Berlin - The End

All over done and dusted. Day 9, a Sunday, a beautiful day, once again an entrralling list of events and now gather up the troops and head for home Monday mid day. Bolt is again the star of the championships and his small country Jamaica picking up 7 gold medals . It was an exciting week on the global stage and on the Irish stage as in short we medalled, had national record, etc Have great hopes and expectations going forward to European champs. in Barcelona next July. What affect will this have on our sport back at home? Hopefully more youngsters coming along to have a go. At local level it's cross country, really enjoyable family days out, team athletics and hopes for success at national level. That kicks off with the schools primary and post primary cross country at Finn Valley late September .

What of Ireland and their plans? Well new blood hopefully will qualify for the Europeans giving the squad a fresh look and in these times, I hate to use the word recessionary but will the support still remain to push our elite squad towards London 2010. The sport is healthy, has seriously talented young kids on board in numbers, so how we deal with them is the question . It takes years years of effort to produce a performance of a serious world level . Take the life of Olive Loughnane who will now be celebrated it was 15 years in the making .

We in Donegal as an organisation probably, no definately, need to focus on our strenghts and weakness and produce a plan and not just produce it, act on it to the benefit of the sport. Top of the list surely meaningful squads doing meaningful work on a regular basis.

John Kelly and Niall Wilkinson joined me yesterday in the warm up to monitor the javelin competitors get ready for the final . This would have provided them with a great boost both of them excellent local coaches back at home anxious to learn and an occassion like this should drive them on .

It's been a horrid year for me. I left Beijing full of energy and enthusiasm ready to impact and support a high performance system going forward. That came to a halt with internal difficulties within our sport at AAI Board level, so again as I leave here I wonder where the journey will take me, what progress can be made? etc. So many ideas, so much enthusiasm, but only time will tell . Berlin has been enjoyable, a success and I leave here tired but pleased with the job done and the attitude and reaction of this Irish squad. My thanks to them to those at home who have consistently supported me . Onwards now to new challenges.

Patsy mc Gonagle
Team Manager
Berlin 2009

(PLEASE reference www.finnvalleyac.com if you decide to use content from my diary. Thanks for your continued support)

Day 8 Berlin

Please rise for the Kenyan national anthem comes the announcement to a capacity crowd. The reason, a tiny girl Vivian Cheryiout whom you may remember running in the Finn Valley 5k in December Stephens day 2007. On that occasion she stayed for the Christmas with Kieran Carlin and trained in Drumboe Forest. She now is world champion running down another Kenyan and an Ethiopian in the final 80m. Vivian has been consistently supported by Richard Simms hence the special nature of this victory to the extent he flew her from Nairobi in early 2008 to London for medical treatment when she was diagnosed with malaria and the Kenyan federation were less than attentive to her medical condition.

One of the key aspects to emerge here has been the response of the German team and individuals with the serious support of the home crowd which has the knock on effect of creating a great atmosphere. Athletics is clearly still a family sport as I continually observe families having a great day out at this event in a relaxed non threatening atmosphere and so we have only one day left.

Jason Quigley s result has received national attention I note at home, well deserved. This competition preliminaries began here in Berlin and were completed in Poland I understand.

Patsy mc Gonagle
Team Manager
Berlin 2009

(PLEASE reference www.finnvalleyac.com if you decide to use content from my diary. Thanks for your continued support)

Day 7 Berlin

Straight to the bed at the end of day 7 putting this together as we head into the final days . Yesterday was always going to be about David Gillick in the 400m final an enormous achievment in itself the first Irish sprint athlete to find and work himself to this position in a world championship. The usual story headed off with him on the bus to warm up showed him a few texts that had come in from key people no talk he tuned into the music . Warm up begins and then the heavens open so its head for cover grab a bin bag from a friendly German volunteer cover up and try to figure it out . The programme is being re arranged a 40 minutes delay so we all move inside to an indoor area . Not a bother David stretches out on a towel and its our job to watch the programme update . Eventually its time to hit the road and he is ready blasts out finishes 6th you will have your opinion on that whether he went out too fast or not etc . First European and after all the hub with the press you get the chance of a few quiet words explain that other than the big 2 from U S going forward and its now about that going forward next year the Europeans in Barcelona the opportunity is there and beyond to London . He thanks me for the manner in which i have handled the previous days and the atmosphere that was created low key, relaxed, organised etc. not always easy but we had it bang on this time.

It's been a long day as we had two 50k walkers on early morning neither finished. I meet Greg Allen high in the stand at the media centre and we go straight into a lengthy interview for RTE radio about this championship the highs and lows the state of the sport and so on . Hopefully i handled okay. He is knowledgable about the sport cares about the sport so questions are good .

Athletes are leaving now i have just sen Derval Paul Olive and David off as they have a committment to Croke Park tomorrow at half time in the Tyrone-Cork game to acknowledge 125 years of the Gaa and the special historic relationship athletics and the Gaa enjoy . Its important to understand that the Gaa was founded by men who were predominately athletics people hence the Gaelic athletics Association . I had thought we should have acknowledged this at local level in Donegal something between the athletics and Gaa athletics Boards but the initiative does not seem to be there.

Anyhow its back home in a few days pick up the normal day to day stuff and hope that one daay we can qualify an athlete out of the area for a championship of this calibre . Is that likely not sure as there needs to be some sort of getting together on a more frequent basis of the best to train together to learn and to be motivated as isolation tends to lead to certainly limited progress . Training partners of a certain level are required to help develop the individual and in an area of very limited coaching expertise club coaches can be upskilled in such an environment .

I have been on the road with Irish teams since 1992 seen many come and go dealt with national teams at every conceivable level and i continue to be impressed by the desire and positive attitude of these young Irish . Yesterday John Treacy called to the team hotel to visit the team an appropriate person in charge of the Irish Sports council as a legend of this sport and he clearly cares . WE discussed possible cutback in the current climate of spend but this conversation mainly centred on retention of current support underlining the absolute fact that the ISC have been pro active in recent years in their support for the sport and every indication is that it just takes years to produce high performers and thus this week 3 athletes in top 6 in the world.
In parellel to these world athletic championships i have continually updated you on the progress of Jason Quigley in the European youths boxing here also in Berlin well the answer and i give you it word for word 'Patsy hes da european champ 6-1' from his father Conor who coaches him . I watch Jason train day on day at Finn Valley i monitor quietly his attitude and desire the approach of his Dad, mother and friends in the club as they look after all the kids its exemplary and i am delighted for not only Jason but them all . Watch this space in the years ahead as he endeavours to build on this .

Better hit the road again and sign off for now will sum up the final few days before my departure Monday for home via Derry .


Patsy Mc Gonagle
Chair High Performance
Athletics Ireland
0872226112
patsymcgonagle@hotmail.com

(PLEASE reference www.finnvalleyac.com if you decide to use content from my diary. Thanks for your continued support)

Day 6 Berlin

Where were you when Usain Bolt broke the world 200m record recording 19-19? Did I say broke, he shattered it, put it up there somewhere in the sky. I was in the warm up area watching it on a big screen sitting on the grass while 70,000 filled the stadium. It was simply unbelievable and as someone that has been present when he broke all the previous marks, this for me was momentous . I watched him leave the warm up area not a bother on him, I along with a hell of a lot of experts who know this game better than I do did not expect this. Simply the best.

Bad day for the Irish Thomas Chamney (pictured) who just told me he was sorry. I tried to turn it around immediately to give him to understand that when he learns how to race in a championship he will be okay and I have full confidence in him. Eileen O Keefee had a disaster, enough said on that, it's a shame from a girl that has the potential to join the world elite but I will leave it at that.

Alastair went out the back door in 5k, hard to figure out where he goes from here having competed poorly in recent championships. I nailed my support for him here in public so I was wandering around the warm up area feeling sorry for him and to an extent for myself when I got a text from Conor Quigley to tell me his son Jason had won his fight in Europeans youths 4-0 and now fights in final Saturday against a lad from Azaberjain. Good news at an important time for me .

I had watched many of the races in the warm up on big screen, better spot to relax, listen to the crowd next door and pick up and deal with your athlete on return from competition. I did head in to stadium to talk to recently arrived Kay Byrne and Teresa McGloin and tomorrow await the arrrival of John Kelly and Niall Wilkinson to catch remaining few days and in particular the mens javelin.

Irish interest ends tomorrow, a 6 am start out to the 50k walk and late in the evening the 400m final with David Gillick. A lot of talk about the gender of the 8oom winner, I actually feel sorry for the girl that the debate is ongoing in such a public manner here.

Patsy mc Gonagle
Team Manager
Berlin 2009

(PLEASE reference www.finnvalleyac.com if you decide to use content from my diary. Thanks for your continued support)

Day 5 Berlin

Wednesday morning . A morning off, so what do you do on a rarity like this? Of course you awaken early join the group as they breakfast, deal with a few guest passes, take a few calls re:media and sit down with Olive for a short period to discuss the impact her medal will have on her, her ability to deal with this and remain a serious world class athlete. We rattle around with that for a while and she is off out the door to train. Met with Robert Heffernan at breakfast, he wanted to spill out his personal thoughts on his disappointment but I stoped him, agreed to sit down later in the week. Deirdre Ryan is annoyed with me, I would imagine as I have not engaged with her at all after her failure in the high jump. I will leave her like that for a few days and then engage.

Had a coffee in the foyer and we were joined by Jessica Ennis, a lovely girl, really down to earth, delightful, great to see an uncomplicated athlete rise to the absolute pinnacle of the sport. Bumped into Paula Radcliffe in restaurant, so yes the answer would seem to be, she is going to have a lash at the marathon having won a half marathon in New york at the wekend. So the scene is set, I am on the road at 3-10 to track with David and we begin all over again.

Back after an exciting evening for the sport. Watched as Derval came through in semi at 12-73 after David Gillick drove a world class performance to 44-88 to find himself in the final on Friday. The relief, the joy was there for everyone to see as he returned to the warm up area to an enthusiastic response from the Irish contingent. The response from back at home was immediate it would seem everyone was tuned in to these three athletes this particular time and the BBC were doing the job we would expect RTE to do, namely cover the event and carry interviews. Paul was next up, I had expected him to make top four, it wasn't to be as he returned 20.48 for 6th, not enough. He would in fact have needed a new Irish record of 20.28 to make it and that wasn't there. I didn't hang around, headed to technical information centre to get Alistair's start list for tomorrow and was on my way back to the warm up area when I met Sean Cahill on his way to watch the hurdles final. Joined him but could never have imagined the outcome to be as it was to turn out. In lane 1 she is out like a gazelle and drives with an enormous belief over 10 hurdles to 4th, a new Irish record 12-67, a tremendous result and remembering she was the only European in the final won by a Jamaican. It was 1140 pm before myself, her coach Sean was to meet up with her, pretty much the stadium abandoned as she was in dope control. Caught a taxi, dropped Sean and Derval off. Coming up to midnight at McDonalds near the hotel and here I am catching up .

The general consenses is that this was a great return for Irish athletics. Somewhere in the middle of all this a further boxing result came in from Jason Quigley, a victory at 4-3 from an unrelated European championship elsewhere in Berlin and he fights in semi v Georgia tomorrow. There are so many positive young people out there as instanced in these results. It has to be emphasised that support for high performance and a return on same takes many many years . One wonders will we pull a large element of this support in these recessionary times, it would be such a disaster for this sport and sport in general if that were to happen . The core of and the fabric of society is underpinned by volunteers supporting and being enthused by sport leaving Ireland with an opportunity to join in international competition at this level the entire country buys into the exploits and are enthusiatic hence the need to continue to support same . London is just a few short years away and the European champs are in Barcelona in 2010.

Irish people were proud tonight and expressed that in their messages to us here in Berlin. It's great when you experience days like this, days when your sport grabs the headlines and you stay on the wave as long as is possible. Monday will come we will head home the headlines will return to gaelic football and we will look back and assess a period of competition that until now has been class.

And so the journey continues, Alister in 5k, Eileen in hammer and Thomas first up in the 800m is the interest tomorrow Thursday. Beyond the confines and the glamour of Berlin I must take a few minutes /hours to prepare the details for this years schools cross country at Finn Valley to have it ready to go when schools return. I leave you with a final question, it's not will Usain Bolt win the 200m tomorrow but will he break his own world record? My tuppenceworth is he will not, yes he will win, but he is beginning to look I nearly said human what I mean is tired . Let's see .

Patsy mc Gonagle
Team Manager
Berlin 2009

(PLEASE reference www.finnvalleyac.com if you decide to use content from my diary. Thanks for your continued support)

Day 4 Berlin

Tuesday Berlin at the end of a long and glorious day the three big hitters we had in action David Gillick,Paul Hession and Derval responded, the outcome at the end of this day is all three are in the semi final tomorrow. Now that's good news in a serious manner for Ireland. I begin the story of the day at 8am at breakfast. To tell the truth David got there before me, not a lot of talk on our way to track, met with Martin Rooney the British 400m runner and training partner of David at Loughborough Univ.. It's interesting to note that in Martins case his mother and father both Irish but he himself born in England. The first time he turned up at the airport some years ago to compete for U K he had to go home as he was carrying an Irish passport but they are rivals now and carrries a British passport.

So here we are at the blue warm up track that has become my home in recent days. First up is Galway medical student Paul Hession in the 200m - he does the business, pretty much gathers his gear and back to the hotel to re focus . Its 11am by now and David Gillick has an opportunity to get the monkey off his back that was Beijing where he bombed out in round 1. He does just that got up for qualification and now he needs to be more ascertive, to simply race isn't that what it's all about. When he returns tomorrow for the semi you know we humans can over complicate life get ourselves into all sorts of stressful situations and in a situation like this blow it. So it's back to hotel eat and rest, tomorrow brings another challenge and for a man that hates competing mornings he has coped admirably.

Blue track again its evening, it's Derval O Rourke, tough lady but can she hit it? THe answer thankfully is yes. Out with great determination and hits early hurdles in tandem with Mc Lennan ,Australia ,seasons best 13-86 best for years and we exchanged texts just in last few minutes her words 'Job done.Lots there' followed by 'Felt very easy.Happy with semi'. WE could be in business tomorrow night this upcoming morrow is becoming the new Tuesday.

I move then to Stadium having watched her race on big screen in warm up ,to meet Enda Doherty,Lurgybrack working here for Richard as is Grainne O Dea from Raphoe we are at finish line awaiting Paul Hesss return to track for 2nd round and here he comes he hits the bend as discussed and he is eating the ground, we are in semi . I always knew this young man would respond he is in addition to a star man tonight the team captain and somehow you know you can depend on him . Let's get out of here, get the work done by physios and re group in team hotel . I meet Sharon Bradley and her husband Miceal on way out here to celebrate their wedding anniversary and i end up taking photos of her with various olympic and world champions she surely has a album all of her own at this stage and more importantly is enjoying the event big time .

I need to update you on Richards tally to date 3 gold, a bronze and more to come . His man Bolt won the 'Grosse Duelle' as the Germans call his encounter with Gaye,Masia got up on the line to win 10k ,and Idowu won triple with a world lead tonight . Talked to him earlier with Mo Farah and Coach Mills the Jamaican trainer of Usain everything under control .

THe clock is sneaking past 1am Wednesday my roomate is asleep and I better put the head down because tomorrow is the new today and I need to be as sharp as can be cause one hopes this new day could be special. Good Night

One final thing before i wrap up good news on young Finn Valley abc boxer Jason Quigley here representing Ireland at another venue entirely in a European event beat the Romanian 7-0 then today winning 2-0 and in action tomorrow against Turkey .We wish him well .

Patsy Mc Gonagle
Team Manager
Berlin 2009

(PLEASE reference www.finnvalleyac.com if you decide to use content from my diary. Thanks for your continued support)

Day 2 Berlin

It's 5pm I am just in the door for 30minutes before heading to stadium . What a morning what a day the name is Olive Loughnane from Loughrea in Galway. Boy did she give us a roller coaster of a morning a silver medal a momentous result which she ground out with courage and the bravest performance I have seen at this level by an Irish athlete. Remember only Sonia and Gillian O Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan have medalled at this level ever, yes ever. She was calm as we boarded the bus went through warm up similarly and then under the gaze of the Brandeburg Gate they were off in the lead group as it broke out then 3 athletes led by the Russian hit the front and she with great determination pulled her group back into contention and the race was on she nener backed off and then with 4k to go you realised we could be in business here I headed for the finish area got inside the security. Nothing new in that and just ate my nails with absolute nerves as I waited. You have no idea how long a minute is its forever as the Russian had finished and Olive was out of my sight then here she comes the tricolours are evident. Stay calm Patsy, stay calm and she gets across the line. Now that's something her family members and there are many of them jump the barriers and throw her light frame in the air.

A silver medal a silver medal this is special. The phone is already beating the head of me with texts calls etc Brian Kerr whose team Faroe Islands nearly shocked France midweek in a world cup qualifier,John Treacy ,Stephen Martin hockey gold medalist Barcelona olympics ,Shane Bonner, Catriona Devine, Eamon Harvey,Teresa Mc Daid ,Bernie Alcorn,Ann Mc Gill ,Deirdre Byrne who had just that minute arrived at the airport in Berlin running in a few days and many many more the word was out Ireland have a world medalist .

Media scrum followed by a press conference and interestingly OlIve kept saying to me that she was shocked. So as we walked to press conference I told her forget shocked, the line is -- you came with one intention and one intention only to collect and battle for a medal. She gave them the answer very important as she is now in a world as London approaches that that is the norm the expectation. NO hopefully NO lets see etc. Then it's dope control and the phone is bouncing, everybody wants a piece of her including RTE who didn't send anyone out here to cover the event . I did the Highland Radio interview indeed had Olive lined up then with seconds to go she is whisked away into dope control.

Catch a courtesy car back to hotel and now here I am heading to stadium to link with a German STation who are going to link her into the 6 news at home . Very important because sitting there I explain you must milk the media you are the story today and to be fair she is calm is listening. Then we remember she has won 40,000 dollars as her prize. Nobody got all that excited when I say nobody there was only myself the doctor and herself the position the acheivment the main agenda of course the money is important but the status the achievment that's what you train for. In her case began when she went to secondary school at cross country and began walking at 20 yrs.

Right I am out the door heading for Stadium that interview and when I come back I will know and you will know how Mr Usain Bolt got on. Gotta go.

Patsy mc Gonagle
Team manager
Berlin 2009

(PLEASE reference www.finnvalleyac.com if you decide to use content from my diary. Thanks for your continued support)