We got the bad news this morning that the 4*400m relay in the Salamanca Grand Prix on Wednesday night has been cancelled.
As things currently stand there are no additional qualification opportunities on the IAAF list. To say we are upset would be an understatement, but we will do what we can to see if another attempt can be made in another meet.
Paul McKee will be running in the individual 400m race at the Grand Prix.
“You control what you can control and don’t worry about things you can’t control”.
It might be the first rule of sports psychology but it was of little consolation for what happened last weekend.
Sunday’s 3:04.43 was a case of controlling all that could be controlled. It was a fantastic run which belies the time recorded. It was a focused, driven, team performance and despite our best efforts we were undone by what we couldn’t control - The Wind.
400m runners thrive on still days and favour a wind that blows down the back straight. What we got was a wind blowing down the home straight up 5.0 m/s. The 40m plus margin of victory was worthy of a top 16 team in the world. What it left us at the end of the day was an average of 18th position. 1/100th of second behind 17th place and less than 2/10ths of a second behind the crucial 16th spot. The day highlighted the inequity of the current relay qualification system where other teams improved their times in other races with superior competition and more favourable weather conditions.
We would like to thank everyone for their messages of support prior to the qualification attempts.
The day has finally arrived. After a Winter of training and planning, the Irish 4*400m team will be lining up for their first attempt at relay qualification for the Beijing Olympics.
This will be part 1 of 2. Qualification for the Olympic Games involves having the average of their 2 best times to rank them in the top 16 teams worldwide on the 19th of July. The boys have 2 races to get their 2 times so their is no margin for error. (All qualification times must be made at specially sanctioned races, hence the lack of potential races). As the list currently stands, the 16th ranked team have a time of 3.04.5 so the guys will need to get very close to the national record twice within the space of a week in order to get on the list.
No one is in any doubt that this will be an awesome challenge so the guys will need your support.
Please drop a few lines of encouragement in the comment box below and help Ireland qualify for the Olympics!
-Brian
Training well and hard in 25 degrees today, so that was nice. Today’s session was 4×300m, 10 minutes recovery. Myself and Paul Hession did this, and it was hard towards the end. Paul suprised me with his strength at the end, may be there is a possible 4×400m in him! not sure Stuart (coach) will agree to that though. (more…)
Just a quick note from Stellenbosch today as there was good news for project 400m. After talking to Kristoff Beyens, the Belgian 200m world semi finalist, I can confirm 2 new opportunites for 4×400m Olympic Qualification. (more…)