Very good thread, Duke.
I watched some of yesterday's match. I'm one of the few people in Cork who isn't hugely into YKW's sport but I realised that he's a once in a generation kind of guy. An outstanding player of his sport and an outstanding guy off the pitch also. You couldn't say that about some sporting greats.
(And his wife is gorgeous!
Delboy, Eamonn Coughlan is my all time Irish sporting hero. I was a bit of an athlete in my day and I just loved the man! My favourite Irish sporting moment ever was
his 5,000m win in the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki. I was abroad and watched it in the bar of the hotel I was staying in. From Wikipedia........
Coghlan was nicknamed "The Chairman of the Boards" because of his success on indoor tracks. He won 52 of his 70 races at 1500 m and 1 Mile from 1974 to 1987. He set the world record for the indoor mile run with a time of 3.52.6 at the San Diego Sports Arena[4] in San Diego in 1979. He lowered this to 3:50.6 in 1981 and then bettered it to 3:49.78 in 1983 at New Jersey's Meadowlands Arena indoor arena. His record stood until 1997 when it was broken by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj in a time of 3:48.45. It is still the second fastest indoor mile of all time and is still, more than 30 years on, a European record. Coghlan's 1983 time was the fastest mile ever run in the United States until 10 June 2007, when Daniel Kipchirchir Komen ran 3:48.28 outdoors in Eugene, Oregon. It remains one of only four sub-3:50 miles run on American soil.[5] By and large, Coghlan was more successful at indoor running notwithstanding a later world title in 1983 over 5000 meters.
Coghlan also set the record for the indoor 2000 meter run at 4:54.07 in 1987 which stood until Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia ran 4:52.86 in 1998 (which was broken in 2007 when Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia ran 4:49.99). Coghlan won the world famous Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in NYC's Madison Square Garden a record seven times (1977, 1979–81, 1983, 1985, 1987) his last win being at the age of 34.
He was also the first man over 40 years of age to run a sub 4 minute mile. (He ran 83 sub 4 minute miles in his career.)
Wee Barry was great but he didn't have the number of wins as World Champion that would have him rated as our best ever.
Sonia also has to be very close to the top of the list.
1987 was an incredible year for Stephen Roche but there's a lot of innuendo about the place about him, though it has to be said that none of it has ever been proven.
Michelle Smith is our most sussesful Olympian but innuendo has dogged her career also. And it must be stressed that she wasn't stripped of any of her Olympic medals, despite getting a 4 year ban later in her career.
But to me, our greatest ever sports person has to be Padraig Harrington. A short few years ago, 3 Majors for an Irishman would have been the stuff of fantasy but he achieved it! It's hard to see him win another, given the way he's playing at the moment but no other Irishman has achieved such sporting success on the international stage.
Langer, Olazabal, Lyle, Goosen, Jacklin, Miller, Norman, Couples, Furyk and Love have all won fewer Majors that he has. Stricker, Garcia, Montgomerie, Westwood, Donald, Stenson and Poulter have never won any Major......
I've had the pleasure, over the past 15 years or so of being up close and personal with many European and USPGA Tour players and Padraig Harrington would probably come out tops, in my opinion, as the nicest and most obliging one of them all. I've been in his company a number of times and he's a very ordinary guy, totally unaffected by his sporting successes.
I just hope he can re-discover the form he had a few years ago and get back on the winning trail again.