AND LIEKE KLAVER is not able to live with the wonderful long-legged stride of Rhasidat Adeleke.
Klaver is struggling and the Netherlands really, really have a situation here that they have to plug up.
And the baton is handed to Thomas Barr…
****
IT’S THE FINAL of the 4x400m mixed relay at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, and RTÉ’s Greg Allen is just getting warmed up on the microphone.
The key is to not to get too excited too early. Save some of your voice for the final kick. Nothing scripted. Nothing rehearsed. Anything pre-heated on paper just won’t ring out as nicely. Your true unfiltered reaction is the only way to capture this moment authentically.
Try to forget your radio background. This is television broadcasting. The images do the work where words are not needed.
Chris O’Donnell has just taken Ireland through the first leg, handing over the baton to Rhasidat Adeleke in sixth place. Already an established name in world middle distance running, she gobbles up the gap with ease to put Ireland out in front for leg number three.
Thomas Barr takes over. Sharlene Mawdsley is waiting to bring Ireland through the final spin of the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. And she does so in second place.
She just needs to hold her nerve. Allen needs to hold his nerve too, and let the nation meet her at the right moment on the home stretch.
****
Now, Thomas Barr, on paper, shouldn’t really live with some of these 400m runners. But he is alllllllll heart… he is allllllll championship competitor.
…. And it looks like Femke Bol is going to have a serious task to run down Sharlene Mawdsley
****
Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Trackside reporting is a job that has brought Allen over the globe. The places come back to him as clocks up the number of World Championships, and Olympic Games he’s covered in his career.
Osaka in 2007 for the Worlds.
The Beijing Games in 2008.
And now he’s back in that part of the world again for World Championships Number 10 in Tokyo. His Olympics tally is the same.
He made his debut at Seoul in 1988, serving as an apprentice to the late Jimmy Magee who was the RTÉ commentator at the time.
“What better mentor could you possibly have?” Allen smiles looking back on his first foray in the business. “That was just an amazing experience to work alongside Jimmy.”
Race commentary wasn’t on Allen’s radar at this point. Magee did the TV stuff on-air while Allen worked mainly on radio, providing bulletins, and interviewing athletes after their events to be played back in studio. That was to be their arrangement in Barcelona four years later too.
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But the emergence of boxers Wayne McCullough and Michael Carruth created an opening on the microphone for Allen. Magee was busy ringside covering McCullough’s silver-medal success at bantamweight, while Carruth was wining gold for Ireland at welterweight. Someone was needed to take charge of the athletics coverage. That someone was Allen.
It wasn’t a dream start. In fact, Allen squirms when asked how it went for him. But there was one pleasant memory from the 1992 Games: the men’s 1500m final which was won by Spain’s Fermín Cacho.
“It was the first commentary that I felt I did a reasonable justice to so that’ll tell you what I thought about my first Olympics.”
People who are familiar with Allen’s career now only know him for his coverage in athletics and golf. But he was on the beat elsewhere in his career. He cut his teeth in GAA, rugby and soccer during his days as a rookie reporter.
It was the self-reliance element of the individual sports that drew him to athletics and golf. His interest in running derived from his passion for tennis which he played up to national junior level. It was when he was around 27 that he started leaning more into athletics and was immediately hooked.
“I just loved the fabric of athletics. From the very beginning that I joined Dundrum in ’83 and then I switched to DCH in ’88 or ’89 or thereabouts. I don’t know, it’s something about athletics people.
“I found [it to be] the most engaging sport in terms of getting to know people.”
Allen found that the RTÉ Sports desk could do with more athletics in the diet, and offered to fix their deficiency. Around that time, Sonia O’Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan were runners on the rise and would go on to become iconic figures in the sport.
More good fortune to help Allen put a shape on his burgeoning career.
Allen's broadcasting career coincided with the rise of Sonia O'Sullivan. Patrick Bolger / INPHO
Patrick Bolger / INPHO / INPHO
“I just happened to start when those two women gave me a platform to cover their events. I went to the World Cross Country Championship in 1992 in Boston because Catherina McKiernan was one of the best in the world and she was silver medal winner at that and for the next three World Cross Countries.
“That gave me a platform to cover my first World Championships in ’93.”
****
Mawdsley has proved at the World Relays in the Bahamas that she can run neck and neck with Femke Bol…Femke Bol is not running down this top three.
So, now… can Sharlene Mawdsley get the better of Helena Ponette of Belgium?
And I think she can with a tremendous finish…
****
The youngest of four boys, Allen always felt his excitable nature bugged his older siblings. But it’s the one quality about himself he has never regretted; it’s the bedrock of his commentary style. Golf and athletics are the sports that tickle that visceral reaction.
He got his latest fix at the K Club last week when he watched Rory McIlroy force a play-off at the Irish Open with an awkwardly long putt to land an eagle on the 18th green. The sight of an Irish singlet crossing the line in a medal position is an equally thrilling sight.
That brings forth the image of Ciara Mageean triumphantly raising her arms at the end of her much celebrated victory in the 1500m at last year’s European Championships. It’s the sincerity that makes projecting his emotion to the nation such a joyful task.
“I just get naturally very excited because I just love the rush that it gives me. That gives me an incredible buzz.
“And hopefully if I convey that in any sort of sense, and do my research, and have built an in-built ability to do some element of commentary proficiently, or at least adequately over the years, then you add the three together, and that’s what athletics commentary is.”
And then there are the races that end in disappointment. Or fall short of the country’s expectations. Sport is unforgiving. Athletics moreso.
Rhasidat Adeleke after finishing fourth in the 400m Olympic final. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
He thinks of Rhasidat Adeleke in Paris last year when she didn’t medal in the final of the women’s 400m. The nation was anticipating a place on the podium for the Tallaght star who is still only 22. Allen managed the tone of his commentary as she fought through the last few strides to a fourth-place finish.
“I was thinking before the race that this was the biggest day so early in her career. The nation was expecting, and I was expecting. But I did hold a reserve because I’m not going to say something I’ll regret in years to come. There were only three women in the entire world who were better than her, as there were at the World Championships the previous year.
“The expectation of a medal was perhaps a little too high but the aspirations were all really well founded. When the gun goes, strange things can happen. She did everything she possibly could. The difference can sometimes be the tiniest nuance and you try not to get too judgmental.”
****
She is strength. She is elegance. She has got a lot going for her!!
Helena Ponette is not as quick as Sharlene Mawdsley!!
JUST HOLD YOUR NERVE
SHE’S HOLDING HER NERVE
THIS IS WONDERFUL FROM SHARLENE MAWDSLEY
A GOLD MEDAL FOR IRELAND!!!
****
Here's how Ireland won a truly magnificent gold at the European Athletics Championships. A superb performance from Chris O'Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr & Sharlene Mawdsley 🥇☘️☘️☘️ #RTEsportpic.twitter.com/UecAR2znpZ
Allen only ever watches his broadcasts back to see what could be better next time. Is there a word or a phrase he’s using too much? Was his commentary appropriate for a television audience? Or did he slip back into his old radio broadcasting habits and talk too much during the race?
He doesn’t look for praise. But when he reviewed his performance for the 4x400m mixed relay at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, he did notice some of the lovely comments. He can find similar sentiments online for his coverage of the women’s 4x400m relay team who won a European silver last year too.
“I was very grateful for kind of the reaction it got. But I was aware of the fact that the relay [team] had done the hard work, and all I did was try and reflect what they were doing. But for each of the four legs of the relay, there was something to say.”
One of the earlies lessons in Allen’s broadcasting career was the importance of pacing oneself through the race. Don’t go out early. Save some of the excitement for the final kick.
He had a hunch that a medal was possible after Adeleke’s run. Barr strengthened his hopes. But he held his cries until the moment was right.
Someone asked him if the line where he pleads with Mawdsley to hold her nerve was rehearsed. That’s a sin Allen would never commit. Every word was said on instinct.
And it will be the same in Tokyo. World Championships Number 10 awaits.
“I never rehearse lines. You sometimes think of what you will say if somebody wins a gold medal. I never write down anything, because anytime I write down something, it never quite feels natural. It doesn’t have that vim and vigor that you have when you say something that comes from the heart.
“And I just love the way, when you see that green singlet pass the line, whether it’s the gold, silver, or bronze position, what it does for you passionately within, you can never convey that if you’re reading something out.”
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Ireland's voice of athletics and the art of capturing timeless moments on the track
AND LIEKE KLAVER is not able to live with the wonderful long-legged stride of Rhasidat Adeleke.
Klaver is struggling and the Netherlands really, really have a situation here that they have to plug up.
And the baton is handed to Thomas Barr…
****
IT’S THE FINAL of the 4x400m mixed relay at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, and RTÉ’s Greg Allen is just getting warmed up on the microphone.
The key is to not to get too excited too early. Save some of your voice for the final kick. Nothing scripted. Nothing rehearsed. Anything pre-heated on paper just won’t ring out as nicely. Your true unfiltered reaction is the only way to capture this moment authentically.
Try to forget your radio background. This is television broadcasting. The images do the work where words are not needed.
Chris O’Donnell has just taken Ireland through the first leg, handing over the baton to Rhasidat Adeleke in sixth place. Already an established name in world middle distance running, she gobbles up the gap with ease to put Ireland out in front for leg number three.
Thomas Barr takes over. Sharlene Mawdsley is waiting to bring Ireland through the final spin of the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. And she does so in second place.
She just needs to hold her nerve. Allen needs to hold his nerve too, and let the nation meet her at the right moment on the home stretch.
****
Now, Thomas Barr, on paper, shouldn’t really live with some of these 400m runners. But he is alllllllll heart… he is allllllll championship competitor.
…. And it looks like Femke Bol is going to have a serious task to run down Sharlene Mawdsley
****
Trackside reporting is a job that has brought Allen over the globe. The places come back to him as clocks up the number of World Championships, and Olympic Games he’s covered in his career.
Osaka in 2007 for the Worlds.
The Beijing Games in 2008.
And now he’s back in that part of the world again for World Championships Number 10 in Tokyo. His Olympics tally is the same.
He made his debut at Seoul in 1988, serving as an apprentice to the late Jimmy Magee who was the RTÉ commentator at the time.
“What better mentor could you possibly have?” Allen smiles looking back on his first foray in the business. “That was just an amazing experience to work alongside Jimmy.”
Race commentary wasn’t on Allen’s radar at this point. Magee did the TV stuff on-air while Allen worked mainly on radio, providing bulletins, and interviewing athletes after their events to be played back in studio. That was to be their arrangement in Barcelona four years later too.
But the emergence of boxers Wayne McCullough and Michael Carruth created an opening on the microphone for Allen. Magee was busy ringside covering McCullough’s silver-medal success at bantamweight, while Carruth was wining gold for Ireland at welterweight. Someone was needed to take charge of the athletics coverage. That someone was Allen.
It wasn’t a dream start. In fact, Allen squirms when asked how it went for him. But there was one pleasant memory from the 1992 Games: the men’s 1500m final which was won by Spain’s Fermín Cacho.
“It was the first commentary that I felt I did a reasonable justice to so that’ll tell you what I thought about my first Olympics.”
People who are familiar with Allen’s career now only know him for his coverage in athletics and golf. But he was on the beat elsewhere in his career. He cut his teeth in GAA, rugby and soccer during his days as a rookie reporter.
It was the self-reliance element of the individual sports that drew him to athletics and golf. His interest in running derived from his passion for tennis which he played up to national junior level. It was when he was around 27 that he started leaning more into athletics and was immediately hooked.
“I just loved the fabric of athletics. From the very beginning that I joined Dundrum in ’83 and then I switched to DCH in ’88 or ’89 or thereabouts. I don’t know, it’s something about athletics people.
“I found [it to be] the most engaging sport in terms of getting to know people.”
Allen found that the RTÉ Sports desk could do with more athletics in the diet, and offered to fix their deficiency. Around that time, Sonia O’Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan were runners on the rise and would go on to become iconic figures in the sport.
More good fortune to help Allen put a shape on his burgeoning career.
“I just happened to start when those two women gave me a platform to cover their events. I went to the World Cross Country Championship in 1992 in Boston because Catherina McKiernan was one of the best in the world and she was silver medal winner at that and for the next three World Cross Countries.
“That gave me a platform to cover my first World Championships in ’93.”
****
Mawdsley has proved at the World Relays in the Bahamas that she can run neck and neck with Femke Bol…Femke Bol is not running down this top three.
So, now… can Sharlene Mawdsley get the better of Helena Ponette of Belgium?
And I think she can with a tremendous finish…
****
The youngest of four boys, Allen always felt his excitable nature bugged his older siblings. But it’s the one quality about himself he has never regretted; it’s the bedrock of his commentary style. Golf and athletics are the sports that tickle that visceral reaction.
He got his latest fix at the K Club last week when he watched Rory McIlroy force a play-off at the Irish Open with an awkwardly long putt to land an eagle on the 18th green. The sight of an Irish singlet crossing the line in a medal position is an equally thrilling sight.
That brings forth the image of Ciara Mageean triumphantly raising her arms at the end of her much celebrated victory in the 1500m at last year’s European Championships. It’s the sincerity that makes projecting his emotion to the nation such a joyful task.
“I just get naturally very excited because I just love the rush that it gives me. That gives me an incredible buzz.
“And hopefully if I convey that in any sort of sense, and do my research, and have built an in-built ability to do some element of commentary proficiently, or at least adequately over the years, then you add the three together, and that’s what athletics commentary is.”
And then there are the races that end in disappointment. Or fall short of the country’s expectations. Sport is unforgiving. Athletics moreso.
He thinks of Rhasidat Adeleke in Paris last year when she didn’t medal in the final of the women’s 400m. The nation was anticipating a place on the podium for the Tallaght star who is still only 22. Allen managed the tone of his commentary as she fought through the last few strides to a fourth-place finish.
“I was thinking before the race that this was the biggest day so early in her career. The nation was expecting, and I was expecting. But I did hold a reserve because I’m not going to say something I’ll regret in years to come. There were only three women in the entire world who were better than her, as there were at the World Championships the previous year.
“The expectation of a medal was perhaps a little too high but the aspirations were all really well founded. When the gun goes, strange things can happen. She did everything she possibly could. The difference can sometimes be the tiniest nuance and you try not to get too judgmental.”
****
She is strength. She is elegance. She has got a lot going for her!!
Helena Ponette is not as quick as Sharlene Mawdsley!!
JUST HOLD YOUR NERVE
SHE’S HOLDING HER NERVE
THIS IS WONDERFUL FROM SHARLENE MAWDSLEY
A GOLD MEDAL FOR IRELAND!!!
****
Allen only ever watches his broadcasts back to see what could be better next time. Is there a word or a phrase he’s using too much? Was his commentary appropriate for a television audience? Or did he slip back into his old radio broadcasting habits and talk too much during the race?
He doesn’t look for praise. But when he reviewed his performance for the 4x400m mixed relay at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, he did notice some of the lovely comments. He can find similar sentiments online for his coverage of the women’s 4x400m relay team who won a European silver last year too.
“I was very grateful for kind of the reaction it got. But I was aware of the fact that the relay [team] had done the hard work, and all I did was try and reflect what they were doing. But for each of the four legs of the relay, there was something to say.”
One of the earlies lessons in Allen’s broadcasting career was the importance of pacing oneself through the race. Don’t go out early. Save some of the excitement for the final kick.
He had a hunch that a medal was possible after Adeleke’s run. Barr strengthened his hopes. But he held his cries until the moment was right.
Someone asked him if the line where he pleads with Mawdsley to hold her nerve was rehearsed. That’s a sin Allen would never commit. Every word was said on instinct.
And it will be the same in Tokyo. World Championships Number 10 awaits.
“I never rehearse lines. You sometimes think of what you will say if somebody wins a gold medal. I never write down anything, because anytime I write down something, it never quite feels natural. It doesn’t have that vim and vigor that you have when you say something that comes from the heart.
“And I just love the way, when you see that green singlet pass the line, whether it’s the gold, silver, or bronze position, what it does for you passionately within, you can never convey that if you’re reading something out.”
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Athletics greg allen Hold Your Nerve RTÉ Sport team ireland World Athletics Championships