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Osaka Diary Number 12 (Final diary).
We are in the in the final days here and it's Saturday 10:45pm. Just
done a report with Kenny Harkin on Highland; it's brilliant to be able
to share your thoughts via local radio.
Was at a function for the athletes hosted by
SPAR just now and caught a taxi back. Met with SPAR yesterday, myself and
Max Jones and outlined our thoughts about their support for AAI.
We will bring this forward on return to Ireland.
Walk races was the
order of the day today and yesterday. Olive Loughnane battled well for
17th. I talked at length to her afterwards.
Then a 4:30am start this morning to get it together for 50k men; start time
7am.
52 starters and eventually 30 finishers in a race of attrition won
by an Australian who cried those other tears --- tears of joy.
Colin Griffin d.q. and Jamie Costin collapsed at 42 k with cramp. Deal with
that as the man says. We did and life will move on.
Had welcome
emails from former club athletes Anthony Dunne now married with a
family in Cork, wishing me well. Anthony was a great athlete 14m plus
in the Triple Jump and would never let you down. Really delighted to hear from
him.
Also from Australia Manus O Donnell from Perth doing really well married
with a family. Manus was one of our first impact medal winning
athletes at underage and his father Manus was very active in the early
days. He was telling me he brings his child to Little Athletics in
Perth, carrying on the tradition.
Doing this diary has been a positive experience for me and it has been
well received.
It's been the best championship performance ever by an
Irish squad. The reality now is that there will be heightened
expectations come Beijing. How we handle that and meet the challenge is
next up.
Said good-bye to Pierce O Callaghan he is off back to
Lausanne in the morning where he works for the EAA.
A lie on
tomorrow but whatever it is I am up early and fresh as a daisy each day.
Had a number of emails from Teresa Mc Daid updating me on RTE
coverage. Very important as you can imagine.
I will close
with the message that the Japanese are the friendliest and most polite
people I have ever encountered in 15 years of international travel in
pursuit of athletics endeavour.
Thank you for sharing the experience
with me.
I'll be back in Dublin 1820 hrs Tuesday.
Final good luck to all
associated with the Half-marathon. Waiting patiently to hear how it
goes.
As you can see elsewhere have sent and posted the detail of Schools
Athletics for October 2nd and 3rd.
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