Read more from Laura Butlers article in the Herald here.

Ireland V Wales, Rugby World Cup Quarter Final.

Earlier this week Heineken’s Rugby World Cup Ambassadors filmed a video in Dublin in the run up to the Australia game. Will Carling, Rob Henderson, Zinzan Brooke and Scott Quinnell were joined by Matt Burke via Skype and took a look at the first weekend of Rugby World Cup but more importantly they take an in-depth look ahead to Ireland’s game this weekend against Australia in Auckland. It was shot in Lost Society in Dublin last Monday (12^th Sept) and has some interesting insights into how Ireland can go about beating the Australians and ultimately top Pool C to give them a great chance of becoming the first Irish team to reach a world cup semi-final.

Irish Captain Brian O’Driscoll is delighted with the unexpected win over Australia as can be seen below in the first minute and a half of the video from the official Rugby World Cup daily highlights:

Heineken’s Rugby World Cup ambassadors Will Carling, Rob Henderson, Zinzan Brooke, Scott Quinnell and Matt Burke will be bringing Rugby World Cup news and predictions to Irish rugby fans throughout the tournament this September and October. Log on to Heineken.ie to get the latest.

Image Credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

It will be a busy first weekend with the following matches taking place:

Friday

• Tonga V New Zealand

Saturday

• France V Japan
• Scotland V Romania
• Argentina V England
• Fiji V Namibia

Sunday

• Ireland V USA
• Australia V Italy
• South Africa V Wales

See all of the fixtures here.

This is going to be a great few weeks of sport, the Rugby World Cup, many warm up friendly events and finally the World Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo

View more about the 2011 Rugby World Cup on the official website.

Ms Davis has responsibility for the development of the Special Olympics in 59 countries across Europe and Asia. Before being appointed MD and President, she was the CEO of Special Olympics Ireland and was also CEO of the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games which were held in Ireland. You can read more about Mary on her website.

To be appointed as a candidate in the Irish Presidential Campaign, candidates must be nominated by one of the following ways:

• Candidates must receive the backing of 20 members of the Oireachtas.
• Themselves (if they are a President still in office eligible to serve another 7 year term).
• Candidates must receive the support of at least 4 county councils.

On Thursday, Mary met the media of Ireland and discussed her views on how the next President should approach the role:

“In addition to building a new belief in what is possible at home, the next President must take a highly active role on the international stage.

“Today, the global community is sceptical about Ireland.  For Ireland, this has to change.”

“Ireland needs a strong advocate globally because Ireland has a strong story to tell – in Washington, in Brussels, in London, Paris and Berlin.  It has never been more important to ensure that the voice of our country is heard by those of influence, never more important to have as President a person who can bring the real story of Ireland to the wider world.”

“With direct responsibility for managing a programme across 58 countries I have worked with Governments and business. I have engaged with world leaders. I have sat across the table with the EU and negotiated a better future for people with disabilities.”

If she receives the nomination and is elected to the office in October, Mary hopes to be a “practical” President. You can read more about Mary’s campaign on her official website.

Sports Pro has released a list of athletes that they have named as the 50 most marketable. Athletes have been ranked according to their marketing potential over a three-year period. The 50 athletes, only five of whom are women,  were deemed to be most marketable by the offer value for marketing money if signed today to a long-term global endorsement deal. The Comprehensive commercial analysis of each and every athlete in the list, detailing their inclusion and explaining their ranking, is available in the June edition of SportsPro. You can purchase it through that link if you are interested.

Superstar Usain Bolt was named as the number one most marketable athlete on the list.

1. Usain Bolt
2. LeBron James
3. Cristiano Ronaldo
4. Lionel Messi
5. Lewis Hamilton
6. Carmelo Anthony
7. Sebastian Vettel
8. Michael Phelps
9. Caroline Wozniacki
10. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
11. Yao Ming
12. Jessica Ennis
13. Kobe Bryant
14. Shaun White
15. Dwyane Wade
16. Rafael Nadal
17. Neymar
18. Tom Brady
19. Liu Xiang
20. Manny Paquiao
21. Rory McIlroy
22. Maria Sharipova
23. Alex Ovechkin
24. Fernando Alonso
25. Albert Pujois

You can read the remaining top 25 most marketable athletes on Sports Pro.

If you were to make a list like this, who would you think would be the most marketable gymnasts?

We are all currently aware of Ireland’s current financial and political trouble. At the end of this week the country is set to go to the polls for possibly the most important General Election ever in the history of the State. The candidates have been on the campaign trail strongly for the past 3 weeks while their parties lay out their manifesto’s and promote why the public should vote for them to run the country.

Obviously, it is important to fix the country’s economy but different people also have different issues close to their hearts also such as the  Civil Partnership Act, abortion,  universal healthcare etc. Previously the Irish Sports Council made a submission to Mary Hanafin (the current / last government’s Minister for Sport) highlighting the importance of support and funding to sport in Ireland.  Website Irish Sport Matters has been keeping an eye on the manifestos that each of the main political parties (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Green Party and Sinn Fein) has released in the run up to the Election. Once the Dáil was dissolved, the Federation of Irish Sports began to liase with the parties and put the following questions to them:

1. Which of your parties policies and plans harness sport’s impact on health, the economy and quality of life?

2. Is your party committed to maintaining the current level of state investment in Irish sport over the life of the next government?

3. What proportion of National Lottery proceeds will your party earmark to fund sport?

Sinn Fein, Fine Gael and Labour all have opinions or have included the future of sport in their manifestos whilst the Green Party and Fianna Fáil made no provision in relation to sport in theirs. The Federation of Irish Sports is calling on those involved in sport to put these questions to the canvassing political parties, after all there are large number of people in Ireland involved in sport;

• 68 National Governing Bodies of Sport in Ireland including the GAA, IRFU & FAI, the Olympic Council of Ireland, the Paralympic Council of Ireland and Special Olympics Ireland
• 32 Local Sports Partnerships
• 1.7 million actively participate in Sport
• 270,000 adults who volunteer in sport each week
• 83% of primary school students who engage in sport outside school
• 64% of post primary pupils participate in sport outside school and millions of Irish people both at home and all the over world for whom Irish Sport Matters

I for one strongly agree that no more cuts should be made to sport and think that the question “Which of your parties policies and plans harness sport’s impact on health, the economy and quality of life?” is an excellent question for the Irish public to be putting to canvassers at their door. We are all aware of the increasing problems with childhood and adult obesity which really need to be addressed, cutting funds to sport certainly won’t help this.

It was also announced last week that €7.8 million will be invested in high performance athletes and sports in 2011 – great for those posed for 2012. The Irish Sports Council announced a major funding package for 2011 with a total €25.6 million which will be invested into 57 National Governing Bodies of Sport, including 18 high performance sports, and 32 Local Sports Partnerships. Good going, lets hope that the new Government (when elected) helps to protect and contribute to Irish Sport also. It would be great to see more Irish athletes on the international scene.

Have any Irish readers posed the above question to their local candidates? What was their response?

Eileen recently wrote an article for Official Publication of the International Sports Press Association titled ” The End of an Era – The golden age of sports photography is no longer with us”. She conveys her “disillusionment and concern” at the current state of the sports photography industry.  Whilst Eileen welcomes the new developments in photographic equipment which enhances the quality of the finished product, she  feels that any audience member thinks that they can “shoot sport” and expect to be given the right to access events that were previously the “domain of the pro”. In doing so and giving away their pictures for free on blogs and websites, she feels that this is undermining the work of the professional.

She discusses working at the 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam last year:

Working at the recent World Gymnastics Championships, I found it really hard to concentrate on capturing moments as the relentless noise from motor drives affected my own sense of timing. Goodness knows how the gymnasts coped with the racket as the photographers were positioned immediately behind their seats. I even saw some of these happy snappers poking gymnasts in the back and asking them to turn round and pose for a picture – incredible – but I’m afraid the system is now in place in many sports allows this to happen and I fear they will end up the photographers and the coverage they deserve if they don’t take steps to rectify the situation.

She continues in the next paragraph to discuss the behaviour of the amateur photographers, claiming to have been pushed and thumped in Rotterdam.  Eileen would like to see change in how the events are run and encourages event organisers to experience the unprofessional behaviour for themselves.

It’s evident from the article that Eileen feels very strongly about this and it is sad that it angers her so much. It’s an interesting read (page 47 / 48) and I encourage you to read it. I’m not quite sure where I lie on this, I appreciate Eileen and any other professional photographers pictures and feel sorry that the likes of Eileen are angered so much and appreciate that it the unprofessional behaviour makes her work difficult. I also appreciate the amateur photographs, it’s something different. I think the amateur photos can often show us the gymnasts personality just a bit more, seeing them smiling and laughing which we wouldn’t see as much in the professional photos.

I’d like to hear some opinions on this, especially from those of you who were in the press / media area at Rotterdam.

Today, February 2nd is National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) in the USA. NGWSD is marked annually with events around the country and on Capitol Hill to commemorate the achievements of girls and women in athletics. It is also an important day to promote the continued expansion of opportunities for girls and women to play sports and live physically active lives.

Since its inception in 1987, National Girls and Women in Sports Day has become the premiere occasion to celebrate the participation, success and accomplishments of girls and women athletes. What started in 1987 as a single event in Washington, D.C. to honor Olympic volleyball star Flo Hyman has grown into a nationwide celebration across all 50 states. On February 2, 2011, thousands will gather to celebrate NGWSD 2011 and “Play, Believe, Achieve.” Athletes like Martina Navratilova, Candace Parker or Jessica Mendoza who played or are still playing are making a difference, overcoming difficult circumstances, breaking records and making things possible. Despite the stunning advances made in the 39 years since Title IX was enacted, high school girls still receive 1.3 million fewer participation opportunities than do boys, and evidence suggests that the money spent on girls’ sports programs lags significantly behind the money spent on boys’ programs.

You can read more about last years event on the Women’s Sports Foundation website here. or on the NGWSD website here

Whilst the funding seems to be more geared towards Sochi 2014 (Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2014) rather than London 2012, I’m sure that the  Russian gymnastics teams will benefit from it somehow.  It’s fantastic for Russia, if only all countries could have an increase in funding! The Gymnastics Association of the Philippines have asked for a budget allowance of PHP 50 million. The Philipines “has not had a respectable performance in many years”. No harm in trying!

Read more about Russias spending on sports here.

Methylhexaneamine is also known as dimethylamylamine, dimethylpentylamine, DMAA, forthran, forthane, floradrene, geranamine and geranium oil. It has been increasingly found in nutritional supplements, typically those that are designed to increase energy or aid weight loss.

UK Anti-Doping Chief Executive, Andy Parkinson, said:

“The outcome of this case, and others from around the world, demonstrates how vigilant athletes must be when it comes to supplements. There is no guarantee that any supplement is free from a prohibited substance. Athletes are ultimately responsible for anything found in their system, no matter how it gets there.

“There are an increasing number of positive cases for methylhexaneamine for which athletes are facing a ban from sport. Whilst its downgrading in status in the 2011 Prohibited List is a welcome development, methylhexaneamine remains prohibited. Whether intentional or unintentional, its presence in the system can lead to an anti-doping rule violation and a ban from sport.”

Read more from UK Anti Doping

The prices of the London 2012 Olympic Games tickets were announced. You can download a copy of all the tickets prices here or visit the website for more details.

The tickets go on sale next March and apparently 90% of the tickets cost £100 or less. People who are 16 years of age or younger will only pay their age for a ticket and Senior Citizens aged 60 and over (as of 27 July 2012) will pay £16.

So what are we looking at for Gymnastics?

(Click to enlarge)

I’ve not been to an Olympics before. For those who have, how do the prices fare?

USA Gymnastics just posted this picture on their Facebook page. It’s a shot from their final World Camp Selection.

The Worlds Team Selection announcement is due this evening in the USA, however since it’s nearly 12am here, I’ll be asleep. Can’t wait to wake up in the morning and hear the news. Best of luck to all of the girls!

According to This Is Exeter, before winning her team Silver medal yesterday in the Commonwealth Games, Imogen Cairns was considering retirement.

“I’ve put all my focus into just getting back to fitness again and being here and I really thought this would be my last competition before I retire,” she said.

“But everything goes so fast and maybe I might need to think again because I think I proved that I still have it.

“I will focus on this competition first and then have another think about it.”

Read more on This Is Exeter