2012 - 34th
2014 - 30th
2016 - 14th

I think 2016 results are down to a sensibly paced race in tough conditions where competitors faded around him. Top 30 would be a solid performance and maybe 2 in the top 40 would be a very good showing.

OOnegative

Testosterscone wrote: »

My money is on Kamworir. In the absence of Karoki I don't think Yimer is in the same league just yet despite the fast times. For me Kamworir is arguably even better than Tadese at the distance and has had a good cross country build up to this. Would love to see conditions be more favourable for him compared to Cardiff (probably the best performance ever IMO)

True winning the Kenyan cross country title bodes well for him. They seem to selling it as a fast course(suppose there hardly going to say it’s pig of a route) so hopefully we will see a quick race, mind you I don’t mind looking at good tactical race either but some serious speed in the field.

Safiri

Testosterscone wrote: »

Few hiccups leave two of the big women's teams in precarious positions (late withdrawals for US and Kenya mean that if there are any DNF's they will miss out on team scoring.

Pollock's record at Championship races is hard to sniff at though this close to CW marathon it is really anyone's guess how he will run. His form this time around (a few good build up races) and no talk of injury bodes well though.

Interested to see hour Shaughnessy goes. Her debut was a big performance and she is naturally suited to the longer distances. Anyone know where McCormack is ?

My money is on Kamworir. In the absence of Karoki I don't think Yimer is in the same league just yet despite the fast times. For me Kamworir is arguably even better than Tadese at the distance and has had a good cross country build up to this. Would love to see conditions be more favourable for him compared to Cardiff (probably the best performance ever IMO)

I don't think Kamworer can blow off an in shape Yimer. Talking about about a guy who is his equal on the track but has a better kick, Kam won't be able to grind him off with a quick pace unless he's in 2016 nick and I think he has faded since then. It's an old classic Kenyan-Ethiopian duel of the past again so should be interesting. Don't sleep on Cheroben either...

average_runner

Is it on tv? Currently out with a bad cold so need something to watch

rom

https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/broadcast-intentions-per-territory-iaaftrin

OOnegative

I see Balbriggan & Districts Valdas Dopolskas towing the line for his native Lithuania.

Itziger

Turns out it's on the BBC red button. Yes!!! Check out the course anyone interested in the full Marathon. I'm guessing it starts and finishes near the same place.

wgtomblin

Quite windy conditions, around 40km/h. This will most likely have a bearing on race strategies and impact the times.

rom

any splits webpage?

Testosterscone

rom wrote: »

any splits webpage?

IAAF should but hasn't updated

Lead group were averaging 3.08 (approx 66 flat pace) through 5k though

Sinead Diver looked to be the leading Irish with about 30-40 seconds on Graham and McCarthy from what I got.

(Edit: lead group went through 2nd 5k in 16 flat)

Condo131

Live stream https://www.facebook.com/ethioathletics.netwrk.1/videos/155862875095920/

Testosterscone

Live Splits

https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-half-marathon-championships/iaaftrinidad-alfonso-world-half-marathon-cham-6023/live#timetableDetail/Result/24757

Testosterscone

Pollock with an aggressive start. 1st 5k in 61.30 pace, 20 seconds up on Scullion

Testosterscone

Kenyan team look to be in trouble on womens side, Chepnetich falling further and further behind and on her own no, with only 3 runners she is needed to finish for the team to count.

pconn062

Testosterscone wrote: »

Pollock with an aggressive start. 1st 5k in 61.30 pace, 20 seconds up on Scullion

You have to give one thing to Pollock, he has serious balls.

Testosterscone

pconn062 wrote: »

You have to give one thing to Pollock, he has serious balls.

Has an all or nothing style approach. Probably part of the reason he picks up a number of injuries but has paid off to an extent in many championships races.

pconn062

15.40 for Pollock's 2nd 5k, ouch. 30.11 at 10k. Scullion 24 seconds behind him.

average_runner

Pollock 45:58 for 15k, scullion 46:09, seaward 46:21

Itziger

Lizzie Lee 1.13.19 PB. I met her on a rec run two days after her Barcelona Half and said she'd bag a 1.12 in Valencia. Almost. Well done to her though. Quite windy alright.

Itziger

13.01 5k split!!!!!!!!!

Slow_Runner

Pollock 1:04:29 in 77th place

Condo131

Lizzie Lee (46th, 73:19) & Claire McCarthy (57th, 74:20) both run PBs to finish top Irish, ahead of Laura Graham (78th, 76:27), Laura Shaughnessy (79th, 76:28) and Fionnuala Ross (82nd, 76:53).

Ireland finished 14th in the team standings, in 3:44:06

Kebede (Eth) won in world record 66:11, ahead of Kenyans Jepkosgei, 66:54 and Kamulu, 66:56.

Testosterscone

Great PB's from Lee and McCarthy, hats of to Leevale they seem to have been best prepped for the championships. Tough conditions by the looks of times so PB's bode well.

Pollock's position won't inspire any great confidence in many however I think he is operating at a good level especially with Commonwealth's being the focus. One would hope that he wasn't fully sharp for this one (Similarly Seaward), if so then it would indicate he is in very good nick to be operating near to his HM best.

Tough day for Dooney but the experience will stand to him, much like Shaughnessy. Though they are not young they definitely have plenty of years of improvement from a distance perspective both having only recently stepped up to the distance.

Would have liked to have seen more from Scullion though by the looks of it he ran a consistent effort throughout and ran out of legs in the closing stages. Ciobanu ran to form with his fastest Half since 2015

Testosterscone

Sinead Diver (71.40) and Valdas Dopolskas (66.24) also with PB's for Australia and Lithuania respectively

Testosterscone

Pollock 21st European. With the likes of Hawkins, Moen, Griffin and any of the Poles missing does show the tough task which lies ahead in Berlin later this year over the marathon

Chivito550

Testosterscone wrote: »

Pollock 21st European. With the likes of Hawkins, Moen, Griffin and any of the Poles missing does show the tough task which lies ahead in Berlin later this year over the marathon

I think we’ll have a tough task across all events in Berlin to be honest. Excluding the farce of a Euros in Helsinki 2012 when many of the best didn’t go, I fear this could be our first Euros since 1990 without a medal. We don’t have many chances. Our best bets (Barr and English) are in events stacked at European level, and Mageean appears off the boil.

Of course, there’s far more to athletics than medals and hopefully we’ll see good performances from our athletes and great experience for the younger athletes, but it is worrying if we can’t medal at European level.

Swashbuckler

Scullion saying he had stomach cramps and struggled from 9 miles on

skyblue46

Not remotely running related but did anyone else think Valencia looked stunning? I'll be booking a city break!

TheBigGreen

SS Strava

average_runner

Testosterscone wrote: »

Pollock 21st European. With the likes of Hawkins, Moen, Griffin and any of the Poles missing does show the tough task which lies ahead in Berlin later this year over the marathon

Britain have some good runners coming thru. Hawkins is great to watch

Krusty_Clown

Great result for the Swiss man Julien Wanders, who relocated to Kenya, to break into an otherwise African top 20, with an 8th place finish. Not a PB (he ran 60.09 in February), but just showing he can compete with some of the world's best over the 13.1 distance.

wgtomblin

On the men's side, only 9 European teams competed. Including Turkey and Israel, mostly comprised of African born (and based) athletes.

No teams from the likes of Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Italy...
Any ideas why they choose to stay away?

Ireland only finished ahead of Kazakhstan and Gibraltar. Is there a benefit in funding and sending a full team to this event? Our athletes are otherwise entering large city half marathons anyway (Paris, Berlin, Barcelona etc.. )

average_runner

wgtomblin wrote: »

On the men's side, only 9 European teams competed. Including Turkey and Israel, mostly comprised of African born (and based) athletes.

No teams from the likes of Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Italy...
Any ideas why they choose to stay away?

Ireland only finished ahead of Kazakhstan and Gibraltar. Is there a benefit in funding and sending a full team to this event? Our athletes are otherwise entering large city half marathons anyway (Paris, Berlin, Barcelona etc.. )

The amount of funding they get isn't much to write home about. They deserve a chance there

Testosterscone

wgtomblin wrote: »

Ireland only finished ahead of Kazakhstan and Gibraltar. Is there a benefit in funding and sending a full team to this event? Our athletes are otherwise entering large city half marathons anyway (Paris, Berlin, Barcelona etc.. )

Would imagine that it offered good championship experience in build up to Berlin for the Marathon team as well as blooding new athletes into the team. Considering similar climate and relative inexpense of Valencia it provides decent return if learn from it (stomach issues and other things which can hopefully be rectified)

Always a bit bemused that sending athletes is the first thing questioned with regards budgets, what about cost saving measure on the administration side of the sport, or negotiating better deals with event management companies for services rendered (or tendering processes etc)

Surely creating a culture of excellence around championships is one of the biggest failings of our athletes in recent times as opposed to lack of talent of many of our athletes who do go to championships having achieved qualifiers.

Also closing avenues to earn Ireland call ups has an impact on development. People argue that Marathon qualifiers are soft in comparison to some other events but this has also lead to an increase in general standard in Marathon running in this country. Likewise the demise of the Inter Clubs XC coincided with the decision to stop sending teams to world cross. Having an Irish presence at these events might not seem to have a huge impact but it does influence the landscape at a domestic level.

wgtomblin

average_runner wrote: »

The amount of funding they get isn't much to write home about. They deserve a chance there

Hmm... all the more reason why I would question why limited funding would be allocated to sending full teams there. For instance, would it not be better to forego this competition and dedicate funding towards training camp, altitude training, etc..

"They deserve a chance there".
I don't understand this argument.

wgtomblin

Testosterscone wrote: »

Surely creating a culture of excellence around championships is one of the biggest failings of our athletes in recent times

This is a fair point, thanks.

Not having a go at the athletes. I guess what sparked my question was that I was interested why likes of Ireland and Austria sent teams while some larger European nations with more depth, chose not to.