McGonagle confident Irish athletes can re-write the records
The European Athletics Championships are kicking off here in Barcelona today and there's good expectancy from the Irish team.
There’s a variation of ability. Some are first-timers looking for experience, while others have been through the championship mill before. We’ve targeted a good championships where maybe two medals and five or six finalists would be a success, although it’s best to wait until next week to see if things are successful or not.
The Irish Sports Council and the Institute of Sport have overseen the development since Athens 2004. Beijing was unsatisfactory, but there have been more forward steps than back of late. Athletes have invested time and given sacrifices; putting their lives on hold as one lap runs into the next. There's no revolution; just reinforcement. Our medal hopes lean heaviest upon familiar names like Derval O'Rourke, who won silver in the 100m hurdles four years ago in Gothenburg; Olive Loughnane, a World Championship runner-up in the 20km Berlin last year, Robbie Heffernan, Alistair Cragg, Paul Hession and David Gillick.
The forthcoming Olympics are always a huge incentive and London is even more so. There’s a hell of a lot of Irish athletes coming good right now. A lot of them have been on the circuit for a while and we’ve pinpointed the Europeans as a championship where we have to be competing. We’ve continually stated it and now the challenge is to prove it. Another step in the right direction - with a medal or two - is a reasonable target. The strength in depth of the team competing this week shows the level of talent we have in Ireland and shows what we are capable of.
See Thursday’s Donegal Democrat for further update
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Donegal
Monday 21 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South east
