Olympics Day 4 – Irish Schedule

All set for Day 4 💪🏻🇮🇪 #TeamIreland pic.twitter.com/e1kHV4wQvj

— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) August 9, 2016

Irish team for Rio 2016 Olympics

Athletics
Mark English – 800m
Thomas Barr – 400m hurdles
Mick Clohisey – Marathon
Paul Pollock – Marathon
Kevin Seaward – Marathon
Alex Wright – 20k Walk/50k Walk
Brendan Boyce – 50k Walk
Rob Heffernan – 50k Walk
Ciara Everard – 800m
Ciara Mageean – 1500m
Michelle Finn – 3000m steeplechase
Kerry O’Flaherty – 3000m steeplechase
Sara Treacy – 3000m steeplechase
Fionnuala McCormack – 10000m/Marathon
Breege Connolly – Marathon
Lizzie Lee – Marathon
Tori Pena – Pole vault

Badminton
Scott Evans – men’s singles
Chloe Magee – women’s singles

Boxing
Katie Taylor – 60Kg (lightweight)

Paddy Barnes – 49kg (light fly)
Brendan Irvine – 52kg (flyweight)
Michael Conlan – 56kg (bantamweight)
David Oliver Joyce – 60kg (lightweight)
Stephen Donnelly – 69kg (welterweight)
Michael O’Reilly – 75kg (middleweight) *
Joe Ward – 81kg (light-heavyweight)

Cycling
Dan Martin – men’s road race
Nicholas Roche – men’s road race
Shannon McCurley – women’s keirin

Equestrian
Eventing
Clare Abbott (Euro Prince)
Jonty Evans (Cooley Rorke’s Drift)
Mark Kyle (Jemilla)
Padraig McCarthy (Simon Porloe)
Reserve: Camilla Speirs (Portersize Just A Jiff)

Dressage
Judy Reynolds (Vancouver K)

Showjumping
Greg Broderick (MHS Going Global)

Golf
Padraig Harrington
Seamus Power
Leona Maguire
Stephanie Meadow

Gymnastics
Kieran Behan – artistic
Ellis O’Reilly – artistic

Hockey
Ireland men’s squad – Jonny Bell, Chris Cargo, Peter Caruth, Mitch Darling, Paul Gleghorne, Kyle Good, Ronan Gormley, Conor Harte, David Harte(c), John Jackson, John Jermyn, Eugene Magee, Shane O’Donoghue, Kirk Shimmins, Alan Sothern, Michael Watt
Reserves: Tim Cockram, David Fitzgerald, Michael Robson

Modern Pentathlon
Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe
Natalya Coyle

Rowing
Claire Lambe – women’s lightweight double sculls
Sinead Lynch – women’s lightweight double sculls
Sanita Puspure – women’s single sculls
Gary O’Donovan – men’s lightweight double sculls
Paul O’Donovan – men’s lightweight double sculls

Sailing
Annalise Murphy – Laser Radial
Andrea Brewster – 49erFX
Saskia Tidey – 49erFX
Finn Lynch – Laser
Ryan Seaton – 49er
Matt McGovern – 49er

Swimming
Fiona Doyle – women’s 100m and 200m breaststroke
Nicholas Quinn – men’s 100m and 200m breaststroke
Shane Ryan – men’s 100m backstroke; 50m and 100m freestyle

Diving
Oliver Dingley – men’s 3m springboard diving

Triathlon
Bryan Keane
Aileen Reid

* Failed dope test, may not compete

Irish athletics team named for Rio 2016

An Irish athletics team of 17 will be competing at the Olympic Games in Rio next month –

Mark English – 800m
Thomas Barr – 400m hurdles
Mick Clohisey – Marathon
Paul Pollock – Marathon
Kevin Seaward – Marathon
Alex Wright – 20k Walk/50k Walk
Brendan Boyce – 50k Walk
Rob Heffernan – 50k Walk

Ciara Everard – 800m
Ciara Mageean – 1500m
Michelle Finn – 3000m steeplechase
Kerry O’Flaherty – 3000m steeplechase
Sara Treacy – 3000m steeplechase
Fionnuala McCormack – 10000m/Marathon
Breege Connolly – Marathon
Lizzie Lee – Marathon
Tori Pena – Pole vault

Irish team for European Athletics Championships

A huge Irish team of 52 has been named for next week’s European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.

MEN
Marcus Lawler (St Laurence O’Toole) 200m
Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers) 400m
Craig Lynch (Shercock) 400m
David Gillick (DSD) 400m
Richard Morrissey (Crusaders) 400m
Karl Griffin (UCD) 800m
Declan Murray (Clonliffe Harriers) 800m
Eoin Everard (Kilkenny City Harriers) 1500m
Kevin Batt (DSD) 5000m
Tomas Cotter (Dunleer) 3000m steeplechase
Ben Reynolds (North Down) 110m Hurdles
Paul Byrne (St Abban’s) 400m Hurdles
Thomas Barr (Ferrybank) 400m Hurdles
Barry Pender (St Abban’s) High Jump

Men’s 4x100m relay: Craig Lynch (Shercock), Eanna Madden (Carrick on Shannon), Jason Smyth (City of Derry), Jonathan Browning (Ballymena & Antrim), Joseph Owejumi (Tallaght), Marcus Lawler (SLOT)

Men’s 4x400m relay: Thomas Barr (Ferrybank), Andrew Mellon (North Down, Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers), Craig Lynch (Shercock), David Gillick (DSD), Richard Morrissey (Crusaders)

Men’s Half Marathon: Sergiu Ciobanu (Clonliffe Harriers), Mick Clohisey (Raheny Shamrock), Mark Hanrahan (Leevale), Gary Murray (Clonliffe Harriers), Paul Pollock (Annadale Striders), Kevin Seaward (St Malachys)

WOMEN

Amy Foster (City of Lisburn) 100m
Claire Mooney (Naas) 400m
Sinead Denny (DSD) 400m
Siofra Cleirigh Buttner (DSD) 800m
Ciara Mageean (UCD) 1500m
Claire Tarplee (St Coca’s) 1500m
Mary Cullen (North Sligo) 5000m
Deirdre Byrne (Sli Cualann) 5000m
Fionnuala McCormack (Kilcoole) 10000m
Tara Jameson (Sli Cualann) 10000m
Michelle Finn (Leevale) 3000m steeplechase
Kerry O’Flaherty (Newcastle) 3000m steeplechase
Sara Treacy (Dunboyne) 3000m steeplechase
Christine McMahon (Ballymena & Antrim) 400m Hurdles
Tori Pena (Finn Valley) Pole Vault

Women’s 4x100m relay: Catherine McManus (DCH), Joan Healy (Bandon), Niamh Whelan (Ferrybank), Phil Healy (Bandon), Sarah Murray (Fingallians)

Women’s 4x400m relay: Christine McMahon (Ballymena & Antrim), Ciara McCallion (Clonliffe Harriers), Claire Mooney (Naas), Jenna Bromell (Emerald), Phil Healy (Bandon), Sinead Denny (DSD)

Women’s Half Marathon: Breege Connolly (North Belfast Harriers), Gladys Ganiel (North Belfast Harriers, Maria McCambridge (Dundrum South Dublin), Claire McCarthy (Leevale)

First 14 Irish Olympic athletes for Rio 2016 named

The Olympic Council of Ireland have named their first 14 athletes for the Rio Games.

The rest of the team will be named in the run-up to the Games.

The first 14 to be named are –

Badminton

Scott Evans – Men’s Singles

Chloe Magee – Women’s Singles

Boxing

Michael Conlon – Men’s Bantamweight

Paddy Barnes – Men’s Light Flyweight

Joe Ward – Men’s Light Heavyweight

Stephen Donnelly – Men’s Welterweight

Brendan Irvine – Men’s Flyweight

David Oliver Joyce – Men’s Lightweight

Gymnastics

Kieran Behan – Artistic Gymnastics All Around

Ellis O’Reilly – Artistic Gymnastics All Around

Rowing

Sinead Lynch – Lightweight Women’s Double Scull

Claire Lambe – Lightweight Women’s Double Scull

Paul O’Donovan – Lightweight Men’s Double Scull

Gary O’Donovan – Lightweight Men’s Double Scull

Irish Olympic Hockey schedule released

The official schedule for the hockey event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games has been announced, with Ireland opening their tournament against world number 7 India at 11am local time on the opening day proper of the Games, Saturday August 6th.

Next up will be the formidable test of world number 2 the Netherlands the following day at 6pm local. The Green Machine have a rest day on August 8th and face Germany on the 9th, with their pool games drawing to a close against Canada on August 11th and Argentina on August 12th.

If they do well in the group, they could be in quarter final action on Sunday August 14th.

12th-ranked Ireland sit in Pool B alongside world number two ranked Netherlands, defending Olympic champions Germany (3); Argentina (6); India (7); and Canada (14).

Pool A sees reigning World and Hockey World League champions Australia, currently ranked number one in the world, face Great Britain (4 – based on England’s ranking); 2015 Hockey World League runners up Belgium (5); New Zealand (8); Spain (11) and hosts Brazil (32).

IRELAND SCHEDULE

Match 1

Saturday August 6th 11:00 Rio (15:00 IRL) – India vs Ireland

Match 2

Sunday August 7th 18:00 Rio (22:00 IRL) – Netherlands vs Ireland

Match 3

Tuesday August 9th 12:30 Rio (16:30 IRL) – Germany vs Ireland

Match 4

Thursday August 11th 11:00 Rio (15:00 IRL) – Ireland vs Canada

Match 5

Friday August 12th 19:30 Rio (23:30 IRL) – Ireland vs Argentina

Another Irish swimmer qualifies for Rio

Nicholas Quinn has qualified for the Olympic swimming by taking two seconds off his lifetime best in the 200m breaststroke, joining Fiona Doyle, Shane Ryan and diver Oliver Dingley in Rio.

Quinn took gold in the Eindhoven Swim Cup in the Netherlands in 2:11.24, inside the A standard of 2:11.66.

The Castlebar swimmer had come close to his previous lifetime best of 2:13.04 in the semi-final, by clocking 2:13.27.

He trains and studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Shane Ryan qualifies for Rio 2016 swimming

From Swim Ireland –

Shane Ryan has today become Ireland’s second swimmer to reach the FINA ‘A’ Olympic Standard, making him eligible for nomination to the Olympic Council of Ireland for Olympic Games selection.

Training full time at the Swim Ireland NAC Performance Centre and living on the National Sports Campus, Ryan is competing at the Swim Ireland Dave McCullagh/Swim Ulster International in Bangor Co. Down.

Ryan came agonisingly close in the heats of the 100m Backstroke this morning, clocking 54.37 just outside the 54.36 qualification mark required for the Games. A blistering Final however saw Ryan well under the time finishing first in 53.93 seconds.

A delighted Ryan commented “I got all the pieces of the puzzle together and it turned out great. I was in a good state of mind, I knew what I had to do, this morning it didn’t really feel too hot, I didn’t have a good start, a good turn or a good finish so .01, I knew I could do it, it was rough missing it but at the end of the day I got it! I need to have fun, I need to relax and that’s one thing I didn’t do in the past, I was always worried about getting the time instead of just swimming”

Another exciting Irish Olympic prospect, Conor Ferguson finished 2nd in the same race, just .29 of a second off the Olympic ‘A’ time. The 16 year old took over a second off his Irish Junior Record today clocking 55.07 in the heats and 54.64 in the Final. Both these swims place Ryan and Ferguson within the top 15 of the World so far this year.

Following on from the men’s success was Larne’s Danielle Hill, who added her name to the list of European Senior qualifiers. The 17 year old broke her own Irish Junior Record in 1:02.98, knocking almost a second off her previous record of 1:03.72. Iseult Hayes finished third in 1:04.47 making the European Juniors qualification.

An exciting 50m Butterfly Final saw Shauna O’Brien and Emma Reid break Irish senior and junior records. UCD’s O’Brien broke her own senior record from 2015, going under the 27 second mark for the first time to touch in 26.99 while Reid (Ards) also broke her own record clocking 28.03 to claim bronze. Jane Roberts was second in 27.79. Conor Brines was the gold medallist in the men’s event in 24.54 seconds.

Mona McSharry continued her impressive form in the Breaststroke events. The 16 year old broke Sycerika McMahon’s 100m Breaststroke Irish junior record yesterday and went on today to break Grainne Murphy’s 200m Breaststroke junior record in 2:31.29. The Sligo native who swim’s with Ballyshannon Marlins once again went under the qualification time for the European Senior Championships. Both Niamh Coyne (2:33.46) and Emma Moloney (2:36.97) both put in noteworthy swims to make European Junior qualification.

Stirling’s Duncan Scott won the 200m Freestyle Final. The visitor held off Bangor’s Jordan Sloan (1:50.20) and Tallaght’s Brendan Hyland (1:51.01) to claim Gold. In the women’s event Shanghai’s Min Zhou picked up Gold in 2 minutes 2.50 seconds ahead of Rachel Bethel (2:04.33) and Mary Kate McDowell (2:04.70).

Ben Griffin touched just ahead of Stirling’s Lewis Smith (4:29.65) to take 400m Individual Medley Gold in 4:29.53 while Antoinette Neamt cruised to victory in the 800m Freestyle in 8:56.55.

In the night’s final event Ards men and women added to the Gold they won yesterday in the 800m and 400m Freestyle Relays in 7:53.34 and 3:56.01 respectively.

Competition continues tomorrow (Sunday). Press Releases will be issued daily.

Shane Ryan Interview

– END –

Full Results Day 2
Men 50m Butterfly Final: 1st C Brines Larne 24.54 2nd C Bain Cookstown 24.77 3rd C Brodie Stirling 25.24
Women 50m Butterfly Final: 1st S O’Brien UCD 26.99 ISR 2nd J Roberts UCD 27.79 3rd E Reid Ards 28.03
Men 200m Freestyle Final: 1st D Scott Stirling 1:49.77 2nd J Sloan Bangor 1:50. 20 3rd B Hyland Tallaght 1:51.01
Women 200m Freestyle Final: 1st M Zhou Shanghai 2:02.50 2nd R Bethel Lisburn 2:04.33 3rd MK McDowell Ards 2:04.70
Men 100m Backstroke Final: 1st S Ryan NAC 53.93 (FINA A) 2nd C Ferguson Larne 54.56 IJR 3rd Craig McClean Stirling 57.22
Women 100m Backstroke Final: 1st D Hill Larne 1:02.98 IJR 2nd M Briggs Scotland 1:03.79 3rd I Hayes Sunday’s Well 1:04.97
Men 200m Breaststroke Final: 1st Z Zhang Shanghai 2:14.65 2nd R Murdoch Stirling 2:14.71 3rd C Benson Stirling 2:15.34
Women 200m Breaststroke Final: 1st M McSharry Marlins 2:31.49 IJR 2nd N Coyne Tallaght 2:33.46 3rd M Zhou Shanghai 2:34.36
Men 400m IM Final: 1st B Griffin Trojan 4:29.53 2nd L Smith Stirling 4:29.65 3rd B Gibbons Athlone 4:30.52
Women 800m Freestyle Final: 1st A Neamt Tallaght 8:56.55 2nd T Corry Portmarnock 9:25.00 3rd C O’Riordan Trojan 9:26.20
Men 4x200m Freestyle Team Relay: 1st Ards 7:53.34 2nd Ennis 7:55.20 3rd Limerick 7:57.40
Women 4x100m Freestyle Team Relay: 1st Ards 3:56.01 2nd Tallaght 4:03.02 3rd Sunday’s Well 4:03.98

Qualification Times Met (selection of athletes for all events will be made at a later date)

LEN European Swimming & Open Water Championships, 16th – 22nd May, London, United Kingdom
Qualifiers: Fiona Doyle, Christopher Bryan (Open Water, July), Jordan Sloan, Conor Ferguson, Brendan Hyland, Antoinette Neamt, Sycerika McMahon, Dan Sweeney, Nicholas Quinn, Shane Ryan, Alex Murphy, Mona McSharry, Danielle Hill

European Junior Swimming Championships, 6th – 10th July 2016, Hungary
Qualifiers: Rachel Bethel, Niamh Coyne, Conor Ferguson, Danielle Hill, Rory McEvoy, Mona McSharry, Antoinette Neamt, Emma Reid, Ellen Walshe, Gerry Quinn, Iseult Hayes, Emma Moloney

Olympic Games, 6th – 20th August 2016, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Qualifiers: Fiona Doyle (Swimming), Oliver Dingley (Diving), Shane Ryan (Swimming)

Map of Olympic Park Rio 2016

The Olympic Park for Rio 2016 is still being built, as at January 2016.

It will consist of nine stadiums, plus a number of minor tennis courts as racquet sport returns to the Olympic Park, London 2012 having used Wimbledon at the other end of the city from the main Olympic Stadium for its tennis competition.

The three Carioca Arenas will be the main indoor stadiums for Rio 2016, linked by an inter-connecting roof. The pre-existing HSBC Arena will be used for gymnastics and trampoline – usually it is used for major basketball games and indoor concerts.

Swimming and diving will take place in different stadiums, indoor for swimming and outdoor for diving, though water polo will be played in both.

Taking a leaf out of London’s book regards their water polo stadium, the Future Arena is a temporary stadium that will be used for handball.

Riocentro, which will include boxing and weightlifting, is five minutes’ walk away from the Olympic Park.

Athletics will take place far far away from the Olympic Park, approximately 25km and 45 minutes’ drive away – when traffic is good. It’ll be staged at the Engenhão (also known at the Estadio Nilton Santos or Estadio João Havelange), best known as home of football club Botafogo.

The famous Maracanã – venue for the 1950* and 2014 World Cup Finals, and where Flamengo and Fluminense call home – will stage the football tournament in conjunction with the Engenhão, and will also host the opening and closing ceremonies.

The second map shows the main Olympic venues, plus the different coloured Metro lines, which will primarily serve the Engenhão and Maracanã. Rio’s most famous tourist spots – Christ the Redeemer, the Sugar Loaf mountain, the Copacabana and Ipanema are all closer to the city centre than almost all of the Olympic venues. Copacabana will host sailing and long-sistance swimming.