Sean,…..this is almost
totally a review of the Rio Olympics which I started to watch with some
scepticism but quickly became totally engrossed in, with all its triumph and
disasters. A memorable festival of sports competition. T
Preface Notes
1.
Boyle Senior team
play Clann na Gael in the O’Rourke Cup on Saturday next (not Sunday) at 6.30 in
Boyle. The team had a fine win over a fancied Roscommon Gaels on Sunday last in
Elphin. They play Clann also, in their last group championship game which adds
significance as to how they approach Saturday’s league game. League wins are
vital too as it is very important that the team stay in the top division of the
league which is in danger due to results to date.
2.
The all-Ireland
Fleadh is on in Ennis this week-end and if you cannot get there it gets great
coverage on T.V courtesy of Fleadh T.V. on T. G. 4 each evening from 8.30 to
11.30 which I recommend.
3.
Another programme
which I recommend to you if it gets repeated somewhere –since it was shown on
Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on RTE 1each night at 11.20. The programme title is
Exodus: Our Journey Into Europe. It relates the trials and risks endured by
people from the Middle East to reach the safety –as they see it- of
Europe. It was also repeated on BBC so the prospect of seeing a further
repeat is limited.
The Drama of the Olympics
On Sunday August 7th
Paul Kimmage wrote a column in the Sunday Independent headed ‘You can’t
be angry if you don’t care’. It related to the suspension of boxer Michael
O’Reilly from the games due to being tested positive for taking a banned
substance. I kinda subscribed to that at the time but since then I have
watched a good deal of coverage of the main events of the games and my view has
changed. It has been a feast of drama, including phenomenal performances,
celebration, heartache and heartbreak. The full range of human endeavour, its
strengths, weaknesses and emotions.
Sports Highlights and
Lowlights
For Ireland there have been a
number of highlights. The achievement of Annalise Murphy in getting a
silver medal in sailing after her great disappointment at coming 4th
at the London Olympics was great to see. However the O’Donovan brothers
in rowing will go down as ‘the’ highlight of these Games for Ireland. Their
almost exaggerated Irishness obviously disguises a competitive steel which led
to their stellar performance in their silver- winning final. They were in no
rush back home to indulge themselves in the collective euphoria of their
supporters there. There was a very creditable showing by a diver called Oliver
Dingley who qualified for Ireland by virtue of his ancestry. Indeed this
course so long a feature of Irish soccer is set to expand. There is also an
Irish badminton player Scott Evans doing well as I write. A golfer I had
never heard of Seamus Power from Waterford based in the U.S. came in 15th
after challenging for a higher place earlier.
On Tuesday night I watched
with great surprise and delight as another Waterford man, a runner I had
never heard of, Thomas Barr, qualified for the finals of the 400m
hurdles.
It’s the first time since
1932 that Ireland have had a finalist in the 400m hurdles when Bob Tisdale won
gold, while Barr becomes the first Irishman in an Olympic track final since
Alistair Cragg (5000m) in 2004.
The feat is all the more
remarkable given that Barr’s season has been heavily disrupted by injury
problems, with few tipping the Irish athlete to earn a final spot.
Watching on in the RTÉ
studio, Irish former sprint hurdles athlete Derval O’Rourke hailed the
achievement as “one of the greatest Irish performances”. Barr goes into
Thursday’s final with every chance of a medal.
Speaking after tonight’s
(Tuesday’s) race, Barr expressed delight at the achievement in a typical
buoyant interview similar to the O’Donovans.
“I’m astonished. After all
the mishaps over the last year with injuries, to win a semi-final and get a
national record is incredible,” he said.
“I didn’t think I could run
half a second faster than yesterday.
“I’ve put a target on my back
for the final. When is it? I haven’t even looked.”
In the final which I viewed a
few hours ago Thomas performed heroically to finish fourth by a whisker. His
post-run interview again demonstrated the quality and fun character of him.
While I hadn’t heard of him until this week we will be hearing plenty about him
in the coming years.
While these are the feel good
events I saw, the story in boxing was so much different.
Boxing Meltdown
The Irish boxing team which
set out with such high hopes have seen their hopes dashed in a totally
comprehensive way. There had been more than hopes that they would exceed the
results from the London Olympics with Taylor, Conlan, Barnes, Warde and
O’Reilly being the five real medal expectations and hopes for others. It
all started badly with O’Reilly being barred because of a failed drug test.
Then it was Paddy Barnes who at the end of the first round showed worrying
signs and was defeated. It was suggested that he had long-term issues making
the weight so the question was; why did he not move up a weight? Warde also
failed fighting poorly. And so it went. This week came our two bankers. Katie
Taylor was pretty close but she was shadow of the confident, aggressive boxer
of the past. Michael Conlan by all accounts was denied a win by poor judging,
especially their assessment of the first round. While it might have been poor
judging it is stretching it to say it was a conspiracy. So the Irish team of 8
who left with such expectation return empty-handed. Now the questions will be
asked as to where did it all goo so wrong? It will take some re-building to see
Irish boxing recover to any great extent for some time as its reputation and
confidence has crashed.
A fundamental question
involves the departure of influential coach Billy Walshe earlier this year and
the trauma that has caused to the team. Another curious development is the
non-appearance of Katie Taylor’s dad Pete from her corner of late when he had
been omni-present. This I presume was part of what she referred to as very
difficult year for her. Pete is reported to be out of the country on holidays
in Europe!
Pat Hickey and Tickets
Issue
If things In the ring were
not bad enough things got worse in an unsavoury way. As I write the news is
emerging that the President of the Irish Olympic Council, Pat Hickey, has been
arrested in connection with ticket sale issues that emerged on August 5th. This
is going to be a huge Olympic political story. Shane Ross, Minister for
Sport eventually returned from holiday and subsequently went to Rio to meet
Mister Hickey looking to have an independent member on the OCI’s investigation
into the facts of the origin and path of the 700 hundred plus tickets at the
centre of the story. Mister Hickey would not accept any intervention at the
behest of the Minister Ross to his disappointment. Indeed Minister Ross too has
lost some shine in his interaction with the dilemma. Then the story took a
dramatic new turn on Wednesday with the arrest of Pat Hickey and the story now
moving centre stage as a major news story.
It again illustrates the
governance of national and international sporting and non-government
organisations based in large part on amateur foundations and involvement but at
the top of the pyramid on high degree of professionalism. This is fine up to a
point, but where huge amounts of money, patronage, lobby groups, favours given
for favours received, the sharp politics of it all, come into the mix,
the capacity for corruption to blossom is manifold. The best recent example has
been seen in the FIFA –the International Football federation- where the
activities of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini resulted in their suspensions.
Mister Hickey and the OCI and
all associated with the ticket issue deny wrongdoing, though things do not look
too healthy for them, so it will be interesting to follow the story over the
coming weeks.
Team GB and their major
successes
The GB team have had
incredible success and continue to do so. Since I watched a good deal of the
international events on BBC, with the very impressive analyst Michael
Johnson former U.S. sprinting great, I saw a number of these wins. Amongst
their successes were stand out events such as the win by golfer Justin Rose
in a down-to- the -wire contest with Henrik Stenson. I imagine some of the
golfers who declined to travel because of the Zika scare (of which we have
nothing during the games) will be having twinges of regret.
Andy Murray defended his singles tennis and it was not easy in a
victory over an Argentinian opponent.
The GB rowing men’s rowing
team powered home with the ladies team coming second. They also had fine
first-time wins in gymnastics.
It was in velodrome cycling
that they really dominated and collected more medals than all the opposing
countries combined. The team has won six gold and four silver with all members
of the 14 member team have won medals. This leap from the World Championships
results has led to muted questions as to how they have come to be so dominant
at recent Olympics in this sport. The suggestion being that if it were China or
Russia then the questions would ring loud and clear. However they insist that
their preparations, major lottery funding, and targeting of the Olympics and
all that goes with them is the reason.
‘Lightning’ Bolt
On the international stage
two phenomenal performers have stood out; Michael Phelps of the U.S. in
swimming and Usain Bolt in sprint racing from Jamaica. Phelps is the most
decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them
gold, spanning over four Olympic Games. He has actually competed at five
Olympics; however, he did not win a medal at his first Games in Sydney,
Australia.
Usain Bolt has become the king of 200m and 100m sprinting and in
Rio is going for the triple-triple i.e. the 100m, 200m and the 4 X 100m which
he has done at Beijing and London Olympics and is closing in on repeating in
Rio with only the relay to come. Bolt is the superstar and some of the antics
such as posing for a camera while in full flight and interacting with Andre de
Grasse as they came home in the 200m heat and celebratory showmanship has been
the centrepiece of this festival of sport.
What else ... the Basketball game
between the ‘Dream Team’ no. x against the Australian ‘boomers’ ... the RTE
basketball commentator with his ‘downtown’ shots ... the two sisters who
represented GB in the 100 m hurdles ... the Brazilian pole vaulter, Tiago da
Silva, winning the host country’s only gold as the partisan
crowd booed his French rival ... the South African winner of gold medal in the
400m, Wayde van Niekerk, running the fastest single lap in history
with a to win the Olympic 400 meters gold whose coach is 74 year Anna Botha ... the
success of Bahrain in winning gold with Ruth Jebet of Kenya and the
spread of this across the Middle East ... plenty of quiz questions there for
December!
So returning to Paul
Kimmage, I hope you, a sportsman, haven’t denied yourself this, still the
greatest show in the world with Usain ‘lighting’ Bolt as the ringmaster. The
Olympics despite all the possible contamination was a triumph and I really
enjoyed it ... and on this Friday morning 19th August, it ain't over just yet.
Slan.
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