Irish women's relay team win Silver at World U-20 Championships

The Irish women's 4x100m relay team won silver at the World U-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland today. The team of  Molly Scott, Gina Akpe-Moses, Ciara Neville and Patience Jumbo-Gula ran a national under-20 record time of 43.90 to finish behind Germany and in front of Great Britain to take Silver.

In the video below, the Irish team are in lane 5.

SILVER! 🥈
They’ve only gone and done it! Fantastic run in the 4x100 relay. 43.90 for @RunMollyRun13, @GinaAkpeMoses, @ciara_nev100 and @Patience_Jumbo.
Incredible pace from Patience at the end!
What a team, what a day! 🇮🇪 #HerSport #HerAthletics https://t.co/CHGnfM7f9V pic.twitter.com/HWlCaNt1o1

— HerSport (@HerSportDotIE) July 14, 2018

Belfast to Host 24 Hour World Championships in 2017

It has just been announced that Belfast will host the 24 Hour World Championships in July of 2017. The last 24 Hour World Championships were held in Italy in April 2015 and attracted 300 runners from all over the World (177 men & 123 women).

In recent years, the Irish 24 Hour Championships have been held on the Mary Peters Track in Belfast. This year, it will be moved to Victoria Park in East Belfast where there runners will use a loop that is just under 1.7kms in length.

Victoria Park is located between the George Best Belfast City Airport and the old Harland and Wolff dockyards. There is a 5km parkrun there every Saturday morning and attacts about 100-300 people.

Here is the anouncement from the IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners)...
Belfast has been selected to host the next 24 Hour World Championships in 2017.  The bid presented by this Northern Ireland city was very strong and the Local Organizing Committee have started work to host the event next year. The 24 Hour championships will take place July 1st and 2nd in Victoria Park in East Belfast. We wish the LOC the very best of luck as they progress towards the organization of the event. As we get closer to the event we will present more information. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us...Nadeem Khan, Director of Communications

Here is what it looks like on the ground...

This is an international event which will have teams from all over the world representing their country. There will also be an Irish team and their selection will probably depend on the results of the Irish 24 hour championships at the end of June 2016. It's also likely though that this will be an open competition with anyone able to take part.

Update from the organisers......."The 12th IAU 24-Hr World Championships are on their way to Belfast next year,2017. They'll be held in Victoria Park on July 1 and 2.
There is the potential for 300 athletes from 50 nations to take part. The Irish championships will still be on; and there will also be an Open race with 100 places available.
It kind of makes this June's Energia24 important as a dress rehearsal for 2017!
Thanks to everyone for their support and help in building the race up and getting us to these dizzy heights.
The Championships was launched in the Park this morning with Irish internationals Ruthann Sheahan and John O'Regan making the long journeys up to help Belfast's Lord Mayor get the build-up started. Just 500 days to go! "

Potential Gold Championship medals for Sonia O'Sullivan after Chinese media reports

According to a news story in the Irish Times, it would seem as if a letter written to a journalist 19 years ago has now been published and it shows that a lot of the Chinese athletes at the time were doping.

According to Chinese media sources, Wang Junxia the 3000m and 10000m women's world record holder is supposed to have sent a letter of admission of whole scale doping to a journalist back in the 90's and it was signed by all nine team mates. The IAAF have now said that they will investigate the issue and if it's true then medals may be reallocated.

“In any case, IAAF Competition Rule 263.3 (e) note (ii) clearly states that if anyone makes an admission of guilt, the IAAF can take action: if an athlete has admitted that, at some time prior to achieving a world record, he had used or taken advantage of a substance or technique prohibited at that time, then, subject to the advice of the Medical and Anti-Doping Commission, such record will not continue to be regarded as a World Record by the IAAF.”

The graphics below show the results from those World Championships in 1993...

In the womens 3000m, Sonia O'Sullivan finished in 4th place behind three Chinese athletes. If those three were disqualified then Sonia O'Sullivan would be moved up into the Gold medal position. The British athlete Alison Wyeth would be moved up into Silver. The Bronze would be awarded posthumously to the Russian athlete Yelena Romanova as she died of unknown causes in 2007 aged just 43.

In the 1500m final, Sonia O'Sullivan finished 2nd so in this case, she would be moved up into Gold if the Chinese athlete was disqualified.

Even the dogs in the street knew that the Chinese athletes from this period in the early 90's were doping. Wang Junxia set world records of 8:06.11 for 3,000m and 29:31.78 for 10,000 and remain unbroken today. In effect, she took or was given drugs which enabled her to run like a man.

Despite her questionable post, it still didn't stop the IAAF adding her to their Hall of Fame recently which says a lot about the level of corruption within the world athletics governing body.

At the moment, this is just a media story and it still has to be confirmed. It's only on conclusion of a successful IAAF investigation that the potential medals will be confirmed. There's always the chance that the story is just a hoax. Considering how old the letter and story is, it seems a bit strange as to why it's being brought up now and was not left buried.

Video of 1500m final...


Video of the 3000m final...

Reaction...
Interview with Sonia O'Sullivan on Today FM HERE

Noelle Lenihan & Orla Barry from Cork win medals at the IPC Parlympic Games in Doha

Following on from Niamh McCarthy's recent Bronze medal at the IPC Paralympic Athletics World Championships in Doha, two more athletes from Cork have gotten into the medals as well.

On Monday, 15 year old Noelle Lenihan from Charleville won silver in the F38 discus and also managed to set a new world record. After her throw of 31.64m, Noelle said..."I got a PB, world record and silver medal in my first major championship. I turn 16 in a few days time so naturally I’m going to gain more experience and improve my explosive power which can only result in further improvement. But for today I’m delighted!"

On Tuesday, Orla Barry from Ladysbridge won bronze for Ireland in the F57 discus.

Noelle Lenihan & Orla Barry

Rob Heffernan finishes 5th at World Championships...

Rob Heffernan finished 5th today in the 50km walk at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing. To finish 5th in the World is a remarkable achievement considering he wasn't 100% fit following his operations last year.

For a while, Rob was in 3rd place but was passed by two Japanese athletes. Rob's time of 3h 44m 17s works out as 7:13 minute mile pace.

Post race interview with Rob...

Photo credit : James Veale of West Waterford AC

Unfortunately Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny) was disqualified and Alex Wright (Leevale) was unable to finish.

Usain Bolt beats Gatlin again to win 200m Gold

The final of the mens 200m today saw a rematch between Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin once again. With the two of them level at the 100m mar, Bolt used his long stride to pull away over the second 100m to take Gold.

POS    ATHLETE    COUNTRY    MARK        REACTION TIME
1    Usain BOLT    JAM JAM        19.55    WL    0.147
2    Justin GATLIN    USA USA        19.74        0.161
3    Anaso JOBODWANA    RSA RSA    19.87    NR    0.154
4    Alonso EDWARD    PAN PAN        19.87    SB    0.170
5    Zharnel HUGHES    GBR GBR        20.02    PB    0.119
6    Ramil GULIYEV    TUR TUR            20.11        0.180
7    Femi OGUNODE    QAT QAT            20.27        0.198
8    Nickel ASHMEADE    JAM JAM    20.33        0.132

This was also Bolt's 10th Gold medal at World Championships.

Julius Yego of Kenya...from watching YouTube clips to World Championship Gold

One of the most amazing results to come out of the current World Championships in Beijing has been that of Julius Yego of Kenya winning Gold in the Javelin.

Growing up, he wasn't fast enough to be serious runner so opted for the javelin instead, a sport that is not normally associated with Kenya. With no-one to coach him, he started off watching video clips on YouTube on how to improve his technique.

Now aged 26, his throw of 92.72 metres last Wednesday won the Gold medal and was just 8cms shy of the World Championship record. From watching video clips on YouTube to Gold in about a decade.

Timetable for Irish athletes at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing...22nd to 30th Aug 2015

The IAAF World Championships start this coming Saturday in Beijing, China and 16 Irish athletes are taking part. It's unlikely that for most there will be any medals and getting to a final would be an accomplishment in itself. The one exception is Rob Heffernan who is going there to defend his World Championship title which he won in Moscow in 2013.


The time difference between China and Ireland is 7 hours so some events are in the small hours of the morning.

Saturday 22nd of August Day 1

Men’s 400m hurdles heats...Athlete: Thomas Barr (Ferrybank)...Irish time: 11:35am

Sunday 23rd of August  Day 2
Men's 20km Race Walk...Athlete: Alex Wright...Irish time: 1:30am
Men’s 400m hurdles semi-final...Athlete: Thomas Barr...Irish time: 11:40am
Men’s 800m semi-final...Athlete: Mark English...Irish time: 13:15

Monday 24th August Day 3
Women’s pole vault qualification
Athlete: Tori Pena (Finn Valley)...Irish time: 2:30am
Women’s 3,000m steeplechase heats...Athletes: Kerry O’Flaherty (Newcastle), Sara Treacy (Dunboyne), Michelle Finn (Leevale)...Irish time: 2:45am

Tuesday 25th August Day 4
Men’s 400m hurdles  final...Athlete: Thomas Barr...Irish time: 13:25
Men’s 800m final ...Athlete: Mark English...Irish time: 13:55

Wednesday August 26th Day 5
Women's 800m heats...Athlete: Ciara Everard (UCD)...Irish time: 3:25am
Men’s 110m hurdles heats...Athlete: Ben Reynolds...Irish time: 4:20am
Women’s 200m heats...Athlete: Kelly Proper...Irish time: 12:15pm

Saturday August 29th Day 8
Men’s 50km Race Walk ...Athletes: Robert Hefferan (Togher), Brendan Boyce (Letterkenny), Alex Wright (Leevale) ...Irish time: 00:30
Men’s 4x400m relay heats...Ireland: Thomas Barr, Mark English, Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers), Brian Murphy (Crusaders), Timmy Crowe (Clonliffe Harriers), Richard Morrissey (Crusaders)...Irish time: 3:40am

Sunday August 30th Day 9
Men’s 4x400m final...Irish time: 13:25/local time 20:25

Live Stream......If you can't watch it on TV then there are live streams from YouTube HERE
If the YouTube feed doesn't work, try here... http://www.watchathletics.com/schedule/watchlive/1443

 The World Championship website is here... http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-championships
 

IAAF announce qualifying standards for the 2015 World Championships

The 2015 IAAF World Athletic Championships will be held in Beijing, China between the 22nd  and 30th of August. Yesterday on the 19th of November, the IAAF announced the qualifying standards which can be seen below.

One of the big changes is that they have done away with the 'A' and 'B' standards. There is now just one qualifying standard. The full conditions can be seen HERE

The qualification period is as follows....
a) For the 10,000m, marathon, race walks, relays and combined events: from 1 January 2014 to 10 August 2015 (closing date for the final entries)
b) For all other events: from 1 October 2014 to 10 August 2015 (closing date for the final entries).

Looking through the various standards, it's obvious that some are probably beyond the current abilities of a lot of Irish athletes, especially the sprint events. One possible exception might be Kelly Proper of Ferrybank AC who has a PB from the 2014 European Championships of 23.15 in the 200m. As you can see above, the standard is 23:20.

In the womens marathon, the standard is 2:44 which is one minute slower than the standard for the 2013 world championships. With only 3 athletes allowed on the Irish team, it'll be interesting to see who gets selected? Already, the three Irish women on the team who went to the European Championships in Zurich last August have already qualified based on their times...
Fionnuala Britton 2:31:46, Sarah Mulligan 2:42:43 and Barbara Sanchez who is one second inside the standard with 2:43:59!
There are others as well including Maria McCambridge who finished 2nd in the Dublin marathon in 2:34:19. Add a few others into the mix and several Irish women might be in contention for those 3 spots.

2019 World Championships : In other related news, it was also announced in the last few days that the 2019 World Athletic Championships will be held in Doha in Qatar.
The voting was as follows:
First round: Doha - 12, Eugene - 9, Barcelona - 6 (Barcelona was eliminated).
Second round: Doha - 15, Eugene - 12.

Due to the extreme heat, the competition will be held in October as opposed to August. Expect...
1) It will still be too hot
2) The crowds will be small...i.e. empty stadium
3) Impact on European Cross Country Championships in December.
4) Huge local support for Qatari athletes who were all born in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Story behind the iconic image of the 2013 World Championships in Moscow...

The day after Usain Bolt won the Gold medal in the mens 100m at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, this photo appeared on newspapers all over the world. Taken just after the finish, it is of course very symbolic with the world's fastest man having the surname Bolt  and then having a bolt of lightning in the background.

Irish sports commentator Will Downing caught up with the photographer Olivier Morin and asked him how he captured the image.

Usain Bolt wins mens 200m in World Championships in 19.66 seconds

Usain Bolt of Jamaica won the mens 200m at the IAAF World Championships today in Moscow in a time of 19.66 seconds.

POS ATHLETE    COUNTRY    MARK        REACTION TIME
1 Usain BOLT     JAM     19.66     WL    0.177
2 Warren WEIR    JAM     19.79     PB    0.176
3 Curtis MITCHELL     USA     20.04        0.147
4 Nickel ASHMEADE    JAM     20.05        0.145
5 Adam GEMILI    GBR     20.08        0.151
6 Anaso JOBODWANA    RSA     20.14        0.172
7 Churandy MARTINA     NED     20.35        0.138
8 Jaysuma SAIDY NDURE     NOR     20.37        0.145

This equals the 19th fastest 200m time ever yet Bolt was just cruising at the end.

Usain Bolt wins 100m title at World Championships in Moscow

At the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow, the Olympic champion added the World Championship title to his crown. After being eliminated in 2011 in Daegu, South Korea due to a false start, there was no mistake this time as Bolt went on to win the title in 9.77 seconds.

Justin Gatlin of the USA finished in second which will no doubt be of relief to a lot of people. As someone who has failed a drugs test in the past, many would prefer if he didn't win any major titles.

The results also show up the dominance of Jamican sprinters with them taking 4 out of the top 5 places.

Timetable for Irish athletes at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow

Irish Athletes Schedule - World Championships Moscow 2013 - (Irish Time)
 
Sat 10th Day 1
8:20am 800m Heats Men...Mark English & Paul Robinson
11:00am Marathon Final Women...Maria McCambridge
15:05pm 400m Heats Women...Jennifer Carey
 
Sun 11th Day 2
8:05am 400m Heats Men...Brian Gregan
16:10pm Pole Vault Q Women...Tori Pena
16:35pm 800m SF Men...Mark English & Paul Robinson?
17:05pm 400m SF Women...Jennifer Carey?
 
Mon 12th Day 3
17:05pm 400m SF Men...Brian Gregan?
18:15pm 400m Final Women...Jennifer Carey?
 
Tues 13th Day 4
06:35am 20K Walk Women...Laura Reynolds
16:35pm Pole Vault Final Women...Tori Pena?
18:10pm 800m Final Men...Mark English & Paul Robinson?
18:50pm 400m Final Men...Brian Gregan?
 
Wed 14th Day 5
05:30am 50K Walk Men...Rob Heffernan & Brendan Boyce
 
Thurs 15th Day 6
6:55am 800m Heats Women...Roseanne Galligan
 
Fri 16th Day 7
17:15pm 800m SF Women...Roseanne Galligan?
 
Sat 18th Day 8
12:30pm Marathon Final Men...Paul Pollock
 
Sun 19th Day 9
 14:50pm 800m Final Women...Roseanne Galligan?

Irish Athletics team announced for World Championships in Moscow...

A few days ago, Athletics Ireland announced the Irish team for the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Moscow, Russia from the 10th to 18th of August.

The 11 athletes are...
Robert Heffernan-50km Walk (Togher AC)
Brian Gregan- 400m (Clonliffe Harriers) Coach:John Shields
Mark English - 800m (UCD AC) Coach: Teresa McDaid
Paul Robinson- 800m (St Cocas AC) coach: Robert Denmead
Brendan Boyce- 50km Walk (Letterkenny AC) Coach: Robert Heffernan
Paul Pollock- Marathon (Annadale Striders) Coach: Andy Hobdell
Jennifer Carey- 400m (Dundrum South Dublin) Coach: Travis Anderson
Rose-Anne Galligan - 800m (Newbridge) Coach:David Farrow
Tori Pena    - Pole Vault (Finn Valley) Coach: Greg Hull
Laura Reynolds- 20km Walk (Mohill and District) Coach: Colin Griffin
Maria McCambridge- Marathon (Dundrum South Dublin AC) Coach: Dick Hooper

Out of the eleven, the one person who is a serious contender for a podium place is Rob Heffernan from Cork in the 50 km walk. After finishing 4th in the London Olympics last August, he is certainly in with a chance although he'll be up against some of the best in the world, especially the Russians who will obviously enjoy a lot of home support.

Rob will be in action in the 50k at 5:30am Irish time on Wednesday, the 14th of August.

Orla Barry from Ladysbridge sets new world record in the F57 class at Paralympic World Championships

Orla Barry from Ladysbridge in East Cork won the silver medal in the F57/58 discus at the IPC World Athletics Championships at Lyon’s Rhone Stadium on Saturday, the 27th of July 2013. On her final throw, 22 year old Orla threw 31.08 metres which was a new world record in the F57 class.

In an interview after the event, Orla said.......“I did what I came to do. I broke the world record and I’m delighted to be going home with a silver medal.”

James Nolan, head of Irish Paralympic Athletics said...."Orla’s performances all year have been very consistent and regularly over 30m. She has now produced a 31m plus throw and the world record at the major championships, which is three metres further than her throw last year to win bronze at the Paralympic Games. The Algerian had to throw a world record to beat her. Silver is excellent and another step forward for Orla.”

In the World Championships in Christchurch in New Zealand in 2010, Olrla had finished 4th in the same event. Her new silver medal adds to her tally having won bronze at the bronze at the London Paralympics in 2012.

Ciarán Ó Lionáird finishes 10th in 1500m World Championships...

Ciarán Ó Lionáird of Leevale AC finished in a very credible 10th place in the 1500 metre final of the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. In a bunched finish, Ciarán was only 2 seconds behind the winner Asbel Kiprop and finished ahead of the 2008 Olympic silver medalist Nick Willis of New Zealand.

An impressive performance considering that he is only 23 years old. A video clip of the race can be seen below (in German ;o) with Nick Willis leading for the fist 800m and Ciarán of course in green.

Ciarán Ó'Lionáird qualifies for the 1500 metre final in World Championships

Just out...Ciarán Ó'Lionáird of Leevale AC has just qualified for the 1500 metre final in the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. Here is the semi-final...