With 138 days to go to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the squad of 46 athletes from 10 sports has gathered in Limerick for the latest Renault Ireland Team 2012 Training Camp. 

Medal target

The official target for the 2012 Irish Paralympic Team is to win five medals in London, including three gold. The team are on track to achieve that with five current world champions across eight events likely to be included in the travelling Irish Team, announced on 28 June.  

Current Irish world champions, all of whom are at camp, include:

• Catherine Walsh/Fran Meehan (cycling – Track 3km pursuit)
• Mark Rohan (handcycling – Road Race & Time Trial)
• Colin Lynch (cycling – Track 4km Pursuit & Road Time Trial)
• Michael McKillop (athletics – 800m & 1500m)
• Catherine O’Neill (athletics – Discus)

Focus

Liam Harbison, Chef de Mission for the Irish Team, detects a distinct change of emphasis:

“With 138 days to go, and team selection due in June, the pressure is on the athletes to secure their place for London 2012.”

“The focus of this four-day camp is very much on enhancing all aspects of performance and to give the athletes every support to reach their potential.  As always, the welcome in Limerick has been top class and we look forward to our final visit in August before the Games.”

Westmeath’s World Handcycling Champion, Mark Rohan (pictured above) agreed:

“These camps are essential in our preparation as a team for London 2012. Moulding athletes from 10 sports into one team is a difficult task, but this should help to bring us success at the Games. The sports science and medical support is excellent and gives us all we need as athletes.”

Team announcement 

The Irish Paralympic Team will be formally announced on Thursday 28 June in Dublin, just before the start of the first ever Paralympics Ireland Training Camp held in Northern Ireland (28 June – 1 July).

Today in Dublin, Cadbury announced their appointment as ”Official Treat Provider” to the Irish Olympic and Paralympic teams for London 2012.

Catherine Walsh – brand ambassador

As part of the launch at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Cadbury also unveiled their “Cadbury Ambassador Athletes” for the Games. World champion paracyclist, Catherine Walsh (right) joined Irish Olympic athletes, Paul Hession and Grainne Murphy in promoting the group. All three spoke about their pride in representing Ireland in London and gave an insight into their preparation and training.

Cadbury will work closely with Catherine, Paul and Grainne over the coming months to raise the profile of all three athletes themselves. They’ll also look to drive public pride and support for all Irish Olympic and Paralympic athletes competing at the Games.

The Games – an Irish experience

Cadbury will also roll out a number of exciting initiatives over the coming weeks to enhance the Irish experience of the Games. These include their largest ever in-store promotion, ‘Unwrap Gold’ - giving the Irish public the chance to win hundreds of golden vouchers to the Games, hidden inside the wrappers of Cadbury Dairy Milk bars.

“Delighted and proud”

Speaking at the launch, Brian O’Sullivan, MD, Kraft Foods Ireland, said: “Cadbury, as one of Ireland’s best loved brands, is delighted and proud to launch this sponsorship.”

“As a company with a large Irish manufacturing base and heritage here we are fully behind each and every Irish athlete taking part in the Games and immensely proud to play a role in their journey to London 2012.”

Liam Harbison, CEO, Paralympics Ireland, added in turn: “We are delighted that Cadbury is partnering with the 2012 Irish Paralympic Team towards this Summer’s “home Games”.

“Their support is of huge help, not just to Paralympic athletes like Catherine Walsh who are targeting the podium in London, but also in building the greatest-ever public support for the team”

2012 and beyond

In addition to helping Irish Paralympic athletes prepare for London 2012, Cadbury will also play a key role in assisting our efforts to unearth Ireland’s Paralympians of the future.

We’ll announce details soon of our biggest-ever talent search event (taking place after the Games) and we’re thrilled that Cadbury will support such an exciting event.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) today announced that Ireland has been awarded an unprecedented seven cycling slots for the London 2012 Paralympic Games (five men’s and two women’s).

Championship success

Irish Paracycling squad manager Denis Toomey explained that the team’s exploits at both the 2011 UCI World Paracycling Road Championships in Denmark and last month’s World Track Championships in Los Angeles, pushed Ireland to 11th place in the Combined Nations Ranking List and on to a record seven slots.

To put this in context, Ireland secured one cycling slot for the 2004 Games in Athens and four for the 2008 Games in Beijing. Speaking after the announcement, Paralympic Performance Director, Nancy Chillingworth was delighted:

“Paracycling is a perfect example of the “three-Games pathway” for Paralympic sport in Ireland.”

“At their first Games in Athens they qualified one bike and the target was Games experience. They then progressed to Beijing where they qualified four bikes and targeted finals. They are now at their third Games having qualified seven bikes and with three world champions across five events.”.

“This is a phenomenal progression and testament to both the calibre of elite athletes and support staff”.

Preparations for London 2012

The squad now face a busy five months in which they’ll look to maintain peak fitness up to the Games in August. 

They will base their track preparation at the Palma Arena Velodrome in Majorca which provided a huge boost to their preparations for last month’s Track World Championships.  The road preparation will revolve around the 2012 UCI Paracycling Road World Cup Series with races in Rome in May and Segovia , Spain in June. They will also compete in the National TT Championships in Clonmel.

The squad is well placed to bring back the first ever Irish cycling medals from the Games. We wish them luck!