Sonia O’Sullivan: Irish athletes should channel a little Iceland spirit

Ever since landing back home for the summer last week it’s been impossible to avoid the energy of Euro 2016. You don’t even need to be a big fan of soccer to sense some of the excitement and how it’s been impacting on so many people.

There have been some interesting results in these championships which help to maintain the beauty and unpredictability of sport, all part of what creates the energy around it.

The Republic of Ireland’s tournament ended on Sunday when they met France in the last 16 stage. It was always going to take a mammoth effort to overcome France, and in the end the more favoured team won.

But statistics and predictions don’t always match the passion that can be delivered by a team.

The perfect example of this was Iceland’s win over England, one of the great upsets of sport. Iceland were ranked 34th in the world, England ranked 11th.

The passion exemplified by the Iceland team is something all athletes hope to experience at least once in their lifetime. That time when you become unstoppable and rise to the occasion because you truly believe that you can – defying the statistics and the expected outcome.

The hope is that some of this might spill over on Irish athletes and motivate them to raise their level of performance and aim high, not just for the Rio Olympics, but also next month’s European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam.

I got that feeling attending the National Athletics Championships in Santry Stadium at the weekend. Even though the conditions were not ideal for fast times there were some positive performances for some of our Rio-bound athletes.

It was certainly a relief to see Thomas Barr and Mark English both racing for the first time this season, testing the water at last, and both winning – Barr over the 400m hurdles and English the 800m. They both know they will need to build on these performances before the Olympics.

The highlight for me was the women's 800m, and watching Síofra Cléirigh Büttner, who has just returned from Villanova University for the summer, my old alma mater. She was out to match her best performance over 800m, 2:02.37, which she had only run a week earlier.

Síofra’s attacking front-running performance on the day, not helped by the windy conditions, left her just short of that best, although still did enough to convince the selectors to give her the chance to make her Irish senior team debut in Amsterdam, and with that an opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.

Higher level

Up until 2010 the European Championships were held every four years so the medals were more elusive. Now they’re held every two years, and that creates more opportunities for athletes to compete at a higher level, especially for athletes like Síofra who are just breaking on to the international stage.

Initially there were concerns with having a European Championships in an Olympic year, but I think it is a perfect opportunity for athletes who are not too far away from Olympic qualifying times to have one more roll of the dice.

The Olympic qualifying period closes on July 11th, and this gives the championships in Amsterdam an added purpose. When athletes get to compete in a full stadium, representing their country, they can often compete at a level much greater than if they had travelled to some obscure small track meeting simply chasing a time.

It is also good to see that the Irish team of 52 athletes selected for Amsterdam will be our largest ever representation at these European Championships.

It is also good that Athletics Ireland has shown such faith in so many Irish athletes. Now it’s up to those athletes to grab this opportunity, to use Amsterdam as a stepping stone to get to the next level.

I really feel these championships are a golden opportunity to raise the bar and achieve results that maybe the athletes hadn’t thought possible before, just like Iceland beating England.

But it will mean they take some risks, accepting there is also a chance they will fail. Yet if they don’t step outside of the comfort zone they will never know what they are truly capable of.

Realistic target

For some qualifying for Rio is still a possibility. Every athlete needs to have a realistic target going to these championships, something they know they can achieve, but at the same time will not limit themselves to.

When you are on the European stage, competing against athletes with similar goals, there comes a time when you need to look beyond what you know you can do and bridge the gap to the next level.

It’s still a rare achievement for any athlete to represent their country, and that may have been a goal for the season.

But delivering a performance and at least matching the qualification mark is the least that can be expected to ensure they return some of the faith given to them.

In giving these athletes the chance to compete on the big stage they are also getting the chance to rise to the big occasion, and with that give us a very realistic view of where we actually stand as an athletics nation in Europe.