Did Tom Barr qualify in the end?
Nope. If he ran a half second quicker in the nationals he’d have got in. Made a complete hames of things and went for it in semi final in rainy windy conditions. Had fuck all left for final then and went slower leading over the first hurdle with the wrong leg (@Little_Lord_Fauntleroy).
Had he conserved for semi final and went for it in final he’d nearly be sure of getting in. Tight margins. Hope the relay team give it a shot for him
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Cathal Dennehys descriptions of where the athletes are from here will likely antagonise a few club mates of @Bandage. Apparently Ballina is a county now too - but not sure if it’s the Tipp or Mayo version
https://twitter.com/Cathal_Dennehy/status/1811429744816078873?t=gHkdYILUBsAnPkuApt2Pyg&s=19
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Tuthill a serious prospect. Very young yet.
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How does that squad size stack up to recent years? Adeleke the only one with a realistic shot at an individual medal?
Mageean any chance?
It’s swelled by the relays but definitely more than Tokyo from my memory. Mageean should have a chance but the field is stacked. Kipyegon looks like a once in a generation athlete. The race they all ran in Paris a week or so back shows how deep the 1500m is but without pacers it’ll come down to pure tactics which should suit Mageean.
A whole bunch of others have realistic chances of semi finals and maybe a final. 1 individual medal from Rhasidat and 1 relay medal if Rhasidat runs in either of them is probably a realistic expectation.
I was ranting about women’s sport a few months back with all the coverage the awful rugby team were getting. If there’s not a song and dance made about us sending so many young females to the Olympics then those trying to promote women’s sport in Ireland should just give up. A brilliant opportunity to get them front and centre over the next months to encourage young girls to stay playing sport in their teens.
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I’ve done my bit by following Sharlene Mawdsley on social media.
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It’s all a zero sum game with @Mac one sport does a good job at promoting it’s ladies and presented as a negative 
Irish media and public massively supportive of female Olympians previously Katie, Kelly…Sonia etc etc and the Irish coverage on rte weighted towards female analysts recently with sonia and derval…I haven’t seen ailis mcsweeney in a while she will surely make an appearance
You know a boy is hurting from a previous slight when he’s posting smilies in the middle of his post
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You’re describing us celebrating medal winners who happened to be female. Most of the ladies going to the Olympics have little chance of a medal and likely won’t get much attention but most are now in the top 30 odd in the world in their chosen discipline. I’m saying this should be sung from the rooftops by those trying to promote women’s sport with a focus on teenage girls given the huge drop out rate in that age bracket.
The media will latch onto the medal winners but the others will be disregarded fairly quickly. Meanwhile the ladies soccer and rugby teams will continue to get prime time coverage despite being inferior to many of the athletes who’ll run in Paris.
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Of course they should. I hope athletics Ireland do their best to push this ahenda with rte
Of course they will. As the associations behind them drive this agenda with rte
Raheny had a meet & greet & wish them well evening with the Olympians in the clubhouse last night. I wasn’t able to make it due to work but it’s reported to have been a lovely evening. Anyone was welcome to come along & there were loads of families & youngsters there, & plenty of curious folk not affiliated with the club . The athletes had a Q&A & spent loads of time posing for photos. Even @Mac wouldn’t have been annoyed by it.
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That sounds like a brilliant idea, fair play to the clhb
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Rhasidat and Ciara going in Monaco alright. And a clatter running in Santry in the Morton Games.
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Was listening to the podder (cc @gilgamboa) earlier with Gillick, Derv & Robbie & they were saying this is the time that athlete anxiety levels are heightened as the competition is so close. It was probably the last thing they wanted to do but they did it anyway.
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They’re damned if they do and they’re damned if they don’t. It’s been interesting to see how Rhasidat has embraced that over the last few weeks and put herself in the middle of so many PR situations and spending ages signing autographs in Santry after the Nationals. By contrast Mageean has barely been seen or heard of.
There’s no problem with either approach but I love how Rhasidat talks about knowing how much expectation is on her shoulders and how that motivates her. Not a hint of arrogance or cockiness about it but something you don’t normally associate with Irish Athletes.
Fyp
She has been training