In a welcome week of sporting activity we saw some highs and lows across the sports. Courtesy of swimming we saw the status of Team Ireland for the Tokyo Olympics rise to 58 guaranteed athletes, while there was disappointment in sailing for the Laser sailors, who were unsuccessful in their bid to gain an Olympic berth. In gymnastics Rhys McClenaghan has moved to the finals in the Pommel at the European Championships which take place tomorrow.
These highlights and more are detailed below, alongside team announcements and dates for upcoming events across the sports.
As a reminder, the current status of Team Ireland for the Tokyo Olympics is 58 guaranteed athletes travelling to the Games, with many more sitting within qualification. The full details of the team can be found AT THIS LINK.
OLYMPIC FEDERATION OF IRELAND UPDATES
This year Team Ireland has teamed up with Active Schools to encourage children to get active during Active Schools Week which runs from the 26 – 30 April. This flagship event of the Active Schools Flag is the highlight of the year for schoolchildren, and helps schools achieve their flag. Our Dare to Believe ambassadors from the Olympic Schools Challenge Road to Tokyo will be issuing a challenge a day next week, incorporating some of the challenges seen on last year’s RTÉ Home School Hub Olympics. This serves as the perfect warm up for the Road to Tokyo which officially runs from 4 – 30 May and to date has over 700 classes registered!
This week at the IOC Executive Board meeting the Athletes’ Commission Recommendations to Rule 50 were approved, read more here. This week also say the launch of the Olympic Virtual Series read more here
The European Games 2023 take place in Krakow, Poland. This week two disciplines of cycling was added to the list of competing sports.
TOKYO SPORTS
Athletics
The World Athletics Relays Silesia21 are set to be held in Poland on May 1st – May 2nd. Read more here.
Canoeing
The Irish Canoe Slalom team has been announced ahead of the Senior European Championships in Ivrea, Italy, from the 6-9 May. The team includes a full contingent of athletes who are targeting Olympic qualification across the Men’s K1, Women’s K1 and Women’s C1 events. Included in the team are the twins Madison and Michaela Corcoran, whose father Mike Corcoran is an Olympian.
Tokyo qualified athlete Liam Jegou will also be competing, honing his form ahead of the Games this summer.
Badminton
The Irish team travel today to Ukraine for the 2021 European Championships. Full list of schedule can be found here. Play commences on Tuesday 27th of April and will feature Team Ireland athletes Nhat Nguyen, who is currently sitting within Olympic ranking in the Men’s Singles, and the Mixed Doubles of Chloe and Sam Magee who are currently outside ranking, alongside their teammates. Follow Badminton Ireland on twitter for all updates.
Cycling
Last weekend members of the Irish cycling team were competing at the International Belgium Track Meeting, displaying good form across the team:
JB Murphy won gold and bronze last weekend at the International Belgium Track Meeting. The 21-year old from Kildare sprinted clear with 2-laps remaining of the U23 Scratch Race and held on for victory. Murphy put in another strong performance on Sunday afternoon amassing 75 points for third place in the U23 Points Race.
Emily Kay showed good form finishing 7th in a highly competitive Women’s Omnium. The Omnium is an Olympic event consisting of a scratch race, elimination race, points race and tempo race all taking place in a single day. The event was won by 6-time Track World Champion, Kirsten Wild. 4-time Olympic Gold medallist Laura Kenny was second followed by 3-time Track World Champion and Olympic Gold medallist, Katie Archibald in third.
In the Women’s Madison, also a Tokyo 2020 Olympic event, Lydia Gurley and Emily Kay finished 9th. Mark Downey and Felix English finished 14th in the Men’s Madison. Orla Walsh made an impressive transition from a focus on endurance disciplines to track sprinting finishing 5th in the Women’s Keirin event.
Full Results Here
Diving
The FINA Diving World Cup takes place in Tokyo, Japan from May 1st to 5th with four athletes travelling on Monday (26th). Oliver Dingley (3M Springboard), Clare Cryan (3M Springboard), Ciara McGing (Platform) and Tanya Watson (Platform) will all compete for Olympic Qualification places.
Golf
LPGA Tour: Leona Maguire secured her best finish on the LPGA Tour last weekend at the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii. Carding rounds of 68, 67, 65 and 67 for a 21-under par total, the finish goes a long way to increasing her World and Race to CME Globe Rankings. Stephanie Meadow finished T57 on 8-under par. FULL RESULTS.
Both are again in action this week at the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open.
Gymnastics
This week the Irish Gymnastics Team is competing at the European Championships in Basel, Switzerland. All eyes will be on Rhys McClenaghan who competes tomorrow in the finals of the Pommel – he was the top finisher in yesterday’s qualification rounds. Already history has been made in both the Women’s and Men’s All Around, with Emma Slevin finishing 19th in the All Around Finals, the first female to make a Finals at the elite European level. Adam Steele became the first senior male to qualify for the All Around Finals at the European Championships and competes later today. All the news stories for gymnastics can be found here.
Hockey
Irish women travel to Bisham Abbey to take on the Great Britain in Uncapped Series – read more here. Ahead of the series, team captain Katie Mullan spoke about the recent hockey announcement
Karate
This week ONAKAI announced the team who will be competing in the Karate Olympic Qualifying tournament this June. The seven person team will compete in Paris from the 11-13 June, with 24 athletes in total qualifying for Tokyo. The team includes twins Sean and Chris McCarthy – Sean McCarthy won a bronze medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018.
Modern Pentathlon
Natalya Coyle, Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Sive Brassil have all qualified to take part in one of the showpiece competitions of the Modern Pentathlon season.
The Irish trio will be among 72 pentathletes competing in the UIPM 2021 Pentathlon World Cup Final in Szekesfehervar, Hungary from May 13-16. This will be the athletes’ penultimate opportunity to earn ranking points towards Tokyo 2020 qualification.
Sailing
After a tough week of competition at the European Laser Olympic qualification regatta, in Vilamoura, Portugal, Irish hopes of securing a third boat for Tokyo have ended, following two breezy races in the Gold fleet. Team Ireland will have two boats in Tokyo, the Laser Radial and the 49ers.
Swimming
Swimming – Irish National Team Trials
Swimming’s Irish National Team Trials are currently taking place at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre and will run to Saturday 24th April.
To date there have been four swimmers that have reached the FINA Olympic Consideration Time; Darragh Greene (100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke), Shane Ryan (100m Backstroke), Daniel Wiffen (800m Freestyle), Mona McSharry (100m Breaststroke).
Seven Irish Senior Records have also been set so far this week by Danielle Hill in the 100m Backstroke (x2), Darragh Greene in the 100m Breaststroke, Mona McSharry in the 100m Breaststroke (x2), Daniel Wiffen in the 800m Freestyle and Victoria Catterson in the 100m Freestyle.
