Outside the National Sports Campus, people like Liam Harbison don’t register, a bit like the powerbrokers pulling the strings in the West Wing. Dubliner Harbison is the ‘chief of staff’, one of the most powerful and influential people in an Irish sporting landscape that has capitalised on the political fallout following the Rio Olympics.

Limerick sprinter Ciara Neville (18), from Monaleen, is already the joint seventh fastest Irishwoman in history and was seventh in the European junior 100m final last summer. Today she is hoping to maintain her unbeaten record in the Irish Schools T&F Championships where she will be competing, for the last time, for Castletroy College, four days before she starts her Leaving Cert?

In 2017, Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan found another gear. After a series of near misses they blew their rivals away to win European and World Championship golds. It hasn’t made them rich, it’s barely kept a boat on the water, or a car on the road. But it kept the dream alive. Now, however, a political decision means they must start all over again and risk everything in their bid to make the Olympics.

Our boxers, used to gruelling training camps in places like Russia, will finally be able to entertain the world’s best in their own backyard, writes Brendan O’Brien

And just like that, Waterford are again everyone’s second favourite team.

A former boxing coach out in the Institute of Sport may be among the most invisible players in Irish sport, but he’s one of its most influential too, writes Kieran Shannon.

The Irish Sports Council and the National Sports Campus Development Authority are merging and will become Sport Ireland.

The name probably means nothing. If some radio sports show were to have a panel discussion about top coaching and top coaches in this country, it’s doubtful Liam Moggan’s name would crop up. His profile is hardly prominent.

Olympic walker Colin Griffin believes Irish athletes need some kind of representative body similar to the GPA (Gaelic Players’ Association).

From agent to special agent, the man responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of the world’s fastest race walker helped pull off a sophisticated sting that landed a stolen gold medal back with its rightful owner.

Manager of the year Billy Walsh came home disappointed from the London Olympics. Yes, you read that right. But he’s learned valuable lessons for the future.

Double Paralympic gold medallist, Mark Rohan, has called for up-and-coming athletes to be prioritised at the expense of established sportspeople when the next raft of government funding is distributed.

Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Michael Ring has today approved grants of €2.4m for 21 national sports bodies.

Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin insisted yesterday that Irish boxing cannot afford to lose coaches Billy Walsh or Zaur Antia and that everything possible should be done to keep the high performance team together.

Irish plans for the Olympic Games in Rio have been ongoing since early this year, according to the Irish Sports Council’s performance director Finbarr Kirwan.

Once again the Irish contingent will leave an Olympics where the boxing team has been amazing.

Triathlon Ireland bosses believe the spectacle and drama of Saturday’s Olympic women’s final will encourage more people to take up the sport.

Derval O'Rourke says there is nothing better than being involved in the Olympics Games, as she counts down the days to London 2012.

Gary Keegan created the blueprint for the emergence of Ireland as a world force in amateur boxing, so it is no surprise that when his time with IABA came to an end, he would be earmarked to apply his expertise and energy to the country’s entire sporting environment.

Heartbroken Joe Ward was thrown an Olympic lifeline last night after his controversial elimination from the qualifying tournament in Trabzon, Turkey.

NEWLY crowned European Cross Country champion Fionnuala Britton arrived in Dublin Airport yesterday evening to a rapturous reception.

IT IS almost certain the Olympic Torch will visit Ireland next year for the first time in the history of the Games.

THE chief executive of Athletics Ireland believes the appointment of Kevin Ankrom as High Performance Director will add a ‘huge dimension’ to the organisation and the development of the sport.

THE row between the IABA and the Irish Sports Council over the withdrawal of funding for the Irish boxing’s new Chief Executive Officer and Director of High Performance rages on.

BILLY WALSH, the face of Irish boxing in recent years, was yesterday considering his future as Head Coach after failing to nail down the position of Director of High Performance.

OLYMPIAN Jamie Costin believes the High Performance Strategy launched by Athletics Ireland may represent a defining moment for the sport at elite level.

SPORTS Minister Martin Cullen, has reaffirmed his commitment to the completion of the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown.

Shane Lowry, European golf’s newest star, has turned professional and will make his debut in next week’s European Open at the London Club in Kent.

THOSE who have hammered Kenny Egan since his return from Beijing have failed to land the knockout punch and, last night, the Olympic silver medallist was back among his own.

THE Genesis Olympic Review, commissioned by the Olympic Council of Ireland, yesterday painted a bleak picture of the relationship between some of nation’s top sporting organisations and warned that a change of attitude must be enforced if success at the London 2012 Games is to be achieved.

A review of Ireland's performance at the Beijing Olympics has concluded that Ireland is still underperforming compared to other similar countries, despite the three-medal haul.

EXPECT more boxing medals from major championships over the coming years if not weeks was the message for the former head of the IABA’s High Performance Unit, Gary Keegan, yesterday.

DARREN O’NEILL watched Darren Sutherland’s semi-final at home in Kilkenny with mixed emotions.

AS DIRECTOR of High Performance, Gary Keegan spearheaded the programme that qualified five Irish boxers for the Olympic Games but he admitted yesterday that he may have to watch their fights on television.

Sean Kelly has announced that he is stepping down from his role as executive chairman of the Irish Institute of Sport.

A NEW era in athlete support was unveiled yesterday when Keith Wood launched the new Athlete Lifestyle Programmes (ALPs) which has been developed by the Institute of Sport and will have a profound affect on life after sport for the elite athletes devoting their lives to representing Ireland at international level.

ATHLETES with their sights on the Olympic Games will get grants of up to €40,000 as well as benefiting from €5.935 million awarded to 15 focus sports for high performance plans and another €2.213m made available under the carding scheme announced by Sports Seamus Brennan, yesterday.

THE Irish Amateur Boxing Association’s head coach Billy Walsh has predicted three of his charges can win medals at next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

Director of Ireland's Institute of Sport and former GAA President Sean Kelly has spoken out about the Irish rugby team saying that they need to adapt the mindset of the 2007 All-Ireland Senior Football Champions if they are to progress at the World Cup in France.

PAUL HESSION is set to rejoin the top 200m runners in the world at the Van Damme Memorial Golden League Meeting in Brussels on September 14.