The dust has settled on the third European Games that took place over the last few weeks in Poland and we’re happy to report that Ireland had a pretty successful Games. The European Games is an odd collection of sports with some being the equivalent of European Championships, some being Olympic qualifiers, others just happy to be involved in a multi-sport games and others that are brand new to the Olympic movement. In contrast to the competing “European Championships” last year, there was no broadcast coverage in Ireland but every even was streamed live. We’ll focus on Irish involvement as we review the Games here.
Boxing
30 June 2023; Jack Marley of Ireland celebrates after his victory over Enmanuel Reyes of Spain in their Men's 92kg semi final bout at the Nowy Targ Arena during the European Games 2023 in Krakow, Poland. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Boxing is our most successful international sport and that continued in Poland. It has been an ever-present at the European Games with the 2019 men’s events, but not the women’ events, in 2019 also counting as the European Championships. The 2023 tournament doubled as the European Olympic qualifier with 4 spots available for most weight classes, with 2 for the remainder.
The primary goal was Olympic qualification and 5 boxers achieved that from the 12 who entered. Tokyo Champion Kellie Harrington won gold to complete her own personal set and she was joined on the top step of the podium by Roscommon’s Aoife O’Rourke. Michaela Walsh made up a trio of women who qualified for their second Olympic Games. Daina Moorhouse and Jennifer Lehane were one win away from Olympic qualification but both lost out to eventual finalists. Perhaps the only disappointment is former World and European champion Amy Broadhurst who lost to Rosie Eccles of GB in the quarter final. Broadhurst seemed devastated after the loss and talked about that potentially being her last fight in the amateur ranks.
Heavyweight Jack Marley needed to reach the final to qualify for the Olympics and he performed brilliantly throughout the week to do so. He’ll be joined in Paris by Dean Clancy who built on his excellent youth career with a Bronze medal here to seal his Olympic spot at the first time of asking. Light heavyweight Kelyn Cassidy came very close to beating the eventual champion Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine in the quarter final. Khyzhniak won silver in Tokyo but Cassidy pushed him all the way. He’ll be confident now about the remaining events. Jude Gallagher may feel hard done by the draw. The featherweight was beaten by the Cuban-born Javie Ibanez of Bulgaria in the first round, but Ibanez went on to win gold. Dean Walsh and Sean Mari completed the Irish line up in Poland.
Only two countries bettered Ireland’s medal and Olympic quota haul at the Games.
Kickboxing
30 June 2023; Amy Wall of Ireland, right, embraces Francesca Prescimone of Netherlands after her victory in their Kickboxing Women's Full Contact 60kg Quarter final bout at the Myslenice Arena during the European Games 2023 in Poland. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
A new sport under the Olympic umbrella and its inclusion was good news for Ireland’s medal tally. Amy Wall, a 23-year-old teacher from Bray, came into the championships as favourite having won the WAKO World Championships and she duly obliged with gold in the full contact 60kg event. She led a team of five medalists with Nathan Tait (74kg) and Conor McGlinchey (84kg) both winning silver in the pointfighting events.
Jodie Browne (70kg – pointfighting) and Nicole Bannon (60kg light contact) won bronze medals and the movement for Kickboxing, under the WAKO international organisation, moved on significantly. A total of 18 countries won medals in kickboxing with 10 of them winning at least one of the 16 gold medals on offer. Ireland finished 5th in the kickboxing medal table.
Rugby Sevens
Ireland Men's sevens team will be joining the women's team at the Paris Olympics next year 🍀
They beat Great Britain 26-12 in the final of European Games to ensure their place 🔥
Unbelievable stuff!! pic.twitter.com/BvhUvQdDt1— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) June 27, 2023
The Ireland Women’s Team weren’t allowed compete in Poland as the event was there as an Olympic qualifier and they had already qualified virtue of their excellent season in the World Series. The men’s team, hoping for a second Olympic trip in three years, entered the tournament as favourites for gold and that vital Olympic spot.
Ireland were made to fight hard by Germany in the final pool game but cruised past Belgium and Portugal to set up the expected final against Great Britain. First half (converted) tries by Billy Dardis and Terry Kennedy gave Ireland a 14-7 half time lead. The second half was a battle until two late Jordan Conroy tries sealed the win for Ireland. It qualified 12 Olympic quotas for Ireland who will now bring the maximum 24 rugby players to Paris.
Taekwondo
The first day of Taekwondo was a success for Ireland as Olympian Jack Woolley beat opponents from Sweden, Britain and Italy on the way to a final against Adrian Vicente of Spain. These two are very tightly matched with Woolley winning their last match but Vicente being one place ahead of him in the world rankings and a medal winner at the 2023 World Championships. So it proved again in the final with Woolley taking the opening round before Vincente recovered to win the second and third rounds. A fine silver medal for Woolley though who is still well placed to qualify for Paris.
Ireland’s second competitor, Leroy Dilandu, was competing in his first multi-sport event and had the misfortune to be drawn against the eventual winner, Zurab Kintsurashvili of Georgia, in round one. In the repechage, he faced 2022 World Champion Daniel Queseda of Spain, who went on to win bronze here. Two extremely tough fights for anyone but an experience that will no doubt stand to him.
Athletics
21 June 2023; Sarah Lavin of Ireland celebrates after winning the womens 100m hurdles at the Silesian Stadium during the European Games 2023 in Chorzow, Poland. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Athletics at the European Games took the form of the European Team Championships. As Ireland missed last year, we were required to compete in Division 3 in Poland. While the priority was for Ireland to be promoted, individual medals were on offer for the best 3 performances at each event over the 3 divisions. This led to some strange results with slower tactical middle-distance races in the top tier allowing runners from Division 2 and 3 sneak in. That wasn’t the case for our individual medalist as there was no holding back from anybody in the 100m hurdles and Sarah Lavin, winner in Division 3, earned her bronze medal. Lavin backed that up with Olympic qualification at the weekend.
Elsewhere the team performed brilliantly throughout and comfortably topped the table ahead of Austria and Israel. Individual winners included Mark Smyth (200m), Tom Barr (400m hurdles), Sean Mockler (hammer) on the men’s side and Sharlene Mawdesley (400m), Sophie O’Sullivan (1,500m) and Ruby Millett (Long Jump) on the women’s. The Games gave valuable experience to a lot of young Irish talents who all seemed to revel in the team atmosphere.
Badminton
A third outing for Badminton at the European Games with Ireland winning medals here in 2015 and 2019. Hopes were high that 4th ranked Nhat Nguyen could add to that but a surprise defeat in the pool stages to Dutchman Mark Caljouw forced Nhat to play the Olympic champion Victor Axelsen of Denmark in the last 16. Axelsen won easily and went on to claim gold.
Our Mixed Doubles team of Joshua Magee and Mora Ryan and our men’s doubles team of Magee and Paul Reynolds both lost out in the quarter finals to the eventual gold medal winners from Netherlands and Denmark respectively. Nguyen is on course for Olympic qualification.
Modern Pentathlon
There were 8 Olympic quotas up for grabs in modern pentathlon and Ireland sent 3 women to compete. Hanna D’Aughton and Isobel Radford Dodd exited after the qualification rounds but Sive Brassil made it through to the semi-finals. Brassil finished 8th at the 2022 European Championships but couldn’t repeat this year and didn’t progress to the final. She’s now likely waiting on the rankings of June 2024 to see if she’ll travel to her first Olympics.
Canoeing
Ireland sent a full team to the canoe slalom events with possible Olympic qualification ramifications. In the Men’s C1 event, Liam Jegou was our best paddler but he lost out in the semi finals. Ireland ranked as the 11th nation here and if the top 10 all qualify for the Olympics through the World Championships (very likely), Ireland will earn a quota. We may do it ourselves through the World Championships. We’re similarly placed in Men’s k1 (ranked 14th, with 15 spots available at the Worlds). In the women’s K1 we’re ranked 15th with 15 spots available but there’s a great geographic spread there so that position may have to be earned at the Worlds in September. The men’s team finishing 10th in C1 was our best overall result.
In the sprint events, Jenny Egan once again competed at 500m despite her speciality being in the 5km-marathon events (not available at European Games).
Diving
There might not have been any medals for the 3 person Irish diving team but there was 4 top 10 placings including 3 in the individual Olympic events. Ciara McGing was 6th in the 10m platform event which augers well for Olympic qualification later this year. The Olympic spots are based on results in the World Championships in Japan.
The 3m synchronised pair of Clare Cryan and Jake Passmore also finished 6th in the doubles event. Passmore, a world junior medalist last year, finished 10th in his first senior competition. Cryan was also 10th in her own individual 3m event. An exciting time for Irish diving. These championships doubles as the European Championships so the cream of European diving were present.
Triathlon
Young Erin McConnell was our best individual performer in Triathlon and she ended up in 27th place from 47 starters. James Edgar was top man in 41st. The team, with Olympian Carolyn Hayes making a comeback, finished in 14th place in the relay. McConnell, and others, will need a big year if they’re to qualify for Paris.
Shooting
Ireland sent two shooters to the European Games. Aoife Gormally finished 18th overall with a sup-bar opening day costing her a chance at finals qualification. Ranked inside the world’s top 30, she is our best shot at Olympic qualification, but events are running out. Jack Fairclough, a recent transfer from GB, finished 29th in a very competitive qualification in the skeet event. His 118 score was only 4 away from the top 8 (and meant he only missed 7 targets over 125 shots).
Cycling
Chris Dawson represented Ireland in the cross-country event and he finished a respectable 39th overall. Ireland was the 15th nation home from multiple riders from the big nations are removed.
In BMX park, European finalist Ryan Henderson was disappointed with his 22nd place finish in qualification. He’s still recovering from the broken arm suffered during the World Championships.
Archery
Ireland competed at every Olympics between 1976 and 1996 in Archery but haven’t appeared since. In the Recurve events in Poland, our archers finished last (Oskar Ronan) and second last (Emma Davis). The mixed team finished 25th out of 25 nations. We won’t be in Paris next year.
Fencing
Ireland has competed at 8 Olympics in fencing with 2008 being our most recent. The individuals - Jadryn Dick in Sabre and Giacomo Patrick Pietrobelli - both lost in the first round but the sabre team did beat Slovenia on the way to a 14th place finish. We won’t be troubling any Olympic qualifiers but a great experience for the team.
Padel
A new sport for the European Games and a new sport for most Irish people too. Padel is a tennis-like game. Our women’s double of Susan McRann and Jennifer Claffey lost their opening game to a team from Germany. Then men’s double of Sean Neave and Sam McKibbin beat the Albanian representatives before losing to the number 5 seeds Afonso Fazendeiro and Miguel Oliviera from Portugal in the last 16. The Portuguese team would go on to win bronze here.
So that’s the lot. An exciting two weeks of sporting action in some established sports and some emerging sports. Ireland ended up with 13 medals – 4 gold – from 5 different sports and earned 17 Olympic quotas (12 in rugby sevens, 5 in boxing) with plenty of young stars getting vital experience too. All in all, a successive games for Team Ireland.
