‘The greatest humiliation in life, is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation, and then fail to get it.’ – EW Howe
IT WOULD be fair to say that athletics was never a sport I aspired to compete in at any level, unless the shot putt or hammer suddenly became popular in South Armagh.
However, the World Athletics Championships in Beijing have proved to be compelling viewing this week and served to lift my drooping spirits a little with a return to work very much on the horizon. I watched with probably too much admiration as Jessica Ennis-Hill took gold in the women’s heptathlon and then stood to cheer as Usain Bolt clinched gold in the 100m by one-hundredth of a second from the controversial but talented Justin Gatlin.
A couple of days later, I settled down to watch the long jump final, which featured Great Britain’s Olympic champion Greg Rutherford, a fellow ginger. He was tipped as a potential medal winner, but America’s Jeff Henderson was very much the favourite to take gold. I didn’t care who won, as long as I was entertained.
In the end, Rutherford took gold with a jump of 8.41 metres, which is roughly about 6.41 metres better than my personal best, which was achieved in the St Colman’s sports day of 1981 and failed to grab any headlines. However, I was amazed by Rutherford’s post-event interview, when he voiced his hope that having added a World gold to Olympic, Commonwealth and European titles, he would now be regarded as a half-decent British athlete.
With my curiosity piqued, I turned to the internet for some background that would explain his comments, and was surprised to find that Rutherford has never been given full credit for his Olympic title, with many critics branding it a fluke, even though he is now the holder of all four major titles in his event. For some unknown reason, despite his huge achievements, he has not received the recognition he clearly deserves.
Sadly, it’s all too common in sport to under-appreciate greatness, and we in Ulster and Ireland are no different. Take our greatest sporting star at the minute, Rory McIlroy, for example.
He is unquestionably one of the best golfers in the world and has done so much for tourism and charity in this country. Yet McIlroy was subjected to negative comments from both sides of the community for not making his mind up quickly about whether to represent Ireland or Great Britain at next year’s Rio Olympics. By not wanting to declare for either country too soon and showing enormous integrity, he annoyed people by doing the right thing.
I found it extraordinary that, instead of lauding McIlroy for everything he is in the midst of achieving, regardless of what country he opted for, some people castigated him for something that has precious little to do with sport.
Jim McCorry’s short reign in the Down hotseat would undoubtedly fall into the under-appreciated category. In my opinion, the Mourne county had a more than decent year as, like most, I thought they might struggle in Division Two, yet they were promoted.
However, on the back of a poor display in the All-Ireland Qualifiers and an edited interview on The Sunday Game, Jim ends up with no option but to take the only dignified action of walking away from his post.
It would also be fair to say I’m not a Tyrone fan, a stance borne out of a rivalry that spans about two decades. I didn’t sleep too badly on Sunday night after their All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kerry, but even I would acknowledge that this has been a seriously good campaign from Mickey Harte’s men, who very nearly dethroned the All-Ireland champions.
A few people approached me over the weekend to say I didn’t get stuck in to Tyrone half hard enough last Friday in regards to their alleged gamesmanship in the win over Monaghan. I suppose that is somewhat indicative of how we now analyse sport in this country, yet I look on my approach not as a weakness but a strength.
I played in an era when Ulster teams were clapped on the back annually after being defeated by our southern counterparts, who trotted out the old line that we were doing great work ‘up north’. Even when we beat Kerry in 2002, some pundits and a lot of the Kerry team felt that they lost the title, rather than us winning it. Tyrone had to win three titles to be fully appreciated as a team worthy of respect.
I also found it disappointing that in the build-up to Sunday’s semi-final, most of the debate centred on matters not pertaining to football which, although relevant, were given far too much air-time by people who were attempting to be controversial.
Tyrone’s journey was an incredible one from a team who got relegated to Division Two and lost in the preliminary round of the Ulster Championship. Were it not for a little naivety and some poor decision-making, they could well have ended the campaign in the All-Ireland decider.
I played football for too long to get involved in the personalised mud-slinging that is all too prevalent in the modern game. I also have too much respect for those people who sacrifice so much for so little appreciation not to have some admiration for our rivals across the Blackwater, who demonstrated that they are not far away from dining at the top table once again.
I’m going straight to heaven.
