yeh there's a good few cross overs from other disciplines like rowing, BMX & swimming into the track program, the SKY cheque book is certainly a big factor
I was watching it over the weekend .... did you see the legs on some of the girls? Bloody hell they'd have no problem swopping codes to Rugby if they wanted ..... the expressions "brick****houses" springs to mind!
exceptional.
now think on this while you look at the Brits and their fancy gear and their excellent taste in Flag colours.
Nicholas Roche gets paid about â¬300k a year at the moment riding for his team..don't get me wrong he derves that, hes earned it.
the Irish Sports Council and CI gives him â¬20,000 for Carding.
Now my point is, does he need that â¬20,000, I don't think so.
But theres no BMX track in the whole country and theres an Olympics happening 1 hour away by air.
and we also could get no money for the Euro Champs but hey..lets all pay our universal social charge so people who already have money can have some more !!
my apologies for hyjacking but every time I look at the Brits and their efforts I get really really pissed off at ours !!
I agree entirely Richie! The interesting thing about the Brits is that somebody in power sat down and actually thought the thing through .... they decided that there was no point focusing their efforts on mainstream sports where the Americans etc dominate but rather on slightly obscure sports where the competition is not quite as intense! Thus the Brits are now tops in Track Cycling, Rowing and a few others! This sort of focus has actually worked quite well for Ireland in the amateur boxing arena but everywhere else we "faff around" making up the numbers!
I cannot understand the lack of BMX tracks..they are simple, great fun and as safe as any other arena.
I have always been amazed by the lack of vision needed to get us into the world scene.
We are not short of land, builders or willing volunteers.
The whole "doing anything" process is just made so hard in this country, right now the planning hoops that need to be jumped through to get Ratoath BMX up and running is a nightmare, you'd think they would have a view "here something decent going on lets help it" but no its the usuall applicatiion process that takes 12 weeks with 4 weeks delays to review the entrance etc, etc, but we got 7k from Meath CC provided we tell everyone! Compare that to what gets spent across the sea even on a per capita basis we are not at the races.
absolutely right Eamo..really difficult to do anything good and useful in this kip. I bet even if you had the money sitting there it would be a nightmare to get it built.
And that reminds me !
Look at Luglass, held up due to red tape ! Probably never open because some ****kicker objects to it !!
But we have a big metal spike in the Middle of O Connell street that cost what ? â¬3 Million !
Here a vid of Caroline Buchannan (Ausi powder puff) riding a supercross track in her team mates back garden. I'll bet planning permission wasn't an issue!