Sport

From Berlin to Doha: challenge for Irish athletes only heating up

Midnight marathon just one of the novel features of a World Championships in Qatar

Thomas Barr celebrates his bronze medal performance in the 400m hurdles at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Ian O'Riordan's face
Ian O'Riordan in Berlin
Tue Aug 14 2018 - 05:30

Nothing succeeds like success.

At any sporting championship that’s ultimately measured in medals – and there’s no denying that five Ireland athletes finding their place on the medal podium between Berlin and Glasgow over the last 11 days counts for something.

The novelty of twinning the cities as hosts for a range of European Championships probably succeeded beyond most expectations too, although the long-term prospects still aren’t certain. Outside individual championships, the one and only thing that matters next is Tokyo 2020.

Berlin, in both scale and grandeur, was always going to be the headline act, and the single Irish medal won by Thomas Barr, bronze in the 400 metres hurdles, in some ways proved just how competitive an athletics championships they were.

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Ciara Mageean was just less than a second from winning another bronze in the 1,500m, to match her feat of two years ago but, in truth, no other Irish athlete came close to a medal, newly transferred Leon Reid the next best – and the only other Irish track finalist – with his seventh place in the 200m.

“Berlin, you have delivered the best European Championships ever, that is for sure,” said Svein Arne Hansen, president of European Athletics, and by that he meant the most competitive too.

“I have been to every one since 1970 and maybe people will have another opinion, but we have had an unbelievable atmosphere in the stadium which has been bringing tears to the eyes, not only in my country of Norway, but in many places. And we had 27 countries with medals.”

That was just over half the 51 competing nations (Russian athletics, remember, still suspended from track and field for previous doping record, only several were admitted as Authorised Neutral Athletes); Great Britain, Poland and then Germany reinforced their states of athletics superpowers, while that single bronze medal for Barr meant Ireland finished equal 27th, alongside Hungary and Estonia

Across in Glasgow, Shane Ryan first set the trend when winning a bronze medal for Irish swimming, followed by the O’Donovan brothers Gary and Paul brothers won silver medals for Irish rowing, before 19-year-old Rhys McClenaghan eclipsed the lot and won a gymnastics gold – a first ever European medal of any for Ireland in that sport. All against the backdrop of the Irish hockey success at the women’s World Cup in London the week before.

For Irish athletics, there is a history of a single medal sometimes covering up for the cracks or faults in the rest of the team, and of that 42-strong team, the women’s 4x100 metre relay team were the only ones to set a national record, while on the track or field, Barr was one of only two Irish athletes run a season best, 20 year-old Chris O’Donnell the other in the 400m.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t potential coming through: of our three main athletics championships of the summer (Berlin, the World Under-20 championships in Tampere, Finland, and the European Under-18 championships over in Gyor, Hungary) Irish athletes won six medals across all three.

Stepping stone

No one is being fooled into thinking those underage championships are anything more than a stepping stone to what potentially lies ahead, but Sarah Healy’s U-18 distance running double, Rhasidat Adeleke’s gold in the 200m, and Sophie O’Sullivan’s silver in the 800m were all won with the sort of energy and authority to suggest there is more to come.

The women’s 4x100m relay quartet followed that with silver medals in Tampere, 17-year-old high jump Sommer Lecky also winning silver in the high jump with a best of 1.90m, which would have comfortably qualified her for the final in Berlin.

Across all the sports (Glasgow hosting swimming, rowing, triathlon, cycling, golf and gymnastics), Russia still came out on top overall (winning 31 gold overall, ahead of Great Britain who finished the event with 26 gold); with 32 of the 52 nations won medals of some colour; Ireland ending up ranked 23rd. In total 4,215 athletes competed in seven sports across the 11 days of competition, with 187 European champions crowned,

Certainly a broad range of success then, only uncertainties remain about here exactly were the concept will be in 2022: Paris will host the 2020 European Athletics Championships, a scaled back event at Charléty Stadium from 26th to 30th August – and post Olympics.

London has already been mooted as a possible candidate for 2022, if or when the new combined European Championships is maintained.

“We want the same system in four years,” added Hansen. “We have an eight-year deal with the EBU and we want to have the best conditions for European athletics. If it is one city, or one region – we don’t know yet.”

So it seems do the television viewers – hosts’ Germany reported overall viewing figures of 80 per cent.

The more immediate challenge for athletics, and indeed Irish athletes, is a little different.

Next year’s World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, are set for September 26th until October 6th, when average high temperatures are 37 degrees, morning sessions have been scrapped to avoid the expected hot weather, the event also featuring the first midnight marathon.

The IAAF has also revealed split evening sessions, including a one-hour break, to combat fears over athletes competing in the worst of the heat in the Qatari capital. Many events will happen in the late evening and beyond midnight; the women’s 100 metres is set for 11.20pm and the women’s 400m at 11.50pm.

For any Irish athletes looking to Doha, in every sense then, things will be seriously hotter than Berlin.