A new team, a new outlook but no medals, that’s the outcome of Ireland at the 2021 European indoor championships.
That might come across harsh, medals paper over the cracks of any major athletics championships and having written off Irish athletics some years ago there were genuine positives in Poland.
The weekend itself will stay with me for the sheer excitement of the Shannonside Northern Sound sports department and indeed news room.
The emergence of Cian McPhillips from the athletics black spot of county Longford into a competitive exciting international rose the roof off the region.
There was also something else about these athletics championships, as I wrote two weeks ago, indoor athletics arrival during lockdown gave an excitement to the burnt out sports fans whose weekends since Christmas have been spent watching Manchester City win repeatedly.
Or those GAA fans converted into the rugby world, suddenly giving heed to Leinster and Ulster’s B teams squaring off in the Pro-14.
After three solid months of premier league soccer, rugby and horse racing, a new sport would always tweak the interest.
The European Indoor championships have taken place since 1969, 2021 was the 40th edition with the regularity of the competition changing over time.
Ireland have taken 25 medals at these championships, eight gold, five silver and 12 bronze. Bronze medals for Roisin McGettigan (2009) and Derval O’Rourke (2013) were both awarded years later after the conclusion of doping investigations.
This weekend Ireland sent their biggest ever team of 22 athletes, zero medals but one fourth place, four finalists in total and five semi-finalists, make it look good on power point.
While the championship garnered some excitement in Irish quarters, the fact remains that zero medals will travel from Torun to Dublin.
So the questions is fired around; is this a good championship or what?
Mark English brought home 800m silver in 2015, which deemed the championship a success. From nine athletes the team returned one silver medal, one finalist and three semi-finalists. The Relay team qualified automatically for the final.
2017 was a nightmare for the Irish team with 10 members, resulting in two finalists and three semi-finalists. Of the two finalists Ciara Mageean failed to finish and John Travers only qualified via appeal.
2019 was much better as Mark English and Mageean captured bronze medals, from the 16 athletes the result read two medals, one semi-finalist! So was it much better? Or did the medals paper over the cracks?
2021 saw no medals, but there were positives. Healy ran a life time best to get her fourth place finish. Paul Robinson and Andrew Coscoran both made the 1500m final, an event Ireland has traditionally been strong at; but not lately.
What made Robinson and Coscroan’s appearance positive was how they were very nearly lost to the sport in the recent past. Robinson unable to build on his fourth place finish at the 2014 European championship due to what turned out to be a long term, near three year injury.
McPhillips emergence, probably the brightest positive of the team, rarely have Ireland had a breakthrough 18-year-old in their midst.
But for the positives there were negatives. The three Irish qualifiers in the women’s 800 metres entered the tournament in the top 10 of European rankings.
Only Nadia Power progressed to the semi-finals, while a very good effort, young Power’s inexperience at this level showed over the final 300 metres of her semi.
Leon Reid built up as a great hope of Irish sprinting, failed to emerge from the 60m heats, citing an injury in the warm-up.
Mark English is an athlete who should be contesting European Indoor finals, a man well able to mix it on the World and Olympic stage. English didn’t even contest for a qualifier spot.
On paper the negatives seem great and the positives may seem a little too positive but, there is real hope for improvement.
First of all the form of the Irish athlete’s heading into the tournament was extremely encouraging. While a number of Irish records were broken this indoor season, it should be remembered Ireland are a late comer to international standard indoor arenas.
Athlone IT indoor arena opening in 2013 the first in this country. While some Irish records are weak, an Irish woman has yet to break two minutes for 800m, the standard is improving.
Everything is relative to be fair. I constantly remember the famous Irish athletics fan Sean Callan once successfully predicting at the World Championship, the men’s 4x400m relay team would “break the Irish record, but be last by about 100 metres”.
For me the most important and impressive item of the weekend was the mentality of the Irish team.
The majority unhappy with their performance even when qualifying from their heat or competing in a final.
Previously too many Irish athletes were just happy to be there, or when performing poorly cited how close they came to their personal bests.
David Gillick twice a gold medallist at these championships, constantly repeats how European indoors should be a first step on your career. In the last number of years too many Irish athletes were happy just to make the plane.
A country the size of Ireland will struggle to bring home a bag full of medals from a major championship, remember Russia are still serving a suspension in the athletics world.
Although this new team may just have taken a step in the right direction.
