Athletics 2024 (Mod note #869)

HeidiHeidi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255351#Comment_122255351

What station/ programme was that on? I wouldn't mind having a listen to that.

Dodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122254282#Comment_122254282

This is her first season without NCAA requirements, so all previous comparisons are useless

secman

Rhasidat hopefully will go sub 49, her coach had her train through Euro's and will taper properly for Paris, euro gold and silvers were added bonus, goal is Paris. Hopefully stays fit, they all need a bit of recovery after a hard week of intense racing. Brilliant 👍 👏

walshb

Is Sydney doubling up in Paris with hurdles and flat? Bol too, or is the schedule too difficult?

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122254125#Comment_122254125

I would disagree that we had four realistic medal chances; I'd have thought Healy, Coscoran and Lavin were all outside medal chances.

I felt Coscoran didnt look quite right in last nights race - if you look at it, with 300m to go he was alongside the Belgian who eventually came second, but Coscoran just didnt have the acceleration.

Lavin was clearly disappointed with her run. Healy will benefit from having reached a championships final for the first time.

Overall a fantastic championship.

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122254735#Comment_122254735

I know what you mean but anyone who has followed athletics for a while knows how much she has contributed to the sport here, and will have been thrilled to see it.

This talk of 'without Adeleke they'd be nowhere' misses the most important point which is strength in depth.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo has won the 400m at the past 2 Olympic Games; her PB is 0.7 of a second fast than Rhasidat's. And yet the Bahamas, where she is from, didnt make the final at either of those Olympics at 4x400m.

Our sub-runners for the 4x400m have 52 second PBs….

Musicrules

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255692#Comment_122255692

I hope I'm wrong but I think the without Adeleke theory will get a run out at the Olympics. Her best chance at winning an individual medal is to not compete in the relays. That can't be denied. Adeleke believes fully in her coach and he will probably tell her that this is what she's going to do. She might appear in the women's 4x4 if they make the final. That's a big if though.

Like I said, I hope I'm way off but at the same time, it's mostly an individual sport and getting an individual medal at the Olympics is the dream for all athletes.

Cosmo Kramer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255618#Comment_122255618

Healy was the only medal possibility out of those three, and a medal wasn't expected from her, but there was a small outside chance.

The 100 hurdles is just too competitive for Lavin to ever win a major medal in sadly (though I have wondered how fast she might run a 400 if she focused on that for a while!).

Coscoran isn't a major championship medal contender at this point and is unlikely to ever make the step up required at 1500 sadly.

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255780#Comment_122255780

I'll put it differently - without Adeleke we are coming 5th or 6th in the Euros. With Adeleke but without Phil Healy, we are probably coming 4th or maybe 3rd. Without Lauren Cadden maybe we dont make the final. They are all important.

yerwanthere123

One less person for Adeleke to have to worry about in Paris as McLaughlin only running the 400m hurdles

https://x.com/wldathleticshub/status/1801254158328033321?t=o-60Ksl6i-OtJEqhmGfwxg&s=19

Musicrules

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255876#Comment_122255876

Whatever way you want to put it, we won't be winning any medals without Adeleke!

Hamachi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255876#Comment_122255876

All true. Unfortunately, Adeleke is unlikely to run the mixed in Paris. The heats of the women’s 4x400m relay are on the morning of the 400m individual final. Not sure who scheduled that. I think at best Adeleke runs the 4x400m relay final, assuming we qualify. I think we will.

Between now and Paris, athletics Ireland should invest in Lauren Cadden. She’s clearly emerged as the strongest runner outside the top 4. She’s improving quickly. In world relays, she ran a 53 low leg. In Rome, she lowered that by a second to 52.12. If they could somehow help her get down to a 51.5 leg before Paris, we would safely make the final, assuming Becker, Healy, and Mawdsley are also firing on all cylinders.

Fr D Maugire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122254584#Comment_122254584

Yeah, I said a while back that I think there is no chance of Adeleke running the mixed relay at the Olympics. She is a genuine Gold medal contender so that is where her concentration will be. It will be interesting to see what teams are fielded at the Olympics, will the Dutch have Bol? I know she did it at Worlds last year, but Olympics are a different ball game. The mixed relay at the start of the programme is a real conundrum for a lot of individual medal contenders so teams could be very different than Euros. Only the US have strength in depth to use their weaker athletes and still win.

Whilst the success of the past week has been amazing, I hope everyone doesn't have unrealistic expectations come the Olympics.

Water John

The only hope and expectation anyone should have is that, everyone performs and does themselves justice on such a world stage.

DangerMouse27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122256814#Comment_122256814

At face value, you can't just invest in someone between now and the games. The hay is mostly in the barn and it's up to others to unseat her from the relay. McCrory already does that by way of ranking. And then there's Manning, and Harrison to think about.

It will all be decided, based on nationals. Apart from Adeleke and Mawdsley who have outright big Qs for the 400m flat. Everyone else's place is up for grabs.

yerwanthere123

Nice to see such activity on this thread. We're not even halfway through the year and it already has more posts than the entire 2023 edition. Feels like the sports profile has been raised enormously over the last week.

Hamachi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122257097#Comment_122257097

I get you, but I don’t think McGrory or Harrison have the same upside as Cadden, who is 4 or 5 years younger. Paris is probably coming a bit too soon for Cadden. She looks like she could potentially go sub-52 next season. Nationals will be interesting for sure.

In fact, the 400m on the men’s side will also be close. After O’Donnell, the next three are fairly evenly matched. If the weather cooperates, they may drive each other to some fast times.

DangerMouse27

It's certainly looking like a promising national championships. If AAI build it as relay selection, then Joe public will turn up just to see the gals in action.

As an aside. What do you know of anything of the roles of David McCarthy and Christian Malcolm? Saw McCarthy at the warm up track on tv but there has been little to nothing from Malcolm.

aero2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122255381#Comment_122255381

https://youtu.be/BVhjAXEyjMI?si=wEU0jDtoOWvIcGjf

https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/highlights-from-newstalk-breakfast/celebrating-irelands-relay-win-with-joan-healy

I've posted that viral inter-varsity video as well.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/othersport/arid-41415742.html

Interesting article from the Examiner.

Delboy5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122257897#Comment_122257897

Yep read that this morning too, the Floreal interview. Gives great optimism for what might happen in Paris if she executes his game plan…..should have been a sub 49 and gold in the European final if she had!

yerwanthere123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122257897#Comment_122257897

Really interesting article. Also exciting to see she's planning to race Monaco and London Diamond Leagues, will be looking forward to those!

Hamachi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122257504#Comment_122257504

I don't. I know that Christian Malcolm was with the squad at world relays in the Bahamas, but not sure what his role entails. Didn't David McCarthy win that 4x400m world indoor relay bronze with Gary Ryan, Sharlene Mawdsley's coach? Either way, I think both he and Malcolm are likely good mentors for the relay squad. You can see it in Mawdsley, how she keeps her cool when under severe pressure on the anchor leg. In the past, many Irish athletes would have tightened up in that situation.

What do you think is Mawdsley's full potential as an individual athlete? Her current PB is 50.72. I think she can and will run under 50.50. Could you envisage her ever breaking 50 seconds?

aero2k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122258240#Comment_122258240

Watching the race, I thought she had a good first 200, and I hoped she had enough left to overtake Kaczmarek in the run-in, given her superior PB. Just show what I know🤣!

Water John

Really fascinating insight from Floreal, maximising her natural talents. So, she burns off the competition in the first 200m as she's the fastest. I presume the endurance will come as she matures as a runner?

DangerMouse27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122259008#Comment_122259008

Damn. That's hard to gauge. I don't think she will break 50. I was searching there for which Welsh lad ran the 43 at the commonwealth games an age ago. Elias or Williams. Can't find it. My point is that last legs do seem to bring something out in people. So for Sharlene, I'd love it to be 50.2. But it's hard to look past your 50.5.

I reckon that only 49 gets you into this Olympic final. Or at least 6/7 of the eight will have 49.

I looked a bit sideways when I read Rhashidats coaches comments. It's not that their is disharmony but he's a bit off in coming out like that. At the moment, I'm figuring her for bronze.

Hamachi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122260856#Comment_122260856

Yeah. It was a pretty harsh assessment of her performance, given that she set a new PB and is the second fastest European this century.

I guess it’s the winners mentality. You have a plan and you go execute. Anything less than gold is seen as a failure. Floreal also made a comment about not looking at other athletes i.e. Kaczmarek in this case. Wouldn’t it benefit his athletes to design a race plan best suited to overcoming their strongest competitor? Anyway, hard to know what the internal dynamic is like in that group but it’s clearly high stakes.

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122261716#Comment_122261716

I wouldnt call it harsh per se - he is saying in simple terms that there was an agreed plan and she didnt execute - which logically makes sense. I dont think he is criticizing her for winning a silver - he is saying she didnt follow the plan. To your other point, I understood the race plan was specifically designed to force Kacsmarek (and Klaver) to respond to a particularly fast first 200m.

Would be interesting to know if Floreal and Gary Ryan talk to each other at all, given how close the athletes are now.

Tombo2001

Really sad, shameful

I'd partly blame facebook because it has 100% tolerance for racist posts - but that doesnt hide the fact that these people are out there; as quite frankly we saw with the local elections this week.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/athletics/2024/0615/1454867-adeleke-in-a-dark-place-after-online-abuse/

jackboy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122262084#Comment_122262084

Great advice for her though that this stuff is part of the package that comes with being successful and she just needs to get on with it and focus on the job.

It is hard but everyone successful in the public eye will have loads of people trying to knock them down. Sonia O Sullivan had to deal with plenty of nasty stuff in her day which would have been much much worse in the current social media climate.

yerwanthere123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122262084#Comment_122262084

Was just coming to post this. I'd always hoped that Rhasidat wouldn't really see much of the awful stuff that gets written about her, but turns out she does. Facebook is a free for all, you can write what you want without consequence. I reported posts this week where people said they "don't like her skin tone" and that "she'll run even faster when she gets deported", but somehow these don't go against community guidelines 🤔 Needless to say they all come from anonymous blank profiles. I'm guessing a lot of these are also bot accounts that are set up to stoke division, I don't know.

Anyway, I just hope she's got a good team around her, is getting good advice and that she knows that 99.99% of people root for her and that she's an incredible ambassador for this country.