Sport: jumping for Joyce

Only established in 2011, Mayo’s Lake District AC is probably ahead of the curve in already having a world championship medal to its name.

What’s more, the bronze won by Oisín Joyce at the World Athletics U20 Championship in Peru in August is the first-ever Irish medal in a throwing discipline at the event.

As is the way of such things, a community effort laid the foundation for such an achievement and Oisín’s sister Aisling – who is also one of his coaches – sums things up well when she says: “Half the town had their hand on that world medal, in fairness.”

For the Joyces, involvement in the club, based in Ballinrobe, took hold from the cradle. Mother Pauline was one of the main founders along with Joan Walsh while father Pádraic, a native of Connemara, ended up coaching a world medallist in the javelin after starting his coaching from scratch.

Coaching from scratch

Aisling, a talented runner in her own right and who works as a volunteer support officer for the Community Games, takes up the story.

“Mam and Joan and a few others got the club off the ground and it kind of grew from there,” she says.

“My Mam told Dad to get a hobby and he decided to take up javelin, so that’s where the journey started. Key players in that too would be Marie and Tony Boyle – their son Simon started out as Oisín’s partner.

“They both won bronze in the All-Ireland at U9s. They really loved the fun element of it and we kept it very fun for years – obviously, there was success but the key focus was always to enjoy it.

People might think that you just pick it up and you throw it, but there are so many different parts of a thrower’s training that don’t actually involve throwing at all

“Obviously, the competition aspect is strong but the main reason that Oisín still does it is because he loves it. When there was such an interest shown, all the parents started coaching and Dad stuck it out.

“Linda Cusack still coaches a fair bit and there’d be other coaches as well.

“Oisín and a few other athletes decided that they wanted to throw, so Dad and a few others said, ‘We may educate ourselves along the way’.”

Training elements

Trying to throw something as far away as possible is a primal urge shared by all of us, but there is of course a lot more involved in become a top practitioner.

“There are so many components to throwing a javelin,” Aisling says. “It’s very technical and it requires quite a technical eye. From the hip down is just as important as from the hip up.”

And did those at home believe that a world medal might be coming back from Peru?

“Oisín would be a very literal thinker,” Aisling says.“He’s very practical and consistent – whatever he throws in training is more or less what he’ll throw in a competition.

“He knows going into a competition what kind of shape he’s in and he went in to the world championships knowing that 75 metres would put him on the podium and he threw nearly 74.

“He knew that a personal best would be needed but he didn’t really say it to anyone – he’d be quite quiet like that. He’d never seek the limelight – he’d be allergic to it, really. I would say that Oisín is quite strong mentally; when he gets in the zone, he’s in the zone. It would be one of his strengths.”

Having taken a last year out, working part-time at home while he prepared for the worlds, Oisín has now begun a sports science degree at the University of Limerick.

He’ll be a name to look out for as the next Olympics in Los Angeles come into view, but nobody is looking too far ahead.

“All going well, that’s the plan,” Aisling says. “Javelin throwers don’t really come into their prime until they’re 26 or 27, so he’s very much at the start of his journey.

“It’s definitely on the cards if things go well for him. He’s taking it year by year, achieving the goals and then seeing how he gets on.”

Sunday was that strangest of September sensations for your correspondent – a day at home with no game to go to.

What had been scheduled was a short trip to Bandon to see Nemo Rangers against Clonakilty in the Cork Premier SFC quarter-finals, but on Saturday evening, Cork County Board took the decision to postpone all of the games that were down for Sunday.

It was somewhat strange to receive such news when the weather was nice outside – literally the calm before the storm – but on Saturday morning there had been a communication that the games would be called off if the orange weather warning remained in place.

It was a shame for the various teams involved but there was at least clarity around the decision and some fixture-list upheaval is a lesser evil than a player suffering a bad injury in dangerous conditions – or a spectator being in an accident driving to or from the game.

Last year, Nemo and Clon played each other at the same stage and the game went ahead in monsoon-like conditions – the 0-5 to 0-4 final score gives an indication as to what kind of a match it was.

For clubs like Nemo and Mallow, who had hurling games that were scheduled for the coming weekend put back in order that the football be played first, it does make life awkward but it’s the least-worst solution for the bigger picture.