Irish athletes have today been digesting the IOC decision - expected and all as it was - to postpone this summer's Olympic Games until 2021.

The 20-year old Down native who will compete on the pommel horse at the Olympics, an event for which he is the current European champion, is relieved that the uncertainty which hung over the Games in recent weeks has been put to bed once and for all.

“This decision, while totally appropriate, will impact on sport and our athletes in different ways, there will be mixed emotions.”

The Games will not now take place in 2020, but will happen no later than the summer of 2021.

Rob Heffernan has slammed the International Olympic Committee for delaying its decision about a possible postponement of the Tokyo Games, branding the IOC’s dithering as “ridiculous”.

Canada and Australia have already pulled out of this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo but their Irish counterparts, while all but accepting that a postponement is inevitable, have refrained from the nuclear option for now.

Rowing Ireland are concerned by the immediate cancellation of all international events through March, April and May.

Sport may shrink in significance in these unprecedented times but the sight of empty stadiums and speculation over the fate of previously ‘untouchable’ events as the Olympic Games and European Championships hammer home just how serious things have become.

There are increasingly mixed messages around coronavirus. A virologist yesterday said St Patrick’s Day parades should be cancelled to limit the spread of the virus. Prof John Oxford said Chinese authorities cancelled the Chinese New Year celebrations and Ireland should take this comparable opportunity. He warned that Italy offered a valuable lesson: “They sat there for weeks thinking they didn’t have a case... suddenly there was an explosion — they’re the new epicentre now.”

The Irish women’s team were narrowly beaten by Australia in the first round of the four- kilometre Team Pursuit at the World Track Championships in Berlin. Despite the loss the team will take heart from the ride which saw them break a new national record.

MANCHESTER City’s breach of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations; Saracens’ breach of salary cap rules in rugby; claims of state sponsored doping at various Olympic Games; sign-stealing in major league baseball; technology-enhanced runners trampling all over records in athletics; wrestling with an opponent on a yellow card in order to get them sent off in Gaelic football.

Jegou (24) will compete in the C1 category at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre in Tokyo from July 26-27.

The FEI has announced that show jumpers from Qatar and Sri Lanka will not be allowed compete at this year’s Olympic Games

You probably saw in last Saturday’s newspaper that I met Moss Finn for a chat. He was great company, but there was a shadow over our discussions.

It was interesting and appropriate to hear last Friday that the FAI are going to slim down their travelling parties for away matches. We have heard in the past that the “suits” travelled at the front of the plane with the team left in the back. Less non-essential personnel can only make sense and let’s hope that this (small) first step is indicative of a new approach.

Listen. Fionnuala McCormack is not mad. She’s disappointed. She’s not the kind of athlete to go off on one without very good cause.

With serious show jumping team action still some time away in 2020, there are no early season pointers to go on seven months out from the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Ireland’s women will meet the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, India and South Africa in the group stages of the Olympic Games following confirmation of the final entrants on Saturday.

Dave Passmore has announced the first Irish women’s indoor international squad since 1990, naming a 14-player panel for a December trip to Durban, South Africa for six test matches.

Cathal Dennehy has been named the broadsheet sports writer of the year at the NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards. Here we republish one of his winning pieces, from February 16, 2019.

The 14-minute personal best Aoife Cooke ran on the afternoon of the Dublin marathon a fortnight ago - she was the first Irish woman home in 2.32.34 - would have been enough to get her onto the start line at any previous Olympic Games.

Shane Lowry might be focussed on the Turkish Airlines Open and the Race to Dubai but he admits that it would be “an incredible honour” to carry to Irish flag at next year’s Olympic Games and a dream to win gold.

The Irish women’s date with destiny edges ever closer with the Energia Park stage all set for their Olympic qualifier showdown with Canada.

A European capital of culture is “radically different” from a national capital of culture due to its international dimension, Mr Green said, with the “norm” being that international events should make up over 50% of the programme .

We’ve been wandering around Japan for five weeks and, while it’s been a wonderfully immersive experience, you would be fooling yourself if you thought you were doing anything more than dipping your toes in the waters.

“Pull like a dog” might not be part of Leona Maguire’s golfing lexicon but Ireland’s latest LPGA Tour star will have more than determination in common with Ireland’s rowing heroes next season.

The International Olympic Committee has announced plans to move the Tokyo 2020 marathon and race walking events over 800 kilometres south of Japan’s capital city to Sapporo.

This weekend, rugby confirms its place among the debased, increasingly cynical, and commercially compassed sports of our world.

The final hour is at hand for Ireland’s show jumpers to deliver their country out of the Olympic wilderness. Not since Athens 2004 has Ireland qualified a show jumping team for the Games, and tomorrow sees the Irish riders embark on their last chance to make Tokyo 2020.

Sport Ireland CEO John Treacy has called on Russia to be banned from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo if they are found to have manipulated data released to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Spending quarter of a century in the International Tennis Federation gave Dave Miley a unique perspective on tennis at all levels, so it’s hardly a surprise he threw his hat in the ring as a candidate for ITF president.

A “dramatic illumination” of Connemara mountains, snapshots of Homer’s Odyssey on Galway beaches and tightrope walking across the river Corrib are among highlights of the Galway 2020 European capital of culture unveiled on Wednesday evening.