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Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Always running for office: Barry Heneghan praises northsiders' athletic superiority
Part of the TD's job is to talk up their constituency. Dublin Bay North Independent Barry Heneghan , one of those Government-supporting deputies for whom Opposition speaking time was controversially sought, is no different. He recently drew the attention of Minister of State for sport Charlie McConalogue to the work of Raheny Shamrocks Athletics Club and how 'the northside needs more investment' in running tracks. He noted the club had 'a significant history of producing Olympians not just for the northside but for all of Ireland', namechecking sprinter Sophie Becker and Olympian Brian Fay , 'who I went to school with'. Irish Olympian Sophie Becker at the homecoming for Team Ireland following the Paris Olympics. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill 'There are way more running tracks on the southside,' he told the Dáil. 'I believe the estimate is six or seven public tracks compared with two public tracks on the northside of Dublin. I do not know if this is because previous northside politicians did not raise it enough with the department.' READ MORE Heneghan asked that the Minister commit to possibly looking into Dublin City Council adding a 400m running track to St Anne's Park in Raheny 'to be used by future Olympians'. McConalogue noted the 'wonderful work' done at the club and that it has previously been supported through sports capital grants, which would be open for applications again next year. 'I welcome the fact that the Minister of State said that,' Heneghan replied. 'Regarding the lack of running tracks and the number of Olympians, maybe northsiders are just better runners.' Padel is one of the 'fastest-growing sports globally' but is underserved in terms of infrastructure in Dublin. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire Public support fails to smash squash club's problems Public statements of displeasure about a planning application that could jeopardise the future of south Dublin's Old Belvedere Squash Club have failed to smash away its looming problem. Dublin City Council this week granted permission for Old Belvedere Rugby Club's proposal to raze the squash club's facilities on its Ballsbridge grounds, which it argued had become a 'financial drain' on its wider operations. A slew of observations in support of the squash club, which has a 100-strong membership, landed before the deadline, with many claiming the proposed demolition would be contrary to the council's policy objective GI49: to protect existing and established sporting facilities. The RFC wants to replace two squash courts and related facilities with three courts for padel tennis, which it said is one of the 'fastest-growing sports globally' but is underserved in terms of infrastructure in Dublin. It said its plan to add them could see usage rates rise from 20 per cent to about 80 per cent, with the proceeds helping to secure the rugby club's 'long-term viability'. However, the padel element of the plan will have to wait a little longer as the council has asked the RFC for further information regarding proposed access and parking arrangements, as well as on drainage matters. It will have six months to respond. While the price of making an observation on the application was €20, the early objectors would have to pay €220 should they wish to serve up an appeal against the council's decision. Among the correspondence sought was that between Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and the HSE board's chairman. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien When does 'routine' become 'vexatious or frivolous'? Part of a newspaper correspondent's job is to keep up with those whose decisions govern their beat. The Freedom of Information Act offers a means of doing this but, due to its nature, the system can be hit and miss, with requests liable to be rejected for reasons including that they are 'voluminous' or even 'vexatious' or 'frivolous'. A recent application from The Irish Times to the HSE seeking correspondence over a two-month period between Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill , HSE chairman Ciarán Devine, Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt , and HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster ; along with memorandums issued by the chief executive and leadership team, initially fell foul of the 'voluminous' view. The journalist offered to drop the latter element and stated that there tended only to be a small amount of relevant correspondence as well as that the request's scope was similar to others routinely processed by the HSE over the years without issue. However, a compromise was not forthcoming from the HSE decision maker who said granting it would cause 'interference in the work' of the offices of the chief executive and board. 'Therefore, I must refuse also under section15(1)(g), where the request is, in the opinion of the Head, frivolous or vexatious or forms part of a pattern of manifestly unreasonable requests from the same requester or from different requesters who, in the opinion of the head, appear to have made the requests acting in concert.' The matter will be appealed. Eoin Burke and Francesca McAllister from Dublin Zoo announcing the Run for Wildlife event. Photograph: Patrick Bolger Want to sweat with the sloths and gasp with the giraffes? Experiences are everything these days. From swimming with pigs in the Bahamas to cuddling koalas in Australia, there seems to be no end to the Instagrammable activities people are coming up with. Step forward Dublin Zoo , which has announced a novel approach to raising funds for a group working in Indonesia to save the critically endangered Sulawesi crested macaque, of which there are only about 5,000 left in the wild. The zoo will on July 26th host the Run for Wildlife event which, for a €40 entry fee, allows participants to traverse a 3km route around its Phoenix Park grounds. Callie was Dublin Zoo's first cheetah in 20 years. Photograph: Patrick Bolger 'Whether you sprint or jog, every step counts and helps to support the critical work of wildlife protection and habitat preservation,' it said. The zoo said one of the day's spectators, Callie the cheetah, could complete the 3km route in less than two minutes. The human record for the 3,000m, 7:17.55, was set by Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen last year. His mark is unlikely to be beaten but runners will – in addition to being able to sweat with the sloths, gasp with the giraffes and cramp up with the chimps – receive a 'bespoke eco-friendly medal' handmade in Indonesia and a Run for Wildlife T-shirt. There will also be early access to the zoo, where entertainment is to be provided by the Indonesian Irish Association and animal selfie opportunities will be abundant. Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon at the launch of the National Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Oakpark, Co Carlow. Photograph:Finbarr O'Rourke Minister for Agriculture heading from the 19th hole to Seoul Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon is a busy man these days with the threat of US tariffs looming over Ireland's multibillion euro agrifood sector. The Kildare South TD recently reminded the Dáil that some 90 per cent of the food and drink produced in the State was exported and that 'any interruptions to that trade [would] have impacts'. He said the latest round of his trade promotion work would see him travelling to Japan and South Korea in early June. 'I will attend the Seoul Foods Expo, which is the fourth-largest food exhibition in Asia, as well as World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.' Even in the face of big threats, it's worth remembering that all politics is local. According to a diary notice circulated this week, the Fine Gael TD has an engagement at Castlewarden Golf Club before he takes off. The club was among 67 in Co Kildare he congratulated in September after they secured grants under the Community Sports Facility Fund. Castlewarden received €144,404 to repair a roof, enhance facilities and buy a mower. Heydon will, the invite says, launch the club's open week, which begins on June 21st, at a reception in its clubhouse next Friday 'in advance of his departure to Asia on a trade mission'. From the 19th hole to Seoul.
Irish Examiner
23-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
The struggle and spirit of Irish sprinters: ‘The lads are living off absolute scraps'
For Sophie Becker, the choice was straightforward. It was up to Gerard O'Donnell as her coach to spell it out: Go to Bali or invest in your sporting future. Spikes over sunsets. The Leitrim native knows what it is like to have next to nothing. He spent his first few years training in Dublin on social welfare and flat broke. His Carrick-on-Shannon childhood initially consisted of running on the road. Stick that athletics club into Google Maps and nothing appears. They have no home. Once during the Celtic Tiger, a credit card company came to town and developed a park. Their winding, gravel-filled path was soon consistently occupied by dog-walkers and O'Donnell practicing hurdles. The only time he put his foot into spikes and onto a track was for the Connacht or All-Ireland Championships. His first time in Santry was earth-shattering. An indoor area to warm up? What a wonder. He knows hardship. He knows how to get through it too. 'The athlete I work with now can achieve much greater things than I did and have already,' he says, revelling in the Dublin sunshine. What is a simple pleasure for most is an occupational gift for them. 'I don't see why they would do anything different. You have more talent, more opportunity, why put roadblocks in your own way if you can afford not to do it? I remember when Sophie first got her relay funding a few years ago. She was working full-time in Pfizer at the time and I was encouraging her to go to four days a week if it was an option. 'Then she got her funding and the next day we had a conversation. 'You know what that money is? That means you can work one day less a week, rather than going to Bali this summer.' She was like, 'I was literally looking up flights to Bali.' 'I just kept saying, 'That is a fifth of your wage or more. You can take every Friday off work now.' The next week she did exactly that. She made that decision and it paid off right away. Six months later, she went down to three days a week and now she is a full-time athlete because she can now afford to do it and she saw the benefit. 'Every Friday she had services provided in Sport Ireland; Friday she is with her physio, nutritionist, sports psychologist. Now that is a very good use of your day rather than sitting in the office for another eight hours.' O'Donnell is a high performance athletics coach, specialising in sprints and hurdles. He has recently returned from the World Relays in China where he was the head coach of the 4x400m relay teams. A seven-time national 100m hurdle champion, he can still remember looking at renowned coaches during meets and wondering if they missed competing. Now he realises one is tied to the other. Take a warm-up. As an athlete, he became incredibly rigid and diligent. The warm-up was his bible. He learned the hard way. Each injury forced him to reconsider every component of his plan. He ran it meticulously. This was one of the reasons Jeremy Lyons asked him to move from athlete to coach in the Dublin Sprint group, which now includes Olympians Sophie Becker, Cillín Greene and Jack Raftery. They are part of a recent sprint boom. At the bedrock is a dramatic improvement in facilities and funding. Tracks are popping up all over the country. Beyond that, indoor facilities in Athlone and Nenagh have been a godsend. Think about it this way: What does a kid want to do? Run fast. They don't need endless reps and endurance. Go out. Go as hard as they can in a safe, dry hub. O'Donnell didn't have such luxuries. Thankfully. 'It is frustrating in a way, but as a coach I'm more creative because of what we dealt with. What I mean is if we rock up to a track with no shelter, no toilets, no anything, it is pissing rain, everyone is wondering how do we get a warm-up done and I'm used to it. 'I know how you can get strong and fast with good basics. So hop on a track and you can fly. That is easy. How do we do the work without the track? During lockdown I was like, this is fine. 'I was probably under-trained throughout my teenage years. I wasn't hitting max velocity in training because you couldn't on the road in trainers. You are not on the track in spikes with a tail wind. 'But I know lads that were a year younger than me, you go to a competition and they beat you, you think they are just super talented. In one case, years later I was chatting to him and he was telling me his dad had them basically on a training camp all year long. He was reading Ben Johnson's training logs. 'He had his 13-year-olds doing plyos down the central reservation of a motorway while they were on holidays in France. I was running twice a week and a bit of high jumps. It got me thinking, maybe talent wasn't the factor here. But he doesn't make it past 20 in the sport and I didn't win my first national senior title until I'm 26. Which would I trade for? I'd definitely take what I got out of it.' They have it good. In Guangzhou, the women's 4x400m relay team and the mixed team secured qualification for the World Championships. The women's foursome featured three of the team that finished fourth in the Paris Olympics last summer. Becker opens her individual season in Brussels this weekend. It could be better. There is an urgent need for more indoor tracks. The funding increase is yet to substantially impact coaches. Sport Ireland's recent funding allocation continued the trajectory of investing significantly in high-performance sport. It can also function as a reward for performance, rather than rewarding future success. Take Cillín Greene and Jack Raftery. Both Olympians. Both in the top 10 for the all-time 400ms. 'The lads are living off absolute scraps. They got more funding this year because the relays did well last year, but Jack is in college and Cillín is working part-time because they have no other option.' Part of the problem is the lack of different revenue streams. Others can skip around the country and pocket some prize money from a local 5km. That option doesn't exist for sprinters. 'The stress of money kills athletes. They are constantly scraping and scrimping. I need to book that flight for 6am, because it is €200 and the other one is €400. It completely impacts my performance but I can't afford to book the comfortable one. I know one lad, if you gave him 100k this year, he'd break the national record. The money he is on now means he will run this time. 'It is going up and getting better, because lads are running better. Which is funny, it arrives after you really need it. Suffer through and then it starts to come.' Imagine the position this puts coaches in. They know their athletes have little money and the impact it has on their performance. They have to survive as well. There is a Sport Ireland stipend for coaching that is divvied out by Athletics Ireland. Last year, Dublin Sprint received €10,000. At the time, they had three coaches. It might cover the cost of one camp abroad. This season, they returned to training in October and funding is yet to materialise. Gerard O Donnell of Carrick-on-Shannon AC, Leitrim, Matthew Behan of Crusaders AC, Dublin, and David Dagg of Dundrum South Dublin AC, Dublin, on the podium after the mens 110m hurdle final at the Irish Life Health National Senior Track and Field Championships 2022 at Morton Stadium. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile One possible solution is to add a separate fund to athlete funding dedicated solely to coaching. Of course, there is more to this rich spell than money. Trace the roots of this hot streak. A spark. Suitable soil to ignite it. A trailblazer. For his group, it was Cork's Phil Healy. In the early days, that was their mantra. Be like Phil. 'Phil was the benchmark for so many years. 'Phil is able to do it.' She is super talented and a national record holder but it was always, 'Look what she is doing.' Phil was the hero for our whole group. She is gritting it out with Shane McCormack down in Cork or Waterford, not off in Florida or Tenerife. 'She is amazing. Competing at international level since 2014, from 60m up to 400m. She just gets out and gets it done. Why can't we have that attitude? Sophie went down and did sessions with Phil, got her ass handed to her. It was literally, someday I can get close to Phil.' Dublin Sprint continues to go from strength to strength. They are not affiliated to any club. It has all the benefits of team sport, training partners to share encouragement and the workload, without any obligations to take in more members. This team is carefully constructed, piece by piece, to suit themselves. Some of them are Olympians. Some have a good attitude and a car to take others to training. Everyone has to make it work. That's the culture. In Irish athletics, optimism is not so much a feeling as an act of faith. 'Part of it is you don't want to show people the skeletons in the closet. There is enough griping and negativity around the place. So it can seem like, fake it until you make it. Let everyone think it's great and maybe it becomes great. Sponsors, backers, the general public come on board. But also, we need our athletes to think a certain way too. 'They need to think, 'this is the best setup for me right now. If I was in Florida or Spain, the weather is better, but I wouldn't have my family close by. I wouldn't have access to same quality coach and physios. Would I be happy?' They need to be in the mindset that this is the best for me. I have given myself the best chance to succeed. It's about putting yourself in the situation that will get the best out of you. 'It's not 'why am I in Dublin instead of America where they have this and that?' It is 'why would I want to be anywhere else?' If you are not happy with the setup you have created, you are going nowhere.'
RTÉ News
11-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Ireland women relay team impress to qualify for Worlds
The Ireland women's relay quartet joined the mixed relay unit in qualifying for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo later this year. Having missed out on the final in Saturday's qualifiers at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China, Ireland took full advantage of the back-door route by romping to victory in their heat on Sunday. In a changed team from Saturday's race, Sophie Becker took the lead leg and, racing from lane seven, ran a strong 400m, passing to Rhasidat Adeleke, more or less, leading the field. The Olympic fourth-placed Adeleke took on the challenge and kept the baton ahead of the Australians who showed great pace to match the strong Ireland showing. Rachel McCann was third to race and managed to maintain the lead through to the 350-metre mark before Australia just nudged ahead coming to the final exchange. Sharlene Mawdsley then sat in for the opening 200m of the final leg as she looked to time her attack, and the Tipperary woman did it in style, winning it with a good 15 metres to spare at the line.
USA Today
04-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
The best of Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker in images
The best of Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker in images Becker was a one of a few Team Ireland athletes who made the most of the International spotlight at the 2024 Paris Olympics, sprinting to strong showings in the 400m and 4x400m relay. Though she missed out on medaling, the rising talent has undoubtedly grabbed the attention of fans across the globe. Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker Team Ireland track and field star Sophie Becker
