Thanks to the phenomenal exploits of our rowers last weekend, the official number of confirmed Team Ireland athlete spots for Tokyo now stands at 69, on the week when the first of the Irish athletes receive their IOC/Pfizer donated vaccinations ahead of the Olympic Games this summer.
These highlights and more are detailed below, alongside team announcements and dates for upcoming events across the sports, courtesy of our National Federations. As a reminder, the current status of Team Ireland for the Tokyo Olympics is 69 guaranteed athletes travelling to the Games, with many more sitting within qualification. The full details of the team including an updated breakdown of the current ranking and status of athletes across the sports can be found AT THIS LINK.
OLYMPIC FEDERATION OF IRELAND UPDATES
The Olympic Federation of Ireland held its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 18th of May. To view the full Annual Report click HERE.
We are into the third week of our Olympic Schools Challenge Road to Tokyo which currently has over 48,000 school children around Ireland learning more about the Olympics, Team Ireland and getting active. This Dare to Believe initiative is supported by FBD Insurance, official sponsor to Team Ireland for Tokyo 2020. We have had some amazing submissions in from schools around the country see more HERE.
Last week the IOC announced that Pfizer have donated vaccinations to athletes and representatives who will be traveling to Tokyo in July for the Olympic Games. Note that this donation is an additional number of vaccinations and will not be taken out of the vaccinations that are being rolled out as part of the national programme. The first of the vaccinations were administered this week.
TOKYO SPORTS
The final number of accredited press/photography media travelling to the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer is 25, including a delegate of 7 photographers from Sportsfile and Inpho Sports Photography. Note that there the latest playbook was released last month, details included here.
Athletics
Rhasidat Adeleke had a night to remember at the Big 12 championship Manhattan last night, breaking Phil Healy’s Irish 200m record with a stunning 22.96 (0.8m/s). Adeleke finished second in her heat (4) when clocking the time while representing the University of Texas. The feat was made all the more impressive in that she had earlier broken the Irish U20 & U23 100m records with an 11.31 (1.0m/s) to move to second on the all-time 100m list behind Phil Healy (11.28). Read more HERE
Brendan Boyce was also on form this week, finishing 9th in the European Race Walking Cup in Podebrady. This bodes well for Tokyo, for which two time Olympian Brendan has already achieved the qualifying time. MORE HERE.
Badminton
In Badminton the last three qualification events have unfortunately been cancelled, which ends the qualification journey for Chloe and Sam Magee, who were sitting just outside Olympic ranking prior to this announcement. The official list of qualified athletes will be confirmed by BWF shortly, with Men’s Singles player Nhat Nguyen appearing to be comfortably inside the ranking points required.
Basketball
For the third straight edition of the European Games, the event will feature the best 3×3 basketball stars from across the continent after the European Olympic Committees (EOC) and FIBA reached an agreement for Krakow-Malopolska 2023 today. As at previous editions, 128 players in total will compete at Krakow-Malopolska, with an equal 16 teams of four making up the men’s side, and 16 teams of four making up the women’s. Read more HERE
Canoeing
Jenny Egan is competing this week in the Women’s K1 200m at the final Olympic Qualifier in Russia. This morning she finished 3rd in the Women’s K1 200m Semi Final, moving to the Finals which take place on Friday 21st May. There is one Tokyo spot on offer at this ‘last chance saloon’, with Sweden and Bulgaria looking to be favourites for that final Olympic berth. More HERE.
Diving
Clare Cryan secured a second top 10 finish at the 35th LEN European Aquatics Championships in Budapest last Saturday. The 27-year-old went into the final ranked 11th, after scoring 270.85 points in the preliminary round and, she improved in that final to secure a finishing position of ninth in Europe. Read more HERE
Golf
The second Major Championship of the year is underway at Kiawah Island for the PGA Championship. Both Men’s Tokyo hopefuls, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, are in the field with McIlroy in favourable recent form having won his first PGA Tour event in over 18 months at the Wells Fargo Championship.
On the LPGA Tour, Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire return from a short break for the Pure Silk Championship. Earlier this week Stephanie Meadow qualified for the US Women’s Open to be played from June 3 – 6.
Hockey
On the 15th May, Ireland Claimed 5-1 Victory Over Scotland in First of Two Match Series in Final Prep for Europeans in June. Full match report here.
Ireland then went on to secure a second win 4-1 over Scotland in the second match on the 16th May, Ireland 4 (Evans, Malseed, Hawkshaw, O’Flanagan), Scotland (Semple). Full match report here.
Today Hockey Ireland announce the Irish Women’s squad to travel to the EuroHockey Championships in Amstelveen which get underway on June 4th MORE HERE.
The tournament is Ireland’s first major ranking event since November 2019’s memorable Olympic qualifiers and will act not only as the Green Army’s key preparation event for this summer’s Olympic Games but doubles as a qualifier for the 2022 World Cup.
Modern Pentathlon
Two-time Olympian Natalya Coyle, who has already qualified for Tokyo, performed strongly all day at the UIPM 2021 Pentathlon World Cup Final in Hungary to finish fifth while Brassil worked hard for a placing of 25th that keeps her in contention for a qualifying spot. Read more HERE
Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe’s dream of competing in a third Olympic Games this summer suffered a major setback as he was forced to withdraw from the UIPM 2021 Pentathlon World Cup Final in Hungary. The Kilkenny pentathlete now has only one remaining opportunity to qualify for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Games. Lanigan-O’Keeffe will have to achieve a high finish at the UIPM 2021 Pentathlon World Championships in Cairo in June, where three automatic quota places are on offer to individual medallists. Read more HERE
Rowing
The Irish Rowing Team qualified an additional two boats for the Olympics. There will now be six boats representing Ireland in Tokyo this summer.
The Women’s Four of Emily Hegarty, Eimear Lambe, Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh qualified their boat by winning the Women’s Four Final and taking one of the two available slots. The Irish crew beat crews from China, Italy, Russia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic with a time of 06:31.99. Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen secured the Lightweight Women’s Double for the Olympics by finishing third in the Final. They fought hard throughout the race and caught the Chinese boat in the final 600m and took the last Olympic Spot with a time of 07:09.22.
Swimming
The Team Ireland Olympic relay qualification bids continue this weekend at the LEN European Aquatics Championships in Budapest. So far four of our potential Olympic relay teams have swum, and all have set at least one new Irish Senior Record. The Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay team, which finished fifth in Europe on Wednesday, sits in the strongest position, but there are high hopes for the Men’s and Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay teams on Sunday – and the Mixed 4x100m Freestyle team swims on Saturday. The qualification period ends on May 31 and we are expecting to know whether we have qualified any teams shortly afterwards. Get all the latest news HERE.
Triathlon
Russell White and Carolyn Hayes both competed in Yokohama last weekend, this was the first event in the re-opened qualification period for triathlon. Over a six week period, six events will be held, all of which will offer points before qualification closes in mid-June. Both Russell and Carolyn will hope to build on their opening competition, where Carolyn was 42nd and Russell DNF. This weekend they compete in Lisbon, Portugal.
