Russell White achieved a career-best performance on Sunday (September 2nd) by claiming a silver medal at the ITU World Cup race at Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic.
As well as being the standout result in White’s career thus far, it also equals the best ever finish by an Irish athlete in a World Cup triathlon and makes White just the third Irish athlete after Aileen Reid and Bryan Keane to stand on a World Cup podium.
White was strong throughout the Standard (Olympic) distance race which is notorious as one of the toughest on the world circuit. He emerged 5th out of the water from the 1,500m swim and biked at the front on a hilly and technical course before executing a blistering 29min 43sec 10km run to finish just 14seconds behind the winner – Russia’s Dmitry Polyanskiy.
Speaking after the race, White was clearly delighted with his efforts:
“I am buzzing to have finally made my first World Cup podium finishing second today at Karlovy Vary. I have had a massive racing block with eight races in seven weeks but I am so glad that I have managed to get better with every race.”
“I’ve had an up and down season this year with being in very good shape for Commonwealth Games, not using that fitness and then getting sick shortly after. It has been hard to turn it around but I can’t believe that I have not only turned it around but managed achieved a career-best result today.”
White acknowledged that the result will have a huge effect on his Olympic qualifying and World Triathlon points and on his state of mind heading into the World Triathlon Grand Final in Australia:
“I now turn my focus to the Grand final in Gold Coast in two weeks and then round of the season with three further World cups next month. Thank you for all the support from home and it is great to get the Irish trisuit back up onto a World Cup podium,” White concluded.
The Federation of Irish Sport is made up of National Governing Bodies of sport as well as the 26 Local Sports Partnerships that operate around the country working with Local authorities to implement a wide variety of sporting programmes.
Each month we carry a round-up featuring some of the many activities that are taking place around the country so that you can see just how effective they are.
LAOIS SPORTS PARTNERSHIP
Laois Sports Partnership is delivering a Woodlands for Health programme in conjunction with Mental Health Ireland, Coillte, Hse and Get Ireland Walking.
“We are 2 weeks into our programme with 25 participants joining in,” Majella Fennelly tells us.
“We are unveiling Co Laois as the weeks progress and encouraging all to engage with each other.”
DUBLIN CITY SPORT AND WELLBEING PARTNERSHIP
The inaugural Dublin Sportsfest will take place during European Week of Sport (September 23rd– 30th).
It will be officially launched by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Nial Ring, in Irishtown Stadium at 10.30am on Tuesday the 4th of September.
High profile ambassadors from various sporting spectrums will be present on the day and during the week itself.
The focus of Dublin Sportsfest is encouraging participation across all ages, backgrounds & abilities and, importantly, sustainability. There will also be the added bonus of the chance to showcase DCC’s many sport & recreation facilities.
Dublin SportsFest will comprise of a week-long programme of innovative events and promotions across many of DCC’s facilities, parks and urban spaces. Partners include DCC Sport & Recreation Services, Dublin Festival of History (Public Libraries), Cycling Ireland (Great Dublin Bike Ride), parkrun, Junior parkrun, Ireland Active, Sport Ireland, NEIC, and Ballyfermot Youth Service. This is in addition to a host of sports clubs from across the city.
MEATH SPORTS PARTNERSHIP
The Sport Ireland Meath Heritage Cycle tour returned for its 10thyear over the weekend of the 28th& 29thJuly. The ever popular event, run by Meath Local Sports Partnership continues to attract big cycling numbers not only to Trim over the weekend to the entire county.
In the 10 years that the tour has been running, over 30,000 cyclists from the very young to the very old, from the elite cyclist to the beginner have all participated in the cycle tour.
With over 2500 cyclists participating between the 11k family spin, the 50km Tara Loop and the 100km Royal Challenge – the Meath Heritage Cycle tour remains one the most enjoyable sportifs for all participants irrespective of age or cycling ability.
CORK SPORTS PARTNERSHIP
The Annual Cork Rebel Run 5k & 10k was launched in Cork Institute of Technology recently. Now in its 7th year, the event will take place on Sunday, 21st October. The organising committee of Cork Sports Partnership, LeisureWorld Bishopstown and Cork Institute of Technology have welcomed both Cork City Council and Cork County Council as sponsors once again for 2018. There is also support this year from Boston Scientific.
The Run is backed up by a number f Counch to 5K programmes and other activities.
LEITRIM SPORTS PARTNERSHIP
Leitrim Sports Partnership are running two day time walking groups in Drumshanbo and Ballinamore. The groups are open to beginners and are free to take part in.
Ballinamore walking group begins on Monday 17th September at 12noon meeting at Ballinamore Library Main Street Ballinamore.
Drumshanbo walking group begins on Thursday 20th September at 9.30am meeting at Drumshanbo Library Market House.
OFFALY SPORTS PARTNERSHIP
Offaly LSP is running a subsidised ten-week course of physical activity challenges for Women. They include an hour of jogging on Tuesdays and Fitness sessions on Thursdays
MONAGHAN SPORTS PARTNERSHIP
Monaghan Comhairle na nÓg in association with Monaghan Sports Partnership are hosting their first ever 5k fun Colour Run in Rossmore Forest Park on Sunday 23rd September at 11am.
This family fun event will launch a week-long programme of activities that is planned as part of Monaghan Social Inclusion week. “Run/ Walk for Equality” is inviting everyone, of all ages, young and old, families or individuals, runners, and walkers to register and take part in this fun event.
Cost of entry is €5 per individual, discounts apply to family bookings. All proceeds are going to a local charity.
TIPPERARY
The 2018 Tipperary Women’s Mini Marathon will take place in Thurles on Sunday 30th September at 11am. Now in its ninth year, this 10k Women’s Mini Marathon has grown from strength to strength since the inaugural event in Thurles in 2010.
The event provides a great opportunity for participants to raise funds for their own local charities and there is a charitable donation of €200 to the largest group to register that are raising funds for charitable causes.
Participants will receive a technical tee-shirt sponsored by LIT Tipperary. All finishers will receive a specially designed race medallion. Spot prizes will also be distributed on the day. All participants will be chip timed and the event is AAI measured and certified.
The 2018 Tipperary Mini Marathon is funded through Sport Ireland’s Women In Sport Programme and the 2018 committee comprises of members from Tipperary Sports Partnership, Thurles Crokes AC, Tipperary Athletics County Board, Tipperary County Council, Templemore-Thurles Municipal District, Thurles Gardai & Tipperary Civil Defence.
If you would like to feature in next month’s Round Up please send your information by email to reach us no later than Friday 17th August.
The Federation welcomes the confirmation today of details surrounding the 2018 Sports capital Programme.
The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross T.D. and the Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin T.D., today announced that €40 million is being made available under a new round of the Sports Capital Programme (SCP). The SCP is the Government’s primary vehicle for providing support to sports clubs and communities to develop sports infrastructure around the country. Applications can only be made online from 9am on Friday 7th September until 5pm on Friday 19th October, 2018.
Minister Ross stated “This is further excellent news following a superb summer of Irish sporting achievements. Recently we launched our new National Sports Policy 2018 – 2027 which confirmed our commitment to invest in sports facilities in the years ahead. The opening of a new round of the Sports Capital Programme shows that we are committed to delivering on this objective. The programme itself has already transformed sports facilities in practically every community in Ireland. The €40 million that is now available provides an opportunity for even further improvements and I would urge all organisations with a suitable project to apply”.
The Minister of State, Brendan Griffin highlighted the changes to the terms of the new programme. “While the Sports Capital Programme is already hugely popular with sports clubs across so many different sporting disciplines, we are determined to make the application process as simple and user-friendly as possible. We undertook a detailed review of the 2017 round of the Sports Capital Programme and the recommendations arising have been fully factored in to the new terms and conditions of the 2018 scheme. In particular, we are introducing some significant changes in our assessment methodology to ensure that we minimise the number of invalid applications. We will also give even greater priority to applications from disadvantaged areas and projects that promote the sharing of sports facilities with other clubs and the wider community.”
All applicants must be registered on the Department’s online system and the Ministers encouraged any clubs which are not already registered to do so now. The guide to making an application was also published on the Department’s website today on WWW.SPORTSCAPITALPROGRAMME.IE. Registrations will close at 5pm on Friday 5th October.
Welcoming the opening of applications, Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton T.D. said, “I’m delighted that this year, following an agreement by both my own Department and the Department of Tourism, Transport and Sport, that all schools may now be able to avail of the Sports Capital Grant Scheme as long as they do so in conjunction with a sports club. This is a great opportunity and I encourage all interested schools to apply.”
Clubs who wish to register on the Department’s online system can do so now at WWW.SPORTSCAPITALPROGRAMME.IE. Once registered, all applications must be made on the same website. The system will be open for applications from 9am on Friday 7th September to 5pm on Friday 19th October, 2018.
A guide to making an application and a link to YouTube video instructions is also available on the Department’s website.
Federation Supporter 2Into3 and Sport for Business are running four Masterclass Workshops for Clubs across all sports to help prepare for applications. They take place on September 4th in Cork, September 5th in Athlone, September 11th and 12th in Dublin.
As part of a new monthly feature, we want to know a little more about the organisations and the individuals that support the work of the Federation.
To kick us off we sat down with Deirdre McDermott, Audit Director at OSK and something of a Hockey fan…
Can you tell us a little about how your business partners with the Federation and its members?
We in OSK are the approved audit and accountancy partner to the Federation of Irish Sport. We offer a full range of accountancy services from payroll, bookkeeping, management accounts, cashflow projections, budgeting, tax advice, corporate governance to the annual audit.
We seek to provide practical advice and expertise to the Sports sector through our experience in dealing with sporting bodies and the not for profit sector.
What is one of the issues that you might be able to solve?
We can provide a practical approach to the annual audit and aim to provide a value-added service when doing the audit and seek to make recommendations to management and the board on the completion of our audit.
What is your personal background in sport?
I am heavily involved in sport, having moved to Dublin to play hockey and now that my playing days are over due to injury, I coach hockey. I have coached at club and interprovincial level and currently coach a club side in Dublin. I also play golf to try and fill the gap left by Hockey.
I have a keen interest in most sports and have enjoyed supporting Galway in the Hurling and Football championships this season and look forward to supporting Connacht rugby with their season kicking off on Saturday 1st September.
What do you find most interesting about working in and around the sporting sector?
Because I have a keen interest in sport, I find it interesting being involved in the audit of Sport Governing Bodies and hearing what their sporting goals are for their Sport, the plans they have in place to achieve them, how they are dealing with the challenges they are facing from a financial and facilities point of view. And assisting them where possible with improvements they need to implement to their financial procedures, internal controls and corporate governance.
What was the last sports event you attended?
The Masters Hockey World Cup in Terrassa Spain for men and women, where 135 teams completed over 6 age categories with the Irish Ladies O50 team winning the O50s Women’s Masters Hockey World Cup.
If you had an open ticket which sporting event around the world would you attend?
The Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 to watch the Irish Women’s hockey team competing and supporting the other Irish Athletes in their chosen sports.
And if you could arrange for one victory for a sports team or star that matters to you what would it be?
The Irish Ladies Hockey Team qualifying for the Olympics in Tokyo which would give them the opportunity to build on their success from the World Cup silver medal achieved in London this month.
The curtain came down on the 2018 Para Swimming Allianz European Championships yesterday with Ellen Keane adding Gold to the bronze she won for Ireland on Friday night and the Silver won by 16-year-old Nicole Turner on Saturday.
The medals capped a performance from the eight-strong team that included appearing in 25 finals, recording 13 personal best and 21 season-best times.
From a sporting perspective, those are the numbers that matter most.
The small army of volunteers who made the week work, the media who covered the moments that mattered and the family, friends and fans who made all the noise deserve enormous credit for making a great week come to life
Sport at its greatest is always about more than numbers. It is about the swell of your heart as you realise that you are watching something special. The emotion of letting go in a way that you rarely if ever do in any aspect of life.
And it goes further it can change the way we look at our own lives, and communities as well as those of others we have alway perhaps viewed differently.
We are grateful today to Allianz Marketing and Communications Director Damien O’Neill for this interview with Pundit Arena during the Championships that sums up the power of sport and what the last seven days have been like.
Cricket Ireland has today officially opened Phase One of a world-class high-performance training centre at the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus in west Dublin.
Phase One includes construction of 5 artificial and 16 grass practice wickets, a 3,000 m2 grass covered fielding practice area, and purchase of several state-of-the-art bowling machines.
Phase Two, which is hoped to be completed by 2020, will feature a dedicated building incorporating changing facilities, coaches zone, meeting spaces, performance analysis area, and a player zone; an ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) clear roof canopy over the turf wickets – which will be a world-first in cricket – which will allow players to practice on grass including their run-ups throughout wet weather as well as controlling climate, pitch moisture and ground conditions.
The opening event was attended by:
· Cllr Anthony Lavin, The Mayor of Fingal
· Brendan Griffin TD, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport
· David Richardson, Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council
· Kieran Mulvey, Chair of Sport Ireland
Minister of State Brendan Griffin welcomed the official opening of the Cricket Ireland High Performance Centre.
Minister of State Brendan Griffin said: “I am delighted to welcome Cricket Ireland’s fabulous new High Performance Centre to the National Sports Campus. Cricket in Ireland has been on an upward curve since the World Cup in 2007 and the performances of the Irish cricket team have helped in no small measure in increasing the game’s profile throughout the country. This new cricket facility will be a great place for our elite athletes to do their training. It joins the excellent FAI and GAA training facilities already at the Campus and we hope that the IRFU and Hockey Ireland will join them in the near future.”
Ross McCollum, Chairman of Cricket Ireland, spoke at the opening:
“We’re delighted to be opening Phase One of a truly world-class training facility – an asset that will benefit this and future generations of cricketers across Ireland.”
“The design of this facility has been developed through significant research of the world’s best cricket training facilities by our coaches and performance staff. Not only does this make the High Performance Centre leading-edge, but its co-location with the Sport Ireland Institute’s high performance gyms and testing facilities makes this the envy of cricketing nations around the world.”
“The growth of cricket in Ireland at all levels in the last 10 years – and Ireland’s elevation to Full Membership of the ICC – has highlighted our sport’s deficit in training infrastructure.”
“The new centre will provide Ireland-based players with high quality training and preparation, and will service the growing demand of multiple international and provincial teams, male and female, senior and junior – not to mention our national academy – all of whom are currently using club facilities which are already over-stretched accommodating our playing schedule, let alone training needs.”
Mr McCollum recognised the various funding and support partners that generously supported the development of this project to date.
“Firstly, we would like to thank the Irish Government and Sport Ireland for their ongoing support for cricket. Through both financial support and provision of a lease for the land here at the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus, we now have a dedicated home from which we can push our sport forward to new heights.”
“Secondly, we would like to thank our major funding partners, the International Cricket Council and Mr Denis O’Brien. Your financial contributions towards this project have ensured we have been able to bring our vision to fruition, and have placed Ireland amongst the best in world cricket.”
“Finally, in creating this outstanding facility I would like to thank Architect and Project Manager Ciaran Mac Mathuna, main contractors Clive Richardson Ltd, and Cricket Ireland official suppliers Notts Sport and Tildenet, who have all contributed to it.”
“Projects like this need both vision and a determination to make them happen, and we must recognise the dedicated work of Richard Holdsworth, Performance Director at Cricket Ireland, for creating the vision and overseeing the delivery of Phase One. Without that Richard’s ambition to create this world-class facility, we would not be here today.”
David Richardson, CEO of the International Cricket Council, said:
“The development of the Cricket Ireland High Performance Centre is another important milestone in Ireland’s impressive journey as a Member. It will provide significant support for the further progression of the sport and the development of young talent.”
“Creating a sustainable impact is one of our commitments to helping the game grow and the funding the ICC has provided for this project will afford the next generation of players a world class facility to cultivate their skills and progress as cricketers.”
Chairman of Sport Ireland, Kieran Mulvey, welcomed cricket to the growing number of sports with a presence on the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus:
“On behalf of Sport Ireland I am delighted to welcome Cricket Ireland to the Campus. This fine facility will help ensure Ireland’s top cricketers continue to produce fine performances on the international stage.”
“The location of the new practice facility is ideally suited for all of Cricket Ireland’s High Performance teams and staff utilise the excellent facilities and services of the Sport Ireland Institute.”
“Since attaining Full Membership of the International Cricket Council, Cricket Ireland have put in place ambitious plans to grow the game of cricket in Ireland and the development of these world class training facilities at the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus will assist this objective as the sport continues to go from strength to strength.”
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