World Long-Distance Championships
Forum Messages
| Author | Date | Message |
|---|---|---|
| Bernard Fortune | Sep 18 2015, 10:44pm | Before the committee go their separate ways,please do us all a favour and end this high performance madness and team selection process,very AAI looking to us ordinary runners.Extreemly unfair and running IMRA into the gutter in the win at all cost policies.Enough is enough. |
| Gerry Brady | Sep 18 2015, 11:53pm | Bernard Just saw your posting now. I don't understand it, Can you explain a bit more, thanks. Well done last weekend. The selection of teams for the European and World championships is an Athletics Ireland responsibility delegated to IMRA. We use lower selection standards than AAI use but that has been accepted by AAI. |
| Bernard Fortune | Sep 19 2015, 10:44pm | I will do my best to explain what I mean and will get no satisfaction from having to do this in public but feel I have no choice.I await other members input for or against my opinion.I don't want to get personal,its running Im intrested in.No 1 The World Championship came to our doorstep today,and what did we do?How did we represent IMRA?We sent one team.What does that say to the WMRA?We cant be bothered or is it we have such high standards we don't have athletes good enough,we need to be some percentage of the winners time.NO 2 The Irish Champions are hung out to dry again and given a carrot to keep them quiet.NO 3 Give Munster back their team selector asap. this should never have been taken away.An all Dublin team is unfair.NO 4 Trial race numbers plummeted in the last sevral years pretty much since you started this high performance business NO 5 The performance of the decade in my opinion in Ireland went pretty much unnoticed when the winner of Carrauntohil by 11 minutes was given a run a Snowdon instead of being head hunted for a World Champs.Think I will leave it there for tonight but may go on if need to.I would thing that high performance was knocked on its head last weekend in World Masters when a motley crew of athletes with scarcely a singlet per person and three Irish track suit tops between 20 took home 15 team medals and a silver and bronze individual one.History was made. |
| Paul Smyth | Sep 19 2015, 11:16pm | Bernard, I am in complete agreement with you. |
| Gerry Brady | Sep 19 2015, 11:30pm | We are not operating a one from each province selection, they can all be brothers or sisters if they are the best runners we have. I don't understand your point about the Carrauntoohil winner. He was not available for selection for the Worlds so how could he be selected? Have you spoken with him? Can you answer this specific question Bernard - did you ask Tim if he was approached regarding running for Ireland in the 2014 World championships? The masters results are here: https://www.imra.ie/events/report/id/1307/ You can only beat the guys who are at the starting line and the Masters performances are very welcome but there is a reality check there as well when you analyse the number of teams in each race. The seven runners today were not all from Dublin - I think two are. Who else should have been selected for the junior and women's teams? At an AGM back around 2008, the membership set a goal of getting teams into the top 10 or better and that is what we have been trying to do. Would you set any performance standards for representing your country? |
| Gerry Brady | Sep 19 2015, 11:43pm | p.s. Regarding the gear for the Irish masters, I have gotten gear for many masters over the last seven years, including giving my own gear, but a necessary pre-requisite is that they let me know they are looking for gear. One runner this year asked for gear in sufficient time and he received it. A vague email with no numbers or sizes four days before travelling to the race on this occasion was too little too late as the persons in charge of the gear were away. I had to take 90 minutes off work on Thursday this week to get gear and bring it to the airport. |
| Mick Byrne1972 | Sep 20 2015, 9:28am | Completed agree with what Bernard said. The Leinster and Irish champions from the respective leagues and the runner up should be automatically given a team spot at European and world championships. After all they have shown they are committed to mountain running by week in week out turning up to represent the association.all runners taking part in trial races should have a attended a certain amount of Leinster and Irish championship races in that calender year. Surely that should be a minimum requirement. Having been involved in coaching squads for many years high performance only works when you have a group of committed athletes focused solely on the event they are competing in. The trials system is flawed In that it takes results on a one race basis and ignores the committed and loyal Imra athletes. |
| Gerry Brady | Sep 20 2015, 11:29am | Quote “high performance only works when you have a group of committed athletes focused solely on the event they are competing in†I agree completely with you on this quote Mick but the World championships courses are completely different to Irish and provincial championships and hence for me the quote is in conflict with the rest of your proposals. Bernard ran in Wales so can he can tell us how the course compares or contrasts with Carrauntoohil. Similarly you are not going to prepare someone for the 400m hurdles by getting them to run the steeplechase. |
| Brendan Lawlor | Sep 20 2015, 11:53am | Hi Bernard Thank you for starting what is a long overdue review of the International end of the association. Hopefully the debate will be constructive and next years committee can take on board any conclusions. Most people who are members of IMRA aren't too bothered about what happens with the Irish teams. However a considerable percentage of IMRA's income goes into supporting these teams so everyone probably should pay more heed to what is going on. We have remarkable things happening in the Ultra and Masters end of our sport now in Ireland and perhaps its time we supported that more and stopped chasing the mythical top ten World or European finishes. I would much rather see IMRA regulars picked on these teams, putting in their best training, preparation and performance on the day and if we get a super individual or team result well thats a bonus Well done to all the Irish athletes and managers who traveled to Wales this weekend |
| Gerry Brady | Sep 20 2015, 12:48pm | Thanks Brendan, I welcome a review as well but a factual one. By sending smaller teams to the Worlds and Europeans and sending a team to the Trail World championships this year, IMRA has already started to move in the direction you suggested could be considered. |
| Richard Nunan | Sep 20 2015, 1:12pm | I read this as before the Committee part (which we haven't in a number of years) I would like to take a pop. This is very much a discussion of not even looking from the outside in. Its lack of coherent facts means it does need to be clarified across the board. As these facts are not correct and have now been brought to the forum. The high performance team have done a great job over the last 5 years that I have sat on the committee. We tried to come up with initiatives such as the Irish Champion being funded to take part in a race of their choice. To insure that they could pick a race that would suit there ability. Look forward to discussing it at the AGM. Bernard, Paul Mick, If you have a specific motion you would like to propose. Please provide it to the committee in advance of the AGM. You would need to attend incase any clarifications may be required in relation to the motion. Regards Richard We are all the time working, looking at athletes and the guys are holding badly attended Trials. Results that have been achieved over the last years are a measure of the success of how it currently functions. Such as the ladys Bronze medal , Sarah Mulligan in Snowden and now some good results in the masters. |
| Richard Nunan | Sep 20 2015, 1:12pm | I read this as before the Committee part (which we haven't in a number of years) I would like to take a pop. This is very much a discussion of not even looking from the outside in. Its lack of coherent facts means it does need to be clarified across the board. As these facts are not correct and have now been brought to the forum. The high performance team have done a great job over the last 5 years that I have sat on the committee. We tried to come up with initiatives such as the Irish Champion being funded to take part in a race of their choice. To insure that they could pick a race that would suit there ability. Look forward to discussing it at the AGM. Bernard, Paul Mick, If you have a specific motion you would like to propose. Please provide it to the committee in advance of the AGM. You would need to attend incase any clarifications may be required in relation to the motion. Regards Richard We are all the time working, looking at athletes and the guys are holding badly attended Trials. Results that have been achieved over the last years are a measure of the success of how it currently functions. Such as the ladys Bronze medal , Sarah Mulligan in Snowden and now some good results in the masters. |
| Brian Mac Mahon | Sep 21 2015, 3:09am | Very disappointing post by Bernard Fortune in my opinion without knowing the facts for example why Tim o donoghue did not run the world champs last year. I was fully aware of the numerous attempts Gerry made to bring TIm into the team. Since I got involved in the Irish team in 2008 Gerry has done tremendous work to promote high performance at an international senior level. High performance across senior cross country works on the same premise, getting the best athletes onto the start line. Sometimes that back fires but overall Gerry has done a better job than anyone in his position in my recent memory. I am aware of Douglas Barry's great efforts, but with the recent influx of Africans the event has truly gone global. Historically junior athletes have not progressed to senior level internationally so that's part of the reason juniors were not sent to the world champs. There has to be a balance between the money from league races that goes into high performance each year. Personally I hope Gerry stays in his position and keeps bringing high performance forward. |
| Tim Chapman | Sep 21 2015, 9:36am | I just read the document on the site and that was my first understanding of it. It's also a few years old so maybe it could do with an update. I also think for those of us outside of the loop the information on selection etc is limited. I'd love to see training camps for the top guys to help the bring each other along. I also think you have to take the risk on the young not staying around. If you don't give them a reason they won't for sure. This is the glamorous side of the sport people should be clamoring to get on the team. It shouldn't be as hard a task as Gerry appears to have reading the other thread. I'd look forward to an agm discussion to really help Gerry and his team take it to the next level whatever that maybe. |
| Tom Hogan | Sep 22 2015, 9:48pm | It looks like Gerry is in a situation where he can't win, from what I remember only 1 Junior was at the trial all of the others were under 17 and sent to the British and Irish. So if he goes looking for runners he'll be in the wrong and someone will find issue with who he picks and if he doesn't send a team again he's wrong. The issue of numbers at the trials is something that needs to be looked at but almost every country has their trial on a course similar to what they will face in the upcoming championship so lumping it in with an race already on the calendar wont work. Gerry and the rest of the lads with him have a thankless job and as Brian said I too hope he stays in the position. |
| Peter O'Farrell | Sep 23 2015, 1:29pm | I pretty much agree with all Tom had to say. Gerry Brady+team are doing a good job with the high performance and are following the current policy, to the letter. The question seems to be is that what IMRA wants? The place for the answer has to be the AGM, not the forum. As we are on the forum I would like to add my support to Gerry for his huge efforts in the job. The amount of hours and effort Gerry puts in are massive and if the AGM backs the current policy I would hope for more communication from the high performance team as to their selection decisions and their need for assistance. It isn't right for Gerry to be doing it all on his own, with better communication volunteers would be available to help with the likes of the course marking, the gardening, the recruitment of elite and sub-elite athletes and so on. In saying that it also isn’t right that committed athletes, such as Bernard, feel out of the loop. The selection decision making process could be explained better in the future. I have seen the amount of time, effort and money put into juniors over the years and very very few of them continue into the senior ranks. That doesn’t mean we abandon the juniors but it does mean that a more productive path to making senior athletes is to entice them in as adults from cross country or the road. Once again, one for the AGM. Should "the IMRA" decide that the current regime and policy are not working the AGM is the place to decide. @Brendan sending regular IMRA runners to international standard events is a complete waste of the money you think is being overspent on the international front. The money/budget are to me a bit of a side issue anyway, IMRA should not be in the "business" of making money. If we have it we should spend it on athletes, juniors, equipment and tea+sambos for the masses, possibly not in that order but we should spend it! |
