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)
What a day Patsy,
ReplyDeleteYou must be over the moon & possibly exhausted at this stage (but im sure you're still going strong). what a performance by Olive, it was great to see on SKY, I can't believe RTE have no coverage on the Worlds.
Usain Bolt unstopable. Richard must be over the moon also.
well done again
Catriona
It was great to see the irish flag hosted high in the Berlin sky, and the silver medal around that tough, hard as nails, pocket rocket lady Oilve(Fantasic). Congratulations to her,her husband and family, coaches and training partners.
ReplyDeleteAs for the "Lighting Bolt" words fail me. The BBC showed the reactions of Denise Lewis, Colin Jackson and Micheal Johnston during the race. Micheal Johnston's face dumbfounded, shock, unbeleivable and gobsmacked.
Still 7 days to go, keep those athletes focused like you always do. Would be great to see Paul line up beside the Bolt in the 200m final. Good luck Patsy and good luck to the rest of the irish in Berlin, give us more days like today.
Well I hope the nails are well bitten off you now Patsy! An out of this world performance from Usain Bolt. Our own athletes Kieran Kay and Gerard gave an out of this Ireland performance to win their national categories on Sunday and myself and a few other finn valley runners ran the hills out of aranmore Island in the 5k on sunday.
ReplyDeleteShame on RTE.
Very well done to Olivia and good luck to the rest of the team for the coming week.Psyche them up Patsy!
Great job your doing patsy on keeping everyone at home up to date with whats going on. Makes some interesting reading. The TV only shows you so much and its great to be able to hear from the horses mouth what exactly is going on both on and off the track. Looking forward to more. Oh had couldn't not give Bolt a mention..what a man.
ReplyDeleteAidan
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