Latest news with #FitzGerald
Daily Mail
01-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Grandmother allegedly attacked by stranger issues message for Australia - as the man accused of attack loses it at judge inside court: 'Are you deaf?'
A homeless man who allegedly assaulted an elderly woman has lashed out at a magistrate in court. Sean Lloyd McLachlan, 39, was arrested on Wednesday after he allegedly beat the 92-year-old woman in Williamstown, Melbourne, about 12.20pm outside the Coles on Douglas parade. Police allege he beat the woman about the head before she fell to the ground and lost consciousness. Members of the public restrained McLachlan until police could arrive. Detectives later charged McLachlan with intentionally causing injury. McLachlan appeared on his own in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday. Magistrate Bernard FitzGerald asked if McLachlan had talked to a lawyer. McLachlan muttered a soft 'yes', but the Magistrate FitzGerald did not hear him, and he asked again. 'I just said I've already f***ing spoken (to a lawyer). Are you deaf? Are your ears painted on,' McLachlan said, the Herald Sun reported. Magistrate FitzGerald asked what McLachlan had hoped to achieve in the courtroom on Thursday. 'F*** off,' McLachlan said. The 39-year-old did not apply for bail, and the matter was adjourned for a week with the court allowing him time to arrange legal representation. He will reappear in court on May 8. Footage, allegedly depicting the incident, captured the moment a man struck the 92-year-old woman and threw her to the ground. Further vision, too distressing for publication, appeared to show the man throwing her to the ground and dragging her along the footpath. Emergency services rushed her to hospital at the time. She suffered a concussion and upper body injuries in the alleged attack and was taken to Western Hospital in Footscray before she was discharged on Thursday morning. The 92-year-old has been left 'very distressed' by the incident. 'I wish to thank all those who have been so caring of me,' she said in a statement. 'I remember nothing of the actual incident but when I woke up I was surrounded by the police and ambulance and caring onlookers. 'I wish to thank everyone for their concern. 'I'm pleased to go home as I have a loving family and supportive friends.' McLachlan has no fixed address but was known to police in Footscray, Melbourne and Williamstown.
Fox News
10-03-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Women's runner hospitalized after falling unconscious during distance race at European Championships
Dutch women's athlete Maureen Koster was knocked unconscious when she fell down during the women's 3000m at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, on Sunday. The 32-year-old athlete was treated by medical staff and later transported to a local hospital. Koster was in front of Great Britain's Innes FitzGerald and behind Hannah Nuttall when the fall occurred. Nuttall was temporarily pushed off the track and FitzGerald had to run around Koster. "I just saw her on the floor in front of me. I thought I had to get around her and hopefully not be fazed by that," FitzGerald said after the race. "I didn't want it to affect my race plan. It was gutting to have her fall, especially in front of a home crowd. I hope she is okay. Very sad that she fell over." The Netherlands team later posted on X that Koster was conscious and responsive. Koster's friend and fellow competitor, Great British runner Melissa Courtney-Bryant, who finished the event with silver, said the incident was "carnage." "I heard Maureen scream," Courtney-Bryant said. "I know her really well because we used to train together and room on the Diamond League. Then I saw a leg as I was running around, and I knew it was her shoe. It put everyone on edge, and everyone was pushing more. I was just trying to keep up, because you don't want to end up down as well. It was carnage." Ireland's Sarah Healy won gold after Koster's fall. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Telegraph
06-03-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Meet the Greta Thunberg of UK Athletics – who attends Extinction Rebellion rallies
When Innes FitzGerald emerged two winters ago as the outstanding young British distance runner of her generation, it was not long before she became even more widely known as the 'Greta Thunberg of sport'. She had performed magnificently to finish fourth in the Under-20 European Cross Country Championships in Italy – aged just 16 – following a 20-hour coach and train journey from Devon to Turin that involved even cycling across Paris on a fold-up bike to make a rail connection. She then promptly turned down the chance to travel to Australia for the 2023 World Cross Country Championships. 'I would never be comfortable flying in the knowledge that people could be losing their livelihoods, homes and loves ones as a result,' she wrote in an open to British Athletics. Innes FitzGerald enjoys a runaway victory in the U20/17 women's race at the Cardiff Cross Challenge. — AW (@AthleticsWeekly) November 9, 2024 FitzGerald would then follow up winning the London Mini Marathon by joining Extinction Rebellion activists who had gathered in Parliament Square. Now 18, the environmental campaigning continues – and her running has gone from strength to strength – but the realities of pursuing her athletics dream has also prompted some deeply uncomfortable choices. She will make her senior international debut at the European Indoor Championship in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands this week, where she has travelled with the rest of a near 50-strong British team by air. 'Unfortunately, this time, I haven't managed to sort it out logistically – it's been quite complicated,' she explains. 'I've been very busy with uni stuff and other different family issues. I do feel like I should be getting the train there, and that's definitely something I'm going to be doing in the future. 'For me, it's quite gutting that the whole team aren't going together on the train, considering it's so close and so easy to do. Even though I might be doing the wrong thing, just still saying that it's wrong is better than just doing it and not saying it's wrong. 'Whenever I'm getting on a flight, it's never easy. I'm always thinking, 'Oh, I shouldn't be doing this', but I know that I've got to go to these championships to fill my dreams as a professional athlete. So it's just about balancing that and trying to do as much as I can in other areas of my life to try and make up for it, and also just speak out.' A winner of the BBC Green Sport Award in 2023, FitzGerald is flattered by the Thunberg comparison. 'I think Greta is very inspirational,' she says. 'She kind of managed to mobilise so many young people. I think it's a compliment to be associated with her. If I can do anything near to what she's done, then I'll be very happy. I strongly believe that we, as athletes, have a responsibility.' After growing up on a farm in Devon, FitzGerald's interest in climate change stemmed from her father and she now tries to make environmentally friendly changes in her life and will look into how she can carbon offset in the future. She has also been talking with a sports-focused group called Champions for Earth, which is trying to organise mass participation running events with a low carbon footprint. 'I feel like I have a responsibility to look after the people who are in the Global South, or directly affected by extreme weather events,' she says. 'We're not, in the UK, affected by it, but I feel the pain they're feeling, and I feel like it's my responsibility in a more privileged position to help them, and raise awareness for the situations they're in as a result of our actions.' Since her running breakthrough two years ago, FitzGerald has dominated the European Under-20 Cross Country Championships with back-to-back wins. She then set a European indoor 3,000 metres age-group record of 8min 40.05sec earlier this year. Her strength and bold front-running style has prompted comparison with Paula Radcliffe. She got into running as part of her sister's Duke of Edinburgh award and then built up to five 20-minute runs a week during the Covid lockdown. FitzGerald was soon then breaking 18 minutes at her local Seaton Parkrun before persuading her dad to start taking her training at Exeter Harriers, where she has since been mentored by Gavin Pavey and his wife Jo, a former European 10,000m champion and the only British athlete to have competed at five Olympic Games. After completing A-Levels last year in biology, physics and maths, FitzGerald is now studying for a degree in sport and exercise science at the University of Exeter. 'I don't like bigging people up too much, but Innes is very good,' says Gavin Pavey. 'We never know what's going to happen in the future, but it looks promising. She's doing things that other young athletes at this stage haven't done. What's good about what we're doing is her [weekly mileage] volumes aren't very high.' FitzGerald is also emphasising a long-term approach. 'I never really thought I'd have this opportunity – I don't think there's too much pressure on me,' she says. 'I just want to go out there, enjoy it, soak it all up, and hopefully get into that final. That's where I believe I belong. Hopefully compete for one of those medals, but just getting close. There's lots more years of my career left. I don't want to jump into anything too soon, because I'll have nowhere to progress to. It's just about building up that mileage and intensity gradually.'
The Guardian
06-03-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘I wish we'd taken the train': athlete Innes FitzGerald welcomes Thunberg comparisons
Innes FitzGerald is a young athlete on a mission: to win medals for Britain while saving the planet. While most sports stars are media trained to say as little as possible, the 18-year-old from Devon is refreshingly bold in her beliefs – and her determination to make a difference. That much is clear when FitzGerald, who recently broke Zola Budd's national under-20 indoor 3,000m record by a staggering 16 seconds to earn selection for the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, is asked about how she travelled to the Netherlands. It turns out the British squad, which was announced only last week, all flew. 'But I do feel like I should have got the train,' says FitzGerald. 'For me, it's quite gutting that the whole team didn't go together on the train, considering it's so close and so easy to do. 'But I will continue to talk about environmental issues in the future, because it's really important, and I strongly believe that we as athletes have a responsibility.' FitzGerald first made headlines as a 16-year-old when she turned down the chance to compete in the world cross-country championships in Australia because of her concerns for the environment. So how does she feel when she has to fly nowadays? 'It's never easy. I'm always thinking: 'Oh, I shouldn't be doing this.' But I know that I've got to go to these championships to fill my dreams as a professional athlete. So it's just about balancing that, and trying to do as much as I can in other areas of my life to make up for it. 'And even though I might be doing the wrong thing, just still saying that it's wrong is better than just doing it and not saying it's wrong.' FitzGerald, who is in the first year of a sport and exercise science degree at Exeter University, believes politicians should be doing far more to tackle the climate crisis. 'But I also feel like I have a responsibility to those directly affected by extreme weather, and to raise awareness for the situations they are in as a result of our actions,' she says. Her direct action approach has even earned her a sobriquet: 'the Greta Thunberg of sport.' So what does she make of the comparison? 'I think Greta is very inspirational. She has managed to mobilise so many young people. So I think it's a compliment to be associated with her. If I can do anything near to what she's done, then I'll be very happy.' This weekend, however, FitzGerald hopes to do her talking on the track. 'There's not too much pressure on me,' she says. 'I'm just going to enjoy it, soak it all up, and get some experience competing against some of the best in the world. Hopefully, I'll get into the final and compete for one of those medals.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion But whatever happens, FitzGerald is clearly a major talent with plenty of room to improve, given she only took up running in her early teens during the pandemic. 'I'd go out four or five times a week for a half an hour, and build up some fitness. I didn't really know racing was a thing. But when I went back to school after Covid, they were doing an initiative trying to get people a bit fitter. At the beginning of every PE lesson, we'd have to do 10 minutes running around the field. And my PE teacher was like: 'Yeah, you're quite good at this.'' That teacher encouraged her to join a club, but the nearest one was a 45-minute drive away. 'And there was no way my dad was going to take me there,' says FitzGerald. 'It wasn't until I did well at parkrun that we got in contact with my coach, Gavin Pavey, and I managed to persuade my dad to take me twice a week to the track.' Pavey has some pedigree, having coached his wife, Jo, to five Olympic Games and European and Commonwealth medals. He is impressed with what he has seen, especially given FitzGerald still runs a low volume of miles each week. 'I don't like bigging people up too much but Innes is very good,' he says. 'She's doing things that other young athletes at this stage haven't done obviously, breaking that under-20 3,000m European indoor record. And to run 8min 40sec off the volume she's doing is really pretty exciting.'
