Fintan Walsh weekly roundup

Jessie Barr at Olympic Games

The athletics at the Olympic Games start on August 3rd and will
continue until August 12 th and once again Waterford has an athlete
selected as we have had in every Olympics since 1980. Twenty three
year old Jessie Barr from Ferrybank AC becomes the first athlete from
that club to be an Olympian and while she is better known as a 400
Metres Hurdler it is in the 4x 400 Metres Relay event she will compete
and the heats of this are on Friday August 10 th at 7.10 pm. She
missed out by just 0 .45 of a second to make the ( A ) Standard for
the 400 Metres Hurdles. A few relative statistics which may help give
Irish people an idea of how to approach the Games from an Irish
Athletic prospective and expectation follows. First of all lets take a
brief look back at Beejing for the last Olympics and see how some
countries with much bigger populations and registered athletes fared
where 129 individual medals between Gold, Silver and Bronze  were up
for grabs in the 22 individual events for men and the 21 for women.
For Beejing there were 2057 athletes there from 204 countries
including 17 athletes from Ireland. Paul Hession was 5th in the semi
final of the 200 metres,Olive Loughnane was 7th in the 20  km Walk
final and Robt Heffernan was 8th in the 20 km Walk final, all
excellent results. In Beejing Germany won one bronze medal as did
Japan, Finland, Canada and Greece, China won 2 Bronze, South Africa
one Silver. France won one silver and one bronze, GB one Gold, 2
silver and one bronze to mention just a few. No medals of any kind
were won by countries such as Spain, Sweden, Denmark,
Austria,.Switzerland plus scores of  others countries. Twenty three
countries out of the 204 won Gold medals the top five being Kenya 6,
(all Distance)  Jamaica 5, ( Sprints)  USA 5, (mainly Sprints) Russia
5, ( mainly Field) and Ethiopia 4 ( Distance)  just another 18
countries each won one gold out of the 43 on offer, so approx 10 % of
the countries took home gold medals and London will probably be no
different. Since Ireland competed as a Nation at the Olympics
Athletics has been the top performer with Four Gold and two silver
medals, Swimming is next with Three Gold and one Bronze and then
Boxing with One Gold, Four Silver and Seven bronze and sailing with
one silver makes up our complete total. For anyone with a knowledge of
and involved in sport this is a good total for a tiny Island Nation
where Olympic sports are generally in the minority and athletics most
definitely is with a tiny number of  competitive senior athletes
registered and very little public support. The vast majority of Irish
people never attended a Munster or All Ireland Athletic Championships.

Irish Prospects in London.

Now for a look at London and the prospects for Ireland in the
athletics. Ireland has 18 athletes competing in 14  individual events
plus the Women's 4 x 400 metres Relay Team, the USA has 129 athletes
and Great Britain 71 these figures are just included for comparison
sake. Therefore Irish athletes will not be competing in 29 of the 43
individual events. All  Irish athletes competing have reached the ( A
)  Olympic Standard in their events and of course should be at the
Games the same as athletes from all other countries who have qualified
similarly and in Ireland's case three or four more very young athletes
should have been sent some with the ( B ) Standard including Jessie
Barr in the 400 metres Hurdles. If only the athletes that were seen to
be the ones with hopes of winning medals went to the Olympic games the
Athletics could be run off in one day with no heats just finals. As
can be seen from the statistics in paragraph one not only Ireland will
have athletes eliminated early on in heats but  many other country's
will also have including the major powers. On paper walkers Rob
Heffernan and Olive Loughnane may be our best placed as well as
Fionnula Britton 10000 Metres. Then Paul Hession 200 Metres, Deirdre
Ryan High Jump, Derval O'Rourke 100 Metres Hurdles and Joanne Cuddihy
400 metres may also impress. Like every country sending athletes to
the games Ireland will have hopes that one or two can come up with a
big result and all our athletes will each have that hope too but win
or lose not one of them should not be in London, they all have earned
the right to be there in the greatest Sporting event in the World by
reaching the very high standards set where 2000 athletes will be
involved from over 200 country's. Again like Beejing there are 43
Gold, 43 silver and 43 bronze medals to be won and 2000 athletes will
be aiming to win one including the Irish 18. For comparison purposes
USA has 129  athletes and GB 71. All involved in Waterford athletics
are proud to have Jessie Barr there and wish herself well and her
relay team who even if they set an Irish record may still find it
difficult to progress.. One thing is certain when the Games are over
as happened after all previous games postmortems will be held in
practically every country that had athletes competing on the subject
of medals won or medals not won and Ireland will be among them as
usual. .

Morton Pre Games Meeting

Santry Stadium in Dublin had its Pre Olympics International Sports
last week and a number of Waterford athletes competed. Kelly Proper
had good results as she won the Long Jump with 6.35 metres her best
effort for some time, she also finished second in the 100 metres in
11.61 and this was close to her best. Thomas Barr ran a fine race to
finish second in the 400 metres Hurdles in 50.45 seconds and Billy
Ryan was second in a graded 800 metres in 1.52.51 all three Ferrybank
AC, Thomas Houlihan  West Waterford was 4th in the Pole Vault with
4.38 Metres

All Ireland Juvenile Results Tullamore Saturday and Sunday last

Sorcha Murphy 1 st u 19 High Jump a big  P.B of 1.73  Metres,  Aisling
Quinn 1st u16 1500 Metres, Orlaith O'Brien 2nd Shot Putt u 14, Anne
Corcoran 3rd same event all Ferrybank. Josh Rockett West Waterford 1st
Hammer u 15, Emmanuel Ogbonna Tramore  3rd u 18 Long Jump .Relays
Ferrybank AC 2 nd Girls u 18 and third in both boys and girsl u 17.

.McCarthy wins Ballymacarbry 5 Miles in record time

Results from Doocey's Bar  Ballymacarbry 5 Miles road Race  held on
Friday last were as follows.Men 1st David McCarthy, West Waterford 23
min 55 seconds (Course record), 2 Philip Harty Donore Hrs, 26.17, 3
Frank Quinlan, Waterford 26.48, o 40 Peter Duggan, St Joseph's, o45
Pat Bookle, do, o50 Martin McCarthy, West Waterford, o 55 Tommy
Cahill, Clonmel, o60 Con Kelleher, Waterford, Junior Damien Murphy,
West Waterford . Women : 1st Corina Walsh,West Waterford, 32.05,  2nd
Racquel Valdez, 33.05, 3rd  Aine Roche, Clonmel 33.14, o 35  Kate
Wall, Clonmel.  o40 Diane Behan, Waterford, o45 Ann O'Donnell, West
Waterford, o50 Phylss Flynn, Striders, o55 Marie Moore, West
Waterford, Junior Hanna May Flynn, Striders. !58 Competed in Race 9
Ger Wyley Sports Series.

Results Faithlegg 4  Miles Race on Sunday last

Men 1 st Frank Walsh Waterford AC 2nd  Noel Murphy 3rd  Clive
Sullivan, Women 1 st Joan O'Mahony Waterford, 2 Cliona Dunne 3rd
Catherine Fowler 1st Local Michael Cox, 1st juvenile Hugo Blair
Waterford Ac

Piltown Race

The final race in the Outfield Sports Series The Morris Oil 10 KM will
be in Piltown Co Kilkenny on Friday next August 3 rd at 7.30
pm.Entries will be taken from 6.30 pm. Eiblis Ni hAodha, ( Liz Hayes )
Memorial  5 miles Fun run/walk on Bank Holiday Monday, 6th August,
near Ballyduff Lower Church, Kilmeaden.Walk starts at 6:30pm, run at
7:00pm .Registration from 5:30pm & entry €10, students €5.Prizes first
three men/women. Plenty of spots

Barefoot Mile Race at Leopardstown Racecourse - August 16th 2012

Athletics Ireland announced  that they will host a Barefoot Mile race
on the 16th of August - the final evening of the ‘Live at
Leopardstown’ Music and Racing festival. The event will take place
after the final horse race of the evening at the famous South Dublin
race track. The Athletics Ireland Barefoot Mile will be accurately
measured with chip timing and the race is a mixed race, open to men
and women of all standards.For €20 participants gain admission to the
evening’s horse racing and the live Saw Doctors concert as well as
entry to the Barefoot Mile and a souvenir race t-shirt. There is prize
money on offer for the top three male and female finishers with a
first prize of €300, second prize €200 and a third prize of €100.