Reid’s slow start proves costly, as Holloway sets new world record
Delegates will take firm line to prevent tarnished reputation
NORTHERN Ireland’s Leon Reid paid the price for a slowish start in his 60m semi-final at the World Athletics Indoor event in Madrid last night.
The Team Ireland athlete, who revealed earlier this week that he still suffers racial abuse in everyday life, finished sixth in a time of 6.74 seconds — still his third fastest ever — as Netherlands ace Joris van Gool clinched victory in 6.64 seconds.
In the women’s hurdles, Ireland’s Sara Lavin proved she is in the form of her life after a lengthy injury.
She set a personal best of 8.14 seconds in her semi-final and followed up with a superb third place in the final with another PB of 8.13 seconds.
This places her second in the Irish all-time list behind Derval O’rourke.
The event was won by Nadine Visser in a world-leading and PB time of 7.81 seconds.
In the 800m, former Irish record holder Nadia Power ended a superb season with third place behind hot favourite Habitam Alemu of Ethiopia, who set a meeting record of one minute, 58.94 seconds.
Power’s time of 2.01.55 would have been an Irish record at the start of the season, but has since been overtaken by Power herself and new record holder Siofra Cleirgh Buttner (2.00.58).
Power had the consolation of finishing joint second in the World Tour standings with 10 points, behind winner Alemu.
Ireland’s Louise Shanahan finished fourth behind Power in 2.05.62.
Meanwhile, America’s Grant Holloway set a new world record with new indoor figures of 7.29 seconds in the 60m hurdles, which broke the record set by
Colin Jackson back in 1994.
Holloway had already threatened the record earlier this season when he recorded 7.32 seconds.
He will now start favourite for the 110m outdoor hurdles title in this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
GB’S Andy Pozzi ran 7.51 seconds for second place.
ON foot of the GAA having announced a record annual loss of €34m (£29.2m) for 2020, some 37 motions have been tabled for a first-ever remote Annual Congress embracing Saturday and Sunday.
While some motions pertaining to the restructuring of the All-ireland Football Championship have been deferred until a possible in-person Special Congress in the autumn, delegates will nonetheless still be confronted by a busy schedule this weekend.
Saturday’s agenda includes the possible introduction of the sin bin in hurling, the split season, allowing just one captain rather than joint captains to receive a cup and limiting senior Club Championships to 16 teams.
The drive to combat the increasing incidence of cynical play in hurling is expected to be taken a stage further when delegates vote on a motion that calls for cynical fouling committed by a defending player anywhere within the 20m line and semi-circle that denies a goalscoring opportunity to result in a sin bin for the offending player and a penalty puck.
Concerns have been expressed of late over what is viewed as growing cynicism in hurling, with some of last year’s top-flight games having been blighted by this unwelcome trait.
While there is a school of thought that the rules of hurling should remain unchanged, there is an even greater volume of opinion that would suggest the sport’s reputation is being tarnished and certain rules require amending.
In relation to the split season, the delegates, in essence, will be voting on whether All-ireland finals in both football and hurling should be played on or before the 29th Sunday in the year, which is mid-july. The remainder of the year would then be freed for club action.
There is a stipulation to allow Central Council to make other arrangements in ‘exceptional circumstances’. This clause would likely be used while the coronavirus pandemic is ongoing.
The success of the split season in 2020 has pointed the way for the GAA going forward. Club Championships will now enjoy full, uninterrupted seasons.
Should this motion pass, the ‘county first’ approach is expected to become a fixed feature of the GAA’S annual fixtures calendar.
Indeed, as counties will by and large be represented by their chairmen at Congress, there is an expectation that there will be strong backing in favour of inter-county action launching future seasons.
But some county chairmen are understood to occupy the middle ground right now as the waiting continues for the green light to be given to the 2021 playing season.
Tyrone chairman Michael Kerr, for one, outlines what he feels might prove a more manageable formula going forward.
“If it is deemed safe for both club and inter-county action to start at around the same time, it is probably better to start with clubs. They can play in midweek and at weekends and get their fixtures programmes completed more speedily because of this,” pointed out Kerr.
“When we go into the September-october period, most clubs do not have the facilities to host floodlit matches. We accept that we are facing a condensed season this year again and we have to get fixtures played as quickly as possible.”
There would appear to be a growing demand for the lead-in period to the start of inter-county action this year to be extended from four to six weeks, but this could impact on the overall fixtures list in the long run.
A number of team managers believe that four weeks might not prove sufficiently long to allow players to achieve peak fitness for what is likely to be a hugely concentrated spell of high-octane matches.
‘We have toget fixtures played as quickly as possible’