Team Ireland - Paris 2024 Qualification Tracker

[Ogreman 379]

1 hour ago, Oldira said:

According to her Instagram account Amy Broadhurst is staying amateur and trying again for Olympic qualification next year.

I had wondered if given her comments after she missed out on qualifying if their was a sort of understanding that while she got the first chance at Europeans if she failed someone else specifically Lisa O'Rourke would get the oppurtunity to qualify at the first world qualifying tournament but at least for now I seem to have been wrong. I would say this sets us up for a fascinating national champs in December with six of the seven (not counting super heavyweight and Sean Mari lacks any competition at flyweight) weightclasses having a genuine contender to get the nod selection wise, but inevitably half of them will mysteriously be injured.

[OlympicIRL 5,726]

Daniel Wiffen has achieved the OQT as expected in the men’s 800m. He set a new Irish record of 7:43.81 mins to qualify as 4th fastest for the final.

[Oldira 88]

15 hours ago, Ogreman said:

I had wondered if given her comments after she missed out on qualifying if their was a sort of understanding that while she got the first chance at Europeans if she failed someone else specifically Lisa O'Rourke would get the oppurtunity to qualify at the first world qualifying tournament but at least for now I seem to have been wrong. I would say this sets us up for a fascinating national champs in December with six of the seven (not counting super heavyweight and Sean Mari lacks any competition at flyweight) weightclasses having a genuine contender to get the nod selection wise, but inevitably half of them will mysteriously be injured.

I must say I had thought the same. She just says she is not giving up on Paris which I take as trying for the qualifiers. Its a big ask for Lisa to make the weight at 66kg so she may just be waiting for 2028. I'm sure Zaur has all worked out. 

[OlympicIRL 5,726]

Daniel Wiffen becomes the 43rd member of Team Ireland, making the OQT in the men's 800m freestyle. Here is a summary of the Paris 2024 Olympic team as it stands:

 

 

 

IRELAND

 

43 Total Athletes	17 Men
	20 Women
20 Total Events	5 Total Sports

 

 

 

 

List of Team Ireland Qualifiers

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by OlympicIRL

[Ogreman 379]

It was never really in doubt but the men's hockey team have secured their spot at the Olympic qualifiers next year after beating Scotland today.

[OlympicIRL 5,726]

Daniel Wiffen achieved the OQT in the men’s 1500m freestyle, advancing as 2nd fastest qualifier for the final in 14:43.50 mins.

[Cosmo Kramer 24]

Wiffen seemed well off the pace in his final today, only barely scraped home in fourth in what was expected to be a four man race. Wonder if he'd be better just focusing on the 1500m for Paris,  rather than going for both events, the other three seem to have his number at this point.

[dodge 1,040]

2 qualifiers in a matter of minutes there. Finn Lynch in sailing, Sophie O’Sullivan in athletics 

[Ogreman 379]

https://www.rowingireland.ie/2023-world-championships-team-announcement/

Well this is something! Both pairs seem to be priority sweep boats, Sanita is in the four and we're rolling out a quad (Let's go).

(I feel like rambling for a bit)

 

So this is likely going to be our biggest single qualifying event in terms of number of athletes qualified so well, racing five boats that have never raced together before is certainly an interesting decision. Obviously this is also subject to Maurogiovanni's squad cut the week before an event although the only event this didn't happen before was last years worlds (Then again they never actually select Jake McCarthy so his selection is a concern and John Kearney, Adam Murphy and Jack Dorney from the four are all on the entry list for European under23s this weekend( although you'd think a decision would have been made already on that given it is well this weekend)).

 

Lightweight doubles are both as expected but with the note that given the womens double's dissapointing form so far this year it is encouraging that Siobhan McCrohan couldnt force her way into this double.

The mens sweep squad and the mens double are also as expected although lets a wait and see if the four actually races and how competitive it can be assuming it does.

I got my wish for a quad (Colsh,Sheehan, Byrne, Pazzaia). Its good to see the under 23 success being rewarded here and is this finally the return of Ronan Byrne. Obviously zero precedent for Ireland in this boat class although Colsh and Sheehan (and Adam Murphy) won a junior European medal in this boat a few years ago. This quad has the potential to be really fast but quads are tricky and are probably the boat that the overall quality of the boat is least correlated to the quality of the individual rowers. It has to be at worst quite fast though cause it has been considered a better option than racing Colsh or Sheehan in a single.

 

The women's heavyweight results this year have been dissapointing but I did not expect the squad to look this differentfor worlds. The pair has seemingly become the priority boat with Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh combining in a new combination. The pair is an easier boat than the four so maybe this move does increase our chances of a medal but there is significant risk here. The four is an entirely new combination of Eimear Lambe, Sanita Puspure, Imogen Magner and Natalie Long. While the unknown element of this new boat makes it exciting this boat has very little margin for error with only a very competitive top 7 qualifying for the Olympics. (In practice this means making the A final because B finals always produce weird results) This could be a masterstroke of a selection decision but even if we didnt look like medalling we did seem pretty secure to qualify the pair and the four had we just maintained the status quo and it is very possible this move backfires and ends up costing us a spot at the Olympics in the four. Like this is a move we could have made next year having already qualified both boats. The athletes that missed out on selection were somewhat surprisingly Tara Hanlon and presumably still injured Emily Hegarty. 

 

The final new boat is the logical combination of a double if Sanita is in the four of Alison Bergin and Zoe Hyde. Both these athletes are the only young female rowers we have produced this Olympic cycle and have had an impressive last couple of years. With 11 boats to qualify even if they struggle a bit they should at worst secure Olympic qualification. Then again we are reigning bronze medallists in this boat class and behind the Romanians and the Lithuanians that medal is very much still up for grabs although that might be a bit lofty of a goal for this boat.

 

Because we selected Alison Bergin in the double and a quad in the mens, it means no single sculls are selected although singles do make good backup plans if things go a bit wrong here. (This is pure speculation but I do think there is now a world where we end up seeing Sanita give the single sculls one last crack at what surely will be her last Olympics)

 

The pr2 mixed double needs to make an A final to qualify for the paralympics. Tricky but very doable given their improvements this year.

 

I've spent most of the year thinking seven boats qualified at worlds should be the target and while this selection throws things up in the air a bit in terms of trying to predict things I do still think that is a fair expectation although it requires the lighweight double to at least look decent and one of the two fours or the quad to qualify. Medals are a bit tougher to predict but the quality of the squad would indicate 3 medals is a fair expectation even if the formbook doesn't suggest we are anywhere near that.

 

Finally Im glad im Irish cause imagine trying to understand our bonkers selection if you were from somewhere else. If the Dutch or the Romanians or whatever selected this erratically their would be no point even trying to predict medallists or project qualifiers or analyse rowing in an way.

 

[Oldira 88]

On 7/24/2023 at 11:41 PM, Ogreman said:

I had wondered if given her comments after she missed out on qualifying if their was a sort of understanding that while she got the first chance at Europeans if she failed someone else specifically Lisa O'Rourke would get the oppurtunity to qualify at the first world qualifying tournament but at least for now I seem to have been wrong. I would say this sets us up for a fascinating national champs in December with six of the seven (not counting super heavyweight and Sean Mari lacks any competition at flyweight) weightclasses having a genuine contender to get the nod selection wise, but inevitably half of them will mysteriously be injured.

Well Lisa said in the local paper last week that she had not given up on Paris and hoped to be at next years qualifiers.