World Athletics Championships

**pete** · 28/08/2007, 9:42 PM

Any medal chances or are PBs & Final Appearances the target?

**Dodge** · 28/08/2007, 10:07 PM

Massively succesful so far. If a country the size of Britain (with the amount of funding they receive!) had stated ambitions of three medals, we're very unlikely to get any. O'Keefe in the hammer has an outside chance.

All bar one Irish competitor has reached at least the semi final so far with Heffernan finishes 6th in 20k walk being best so far.

Hession runs in 200m semi tomorrow and has realistic chance of making final. Cragg should make final in 5,000m too

**sligoman** · 29/08/2007, 1:28 AM

3 Irish running tomorrow. Mary Cullen at around 12:25, David Gillick at 13:32 and Paul Hession at 14:28.

All Irish time.

**Dodge** · 29/08/2007, 10:29 AM

BTW for those who don't know. Its streamed live on www.rte.ie

**Real ale Madrid** · 29/08/2007, 11:36 AM

Been an excellent games so far -would be interesting to see where all the irish atletes finished in a European context thats where we should be aiming for medals.

**sligoman** · 29/08/2007, 1:26 PM

Hession running now in lane 4, if yer online. Finished 6th, out of 8

**Real ale Madrid** · 29/08/2007, 1:36 PM

Hession would have got through on a PB - perhaps a little too much to ask.

**Dodge** · 29/08/2007, 1:46 PM

Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

Hession would have got through on a PB - perhaps a little too much to ask.

I don't think so. I think he'll be disappointed with his race. Hope he learns from it and makes the Olympic final next year

**pete** · 29/08/2007, 9:23 PM

Long distance only starts at semi final stage so not a huge achievement getting there.

The best performances seem to be at 200m & 400m these days for both men & women. I presume there is a good coach at that level?

Does Craig have a chance at a medal?
However we do have the novelty of the Womens Hammer final at 11.30am

**Angus** · 30/08/2007, 9:02 AM

I cannot recall a major athletics championships with such little interest - is it the doping thing that has caused this ?

struggling to summon any interest

**Dodge** · 30/08/2007, 9:06 AM

Originally Posted by Angus

I cannot recall a major athletics championships with such little interest - is it the doping thing that has caused this ?

struggling to summon any interest

Its because its in Japan and on TV at "awkward" times. Thats and no realistic Irish medal hope

Originally Posted by pete

Long distance only starts at semi final stage so not a huge achievement getting there

if thats a reply to mine above. Only 1 Irish athlete has failed to advance a round (and she was long distance, and it was after I posted)

Here's a decent summary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland...s_in_Athletics

**pete** · 30/08/2007, 10:43 AM

I have barely seen any of the Championship as terrible TV times (even the morning sessions in Japan start well past midnight in Europe).

Watched a little on RTE.ie & quality seems to be very good. I wonder is this RTEs indirect way into digital TV. Have RTE even before shown a programme on the website that was not live on TV at the same time?

I believe we send smaller teams to the World Athletics these days so as not to have athletes out of their depth? Newbies start in the Europeans first?

**Dodge** · 30/08/2007, 10:46 AM

No, we send everyone who qualilfies.

Decent start for O'Keefe. 4th after first round. She'll need to beat her Irish record to medal

**Real ale Madrid** · 30/08/2007, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

Only 1 Irish athlete has failed to advance a round (and she was long distance, and it was after I posted)

Make that two.David Campbell 7th in his 800 heat.

All in all an excellent performance - if it was a European Championship we'd have a few medals and we'd all be "jumping up and down" as Sonia O'Sullivan put it on rte last night.

O'Keeffe 6th now in hammer - made it into final round.

**pete** · 30/08/2007, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

O'Keeffe 6th now in hammer - made it into final round.

So 8th at worst then?

2 more throws left.

**Dodge** · 30/08/2007, 11:21 AM

And in fairness to Campbell, he's been ill all week (including a trip to the hospital)

Yeah O'Keefe's in 6th with 2 throws left. An Irish record would currently have her in 5th position but in the hammer, smashing a record isn't unheard of.

EDIT. She finished in an excellent 6th place. This was her first year as a full time athlete so who know what next year brings

**pete** · 30/08/2007, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

EDIT. She finished in an excellent 6th place. This was her first year as a full time athlete so who know what next year brings

I would think performance of the Ireland athletes so far?

Only 3 Europeans ahead of her too.

**Dodge** · 30/08/2007, 11:54 AM

Heffernan in the walk was exceptional too.

Cuddihy the only NR. Lots of good performances tbh

BTW Cragg is a very tough heat. he's 7th fastest in it but would've been 3rd fastest in the 2nd heat

EDIT: and Cragg had a stinker. An absolute shocker. Finished well down the field, and won't qualify