Br Colm O'Connell recieves World Athletics Coaching Achievement Award

As many of you may know, Brother Colm O'Connell is a coach in Iten, Kenya and coached David Rudisha to a world record and an Olympic Gold medal in the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics.

At a ceremony in Monaco last weekend, the 71-year old Mallow man was awarded the World Athletics Coaching Achievement Award.

Full story in the Irish Times

Street in Kenya named after coach Br.Colm O'Connell

As many of you may know, Brother Colm O'Connell is a coach in Iten, Kenya and coached David Rudisha to a world record and an Olympic Gold medal in the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics.

At a recent ceremony in Kenya, a street in Kenya was named after the Mallow man.

Story HERE

Doping not rife in Kenya - David Rudisha coach Colm O'Connell

Brother Colm O'Connell from Mallow is coach to the 800m Olympic Champion & World record holder David Rudisha.

In an recent interview with the BBC, he denied that doping was rife on Kenya. This was after the country missed a deadline to prove to the World Anti-Doping Agency it is tackling cheating in athletics.

The short interview can be seen HERE

Talk by top athletics coach Br.Colm O'Connell in Eyeries...Fri 25th Sept 2015

Brother Colm O'Connell has been the coach to some of the greatest of the Kenyan athletes including David Rudisha who won Gold in the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics. On Friday the 25th of September, Colm will be giving a talk at the National School in Eyeries in West Cork.

For anyone young or old with an interest in athletics, this is one not to be missed.

From the organisers......Eyeries Running Promotions are delighted to announce the visit of Br.Colm O'Connell to Eyeries to promote our upcoming Eyeries 5 Mile Road Race. Br. Colm is home from Kenya for a few weeks and has agreed to come and give a talk in Eyeries National School on Friday 25th September.

Br.Colm is coach to many Kenyan athletes who have acheived great success for their country around the globe, including the current 800m Olympic and World Champion and Record Holder David Rudisha.

We will also have Ian Kiprono as guest speaker at our event in Eyeries on Friday. Ian is taking over the reigns at Iten from Br.Colm and will have some very interesting insights into training.
Our MC for the evening will be Mike McGrath of Eagle Athletic Club.

Eyeries 5 mile Road Race takes place on Saturday 7th November at 2:30pm and we will be hoping for another successful event this year. We are delighted to be sponsored again by Murphy's SuperValu, Castletownbere and The Edge Sports Superstore Cork. Last years run raised much needed funds for the Eyeries Playground and the fruits of our labours can be seen by all visitors to the village.

Since we started our road race last year, there has been two new races added to the Beara running calendar with the Allihies 5 mile and the Castletownbere 10km with the now famous weekly Bere Island 5km Park Run. We hope this event will add to the growing interest in the area in what promises to be a most stimulating evening with one of Cork's most unassuming sporing luminaries.

This years road race will be raising funds for the proposed extension to the Eyeries Community Development Meeting Rooms. The talk by Br.Colm will be a free event and your donations on the night towards our designated charity will be most welcome.

Follow us on Facebook: Eyeries Five-Mile
and Twitter : @Eyeries5Mile   for more details.

Eyeries Running Promotions

For more background info, it's worth watching The David Rudisha Story which is about 56 minutes long...

IAAF interview with Irish Coach Br.Colm O'Connell...

In the London Olympics in 2012, David Rudisha produced one of the best performances of the Games when he ran from the front in the mens 800m to set a new world record and winning Olympic Gold in the process. His coach is Br. Colm O'Connell who is originally from Mallow and moved to Kenya to teach back in the late 70's. Following the Games which marked him out as one of the Worlds finest athletes, David Rudisha along with Br. Colm visited Mallow last October.

In a recent interview with the IAAF, Br. Colm talks about his coaching career and his approach to athletes. Just to give you some idea of what it is like for an elite athlete at this level..........and especially for those of you who are constantly racing! ;o) .........Br. Colm said the following........."This time David had a three-month rest after his last race on 29 August, in Zurich. Three months without any kind of training. He needed this long break for charging his batteries – physically and mentally. When he resumed training, we had to be very careful. You could easily catch an injury. Basic conditioning, easy runs, about 60km a week, some gym work, exercises. Slowly but surely we increased the quality, the weekly mileage remained the same. In March, we started adding the track workouts."

On the subject of whether anyone will break 1:40 for 800m, Br.Colm said..."I don’t think 1:40 or below is going to be possible soon. 1:40 cannot be broken in the next two or three years. It will take time: 1:40.9, 1:40.8, etc."

Back in October, I asked Br.Colm the exact same question when he was in Mallow.......Will 1:40 be ever broken? Br. Colm gave the same answer then....i.e. the record may go in small increments but he did say that it was likely that only one person would set those new records and that would be David Rudisha.

The full interview can be seen HERE

Mallow AC signs up two new members...

Some new members turned up to collect their new Mallow AC singlets last weekend...

Olympic 800m Gold medalist David Rudisha with his coach Br.Colm O'Connell being presented with their new singlets.

Shane Simcox....Mallow AC coach with the 800m World Record holder David Rudisha

Photos courtesy of Steve Murphy of Mallow AC...

David Rudisha visits Mallow in North Cork...

One of the world's greatest athletes stopped off in Mallow this evening with his coach, Brother Colm O'Connell. David Rudisha is the current Olympic and world record holder in the 800 metres, as well as the current World and Olympic Champion at the distance. He holds the three fastest, six of the eight fastest, and half of the twenty fastest times ever for this event.

In a recent interview, the former world record holder, London Olympics 2012 chairman and double Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe said that David Rudisha's performance at the Summer Games was "the most extraordinary piece of running I have probably ever seen".

In front of a crowd of about 200 people, Brother O'Connell gave a short speech outlining how he had coached David since he was a small boy and how he watched him grow to be one of the world's best. He spoke about how David was not only an inspiration and role model to young athletes in his native Kenya but internationally as well. He also conferred the title of 'Honourary Mallowman' on David.......although I think David might have to work on the accent a bit ;o)

In his short speech, David Rudisha spoke of how he started off in athletics as a small shy boy. How he was inspired by his father Daniel Rudisha who won a silver medal at the 1968 Mexico Games as part of the Kenyan 4 x 400m relay team. He also mentioned how he had wanted to come to Ireland to visit Br. O'Connells home and family........and looked around at the assembled crowd and remarked that he was suprised that Colm had so many relations ;o)

Also in attendance was Irish Olympic race walker Rob Heffernan with his wife Marian. Rob gave a few words just to emphasise what a talent David Rudisha is and how amazing his performance at the London Olympics was.

800 Metres......Times under 1:42.....All Time
Mark       Athlete       Nation       DOB       Pos       Venue       Date  
1:40.91    David Lekuta Rudisha     KEN    17/12/1988    1    London (OS)    09/08/2012
1:41.01    David Lekuta Rudisha            1r1    Rieti    29/08/2010
1:41.09    David Lekuta Rudisha            1    Berlin    22/08/2010
1:41.11    Wilson Kipketer     DEN    12/12/1972    1    Köln    24/08/1997
1:41.24    Wilson Kipketer            1r1    Zürich    13/08/1997
1:41.33    David Lekuta Rudisha            1r1    Rieti    10/09/2011
1:41.51    David Lekuta Rudisha            1    Heusden-Zolder    10/07/2010
1:41.54    David Lekuta Rudisha            1    Paris Saint-Denis    06/07/2012
1:41.73    Sebastian Coe     GBR    29/09/1956    1    Firenze    10/06/1981
1:41.73    Wilson Kipketer            1    Stockholm    07/07/1997
1:41.73    Nijel Amos     BOT    15/03/1994    2    London (OS)    09/08/2012
1:41.74    David Lekuta Rudisha            1    New York City, NY    09/06/2012
1:41.77    Joaquim Cruz     BRA    12/03/1963    1    Köln    26/08/1984
1:41.83    Wilson Kipketer            1    Rieti    01/09/1996

In a brief chat towards the end of the evening, I asked Brother Colm if he thought the 1:40 barrier would ever be broken? He said possibly one day but not for a long time. It is much more likely that the current record will be broken in very small increments as before. If anyone is going to do it then it is likely to be David again. He also thought that it might be several years before the current record set in London might be broken.

Just to see what a great world record that was, you can see the 800m Olympic race HERE...

Also......back in February of this year, I had a video up called Man on a Mission. It shows the trip that Eamonn Coghlan made to Iten in Kenya to visit Br.Colm O'Connell. Post HERE

I know on many websites and newspaper articles, the word legend and great gets thrown around a lot but in this case, it seems very apt.

Brother Colm O'Connell conferred with honorary Doctorate at DCU...

On Friday the 19th of October, Brother Colm O'Connell was conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy at Dublin City University. Br. O'Connell is the coach at the now famous Iten training camp in Kenya which has produced some of the world's best athletes. A member of the Patrician missionary order, Brother Colm joined St Patrick’s High School in Iten, Kenya as a geography teacher in 1976. Thirty-six years later, he is still in Iten and is now acknowledged as the world’s most successful coach of endurance running, having nurtured five Olympic Gold medallists and 25 world champions. On hand to witness the event was David Rudisha, world record-holder, winner of the London 2012 800m Gold medal and alumnus of Brother Colm’s world-renowned athletics coaching programme in Kenya’s Rift Valley.

L to R...Fr.Liam Kelleher (Race Director of the Dromina 10 mile road race and editor of the Marathon magazine back in the 80's).....Ian O'Riordan (Athletics journalist with the Irish Times).....Frank Greally (Founder and editor of the Irish Runner magazine).....David Rudisha (winner of the 800m at the London Olympics and current world record holder).....Br.Colm O'Connell (one of the world's most successful coaches)

Accepting his honorary degree, Brother Colm O’Connell said..........“It is a very humbling experience for me to stand here today to receive such an honour. When looking down through the list of honorary graduates who have gone before me in being honoured by this distinguished university, I feel, indeed, very happy. Also, for somebody to be selected from a remote little village in the highlands of Western Kenya and to be recognised in such a manner is beyond my wildest dreams and imaginings.”

Other guests in attendance at the honorary graduation ceremony included Linda Byrne, 2012 Irish Olympian and marathon runner; Senator Eamonn Coghlan; Mr John Foley, Chief Executive of the Athletic Association of Ireland; HE Ms Catherine Muigai Mwangi, Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya; and Mr John Treacy, Irish Sports Council.

RTE have a short report HERE

Br. O'Connell is originally from Doneraile near Mallow in North Cork. He is supposed to be at the GAA complex in Mallow with Olympian David Rudisha at 5:30pm later today.

Man on a Mission...Video about the famous Iten training camp in Kenya

Back in January, I had a post up about Irishman Brother Colm O'Connell in Kenya with links to some newspaper articles. He is famous worldwide for training some of the best athletes in the world at the famous Iten training camp in the highlands of Kenya.

This video (approx 55 mins long) shows Eamonn Coghlan at the camp, looking at how the athletes there train and finding out what is the key to their success.