World Cycling Championships
It was a successful World Championships for Cycling Ireland – with the combined championships seeing Ireland represented in ten different events.
During the second day of competition, the women’s team pursuit finished in 9th place. The team maintain a positive trajectory for Paris 2024 qualification with the top 10 ranked nations qualifying a spot for the Olympics.
Lara Gillespie finished 9th in the Omnium after four events – the scratch, tempo, elimination and points races. The Team Ireland Paris Scholar has been on great form in recent weeks, winning the Omnium and Points race at the U23 European Track Championships last month.
On the road Darren Rafferty impressed in the U23 Men’s Time Trial in Stirling, finishing just seconds from a podium finish in 5th place.
Lucy Benezet Minns finished 4th in the Junior Women’s Time Trial after a stellar performance in her first Road World Championships.
LEN Dublin U23 European Swimming Championships
Irish Olympians delivered three gold and a silver medal at the LEN European Under 23 Swimming Championships 2023
Mona McSharry got the finals off to the perfect start as she secured the first ever medal of the inaugural LEN U23 Championships in front of her home support in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke Final. In her final year competing as an Under 23 Mona added Gold meals on day 2 and 3 in both the 100 and 200m breaststroke. An incredibly dominant display across the championships
Ellen Walshe was crowned European U23 Champion in the 200m individual Medley as well as winning 100m Butterfly silver. The Tokyo Olympian collected her third medal of the meet in the 400m Individual Medley, claiming gold and the European Title in 4:42.37, her third fastest ever swim in the event.
Daniel Wiffen electrified the Irish crowd in the Men’s 1500m Freestyle final recording the 8th fastest time ever by a European over the distance. He dropped down to 400m on day two to win silver and rounded off the championships with his third medal and Irelands 9th in the 800m freestyle, claiming silver in a time of 7:45.59.
Mona McSharry, Ellen Walshe and Daniel Wiffen came into these championships having all secured Paris ‘A’ times at the World Championships in Japan.
World Sailing Championships
In a nerve-wracking conclusion to the Gold fleet series in the Men’s single-handed event at the Allianz Sailing World Championships, Finn Lynch has secured a place for Ireland at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Elated with the outcome, he described qualifying Ireland for Paris 2024 as a “monkey off my back” and will now focus fully on preparations for the Olympics and selection for the national squad.
“It is difficult to express the significance of Finn’s result but he can now add nation qualifying to his many achievements to date,” commented James O’Callaghan, Irish Sailing’s Performance Director. “As our senior athlete in the squad, he motivates and inspires our up and coming athletes by his leadership and perseverance.”
World Athletics Championships
Speaking on the success of the World Athletics Championships, Athletics Ireland Director of High-Performance Paul McNamara said: “A very positive championships for us. We had targets coming here and the team had exceeded them all. We’ve secured four top-eights at a World Championships which to the best of my knowledge has never been achieved before by an Irish team”.
McNamara continued: “We’ve twelve top-24s which is the equivalent of a semi-final off 20 starts so all targets have very much been exceeded. We have national records, personal bests, and season’s bests, so all the evidence of a tangible successful championships in terms of our key markers have been hit and we’ll look back at Budapest very positively from a performance perspective”.
Team Ireland Results Summary:
- Ciara Mageean – Women’s 1500m: 4th + NR
- Rhasidat Adeleke – Women’s 400m: 4th
- Mixed 4x400m Relay: 6th
- Women’s 4x400m Relay: 8th
- Sarah Lavin – Women’s 100m Hurdles: Joint 10th + NR
- Kate O’Connor – Women’s Heptathlon: 13th (*Personal best in 100m hurdles)
- Sarah Healy – Women’s 1500m: 14th + NU23R
- Mark English – Men’s 800m: 19th
- Sharlene Mawdsley – Women’s 400m: 22nd + Personal Best
- Andrew Coscoran – Men’s 1500m: 22nd
- Eric Favors – Men’s Shot Put: 23rd
- Brendan Boyce – Men’s 35km Race Walk: 24th
- Sophie O’Sullivan – Women’s 1500m: 25th + Personal Best
- Louise Shanahan – Women’s 800m: 27th
- Brian Fay – Men’s 5000m: 31st
- Nick Griggs – Men’s 1500m: 40th
- Christopher O’Donnell – Men’s 400m: 40th
- John Fitzsimons – Men’s 800m: 44th
- Luke McCann – Men’s 1500m: 52nd
- David Kenny – Men’s 20km Race Walk: DNF
National Records broken in Budapest:
- Sarah Healy (1500m): 3:59.68 NU23R
- Sarah Lavin (100m Hurdles): 12.62 NR
- Ciara Mageean (1500m): 3:56.61 NR
Hockey
Ireland women’s head coach Sean Dancer believes the future is bright as he begins preparations for the Olympic qualifiers in January.
The Irish secured fifth place at the EuroHockey Championships, where five of the eight sides came into the event ranked in the world’s top seven. They also remain at the elite level with a place in the EuroHockey Championships in 2025.
The Irish men’s team also secured their place in the Paris playoffs, winning the European Championship D2 – the multi nation event taking place on Sport Ireland Campus.