TC Tuesday’s – Return of the Mac
It’s the return of Thomas Chamney on Tuesday again. Today he writes about the talented David McCarthy and his struggle for consistency. He’s set to run the 3,000m at the European Team Championships – the team will be officially announced tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 11am. McCarthy looks to reboot at
Bolt and AAI have work to do
This week’s action wasn’t as exciting as the previous one but it still left us with plenty of talking points. Bolt was beaten in Rome and the AAI empire have plenty of work to do if the European Team Championships are going to be a success judging by the AAI
Breaking Barriers on Road to Rieti
Cathal Dennehy’s feature this week is on in-form hurlder Sarah Lavin who broke Derval’ORourke’s national junior outdoor 100m Hurdles record twice last weekend. Cathal gives us a good insight into her character and her training to date. There’s a long way to go before she can come close to matching
Thursday Talk – Cullen’s Comeback Trail
Welcome to round two of Thursday Talk with myself and Thomas Chamney. In the second podcast we talk to Mary Cullen about her rollercoaster career to date. The Irish indoor 3,000m record holder (8:43.74) from Sligo has suffered 14 stress fractures in her running career and also suffered personal tragedy
Crowe in dream land for Oslo
Laura Crowe has been confirmed for the ExxonMobil Bislett Games in the Oslo Diamond League in the 800m on Thursday the 13th of June and she believes it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. “When I got the message through that I was in Oslo I didn’t believe it,” said
Gillick to add spice to celebrity masterchef
It’s a Thomas Chamney Tuesday today and here he has an article with David Gillick on his plans for the season and his upcoming starring role on RTE’s Celebrity Master Chef. The World Championships are out of the question on the tv schedule for RTE so we will have to
Crowe flies as Lawler shines brightest
It was an action packed weekend. Below is Jumping The Gun’s take and thoughts of the action Prefontaine: the start of Diamond League shining The Prefontaine meeting in Eugene, Oregon kick-started the Diamond league tour with some of the highlights being Mutaz Barshim of Qatar’s 2.40m leap in the high
Robinson set for Marseille in action packed weekend
It promises to be an exciting weekend of athletics with Paul Robinson kicking it off today looking for an A standard in a 1500m race in Marseille. Here is a link to the startlist: http://scomarseille.athle.com/asp.net/espaces.html/html.aspx?id=24754 Steven Colvert races over 200m in Geneva tomorrow and he has a target time of
Robinson ready for gold
Paul Robinson, Kildare’s new distance sensation, spoke to jumpingthegun.ie in the first podcast with co-anchors Feidhlim Kelly and Thomas Chamney. Robinson talks about his coaching and training as he eyes up a World ‘A’ standard in Marseille tomorrow. We also discuss the recent goings on in Irish and World athletics.
A tribute to Con Houlihan
I still think about Con Houlihan every morning when I wake up. It is morning – well, mid-morning – as I start to write this column. This used to be the customary start of our daily ritual of tea and toast and Sky Sports News on mute. Frank Greally introduced
Reflections on Con Houlihan
“The pony express always comes through,” Con Houlihan would often say with a wry smile after we finished a newspaper column. I unwittingly joined the pony express in Martin Street in the Winter of 2007. I was 24 when I walked through the door of Con’s house for the first
Tracking progress of Irish athletes
Irish distance running has hit a few bum notes since the glorious ’80s. So can a classical musician who specialised in the French horn put the wind back in our endurance stars? And can a landmark move to professional coaching help build on the recent promise shown by Fionnuala Britton

Brilliant Bekele batters field
Kenenisa Bekele’s star quality was able to pierce through a blustery crosswind at the Spar Great Ireland Run 10km in the Phoenix Park yesterday. The Ethiopian retained his title in 28:51 and now has his sights set on qualifying for the World Track and Field Championships in Moscow in August.

Britton braced to spur Irish
The Irish women’s European Cross-Country winning team will be amongst the medal favourites in the 40th edition of the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships in snow-swept Bydgoszcz, Poland tomorrow. With Fionnuala Britton merging the gap to world-class level by the month, as evidenced by her fine European indoor bronze medal over

Champion Tobin finishes on a high
“I couldn’t leave that one go,” admitted senior boy’s winner Sean Tobin of his last chance at glory in Saturday’s Aviva All-Ireland Schools’ and Universities’ Cross Country Championships at University of Ulster, Jordanstown. Finishing second last year in an exciting duel with CBC Monkstown’s Kevin Dooney, the High School Clonmel