 So then time to talk athletics. It's going to be a busy weekend because the National Senior Track and Field Championships are taking place in Santre and Dublin and quite a few North West athletes can do. They're looking to defend titles and indeed sort of add to their medal hall in which they have achieved over the last couple of years. Patsy McGonigal has always joined us to look forward to that event. Patsy, how are you doing? Good to see you. Good to be here, Starship. Good, good. I suppose first of all Patsy, Mark English, not going to the Nationals. He wants to continue his form and high quality fails. He won't be in Dublin but where will he be this weekend as he looks to continue his form heading into the Olympics? Yes, well I mean the situation with him is he's in Leverkusen in Germany at the moment and he went straight from, I'm trying to remember all the cities he's been in in recent times, but he was in Kärvstad in Sweden and he's gone from Kärvstad down into Leverkusen and he runs Sunday in Leverkusen and hopefully will be a sharp, sharp, sharp race and that'll be his final shot at a big time race before the Olympic Games. Now it's also important to relate, he currently is in 47th position in the ranking lists. 48 people qualify in that event so you know he's very aware that he needs to keep his ranking strong and as a result that's why he's in Leverkusen rather than in the Nationals. He needs to do another 145 there, then Patsy no matter if he gets as far as 0.2 as long as he's done that 145 range. Well he needs to really run down there in that 44-45 area, 145-20 is the standard so I mean he needs to get, ideally needs to break 145-20. Right okay, so it's not 100% guaranteed then that he's going to the Olympics as we speak then Patsy, is it? Well nothing is, nothing is because there are still a few days of qualification left for everybody. Now he is in a qualifying position, that's very important to say that, but you know you just have to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Now we've got a bit of a surprise over last weekend because there was a very fast race in Poland, two or three more qualifiers came out of that race and we're just watching the scene particularly in America and in Europe you know so you know now also it has to be said as well that there are a number of athletes in that qualification 48 list that haven't ran for a couple of years so will they be taken out of it or will they be left in it? There's you know it's just getting down to that as they say now and the modern term it's getting really serious you know to see how it'll all fall down in the next couple of days. Okay well wait to see what happens over the weekend in relation to Mark English. Sorry for interrupting, but it's just to make the point to run on the nationals when we discuss this, to run on the nationals it's very unlikely you know Mark English would be favourite to run the nationals and he has won national after national after national and that would gain him 100 points but it wouldn't get him the fast time we figure so this is why he's in Leverkusen. Can he break? Is he capable of getting that 145.2? Oh absolutely, I mean sure if he in the last night in Karastad only for atrocious weather nobody to really go head to head with him, he won the race easy and he was only a couple of bits of a second after so I mean he just needs somebody to drag him round and then he kicks off the bend and he goes for the line. That didn't happen in Karastad because he was a quality athlete in the race on form on the night and nobody to challenge him. Will they have somebody to put to pull him around come the weekend in Germany? Yes they're on there to do that and so they're setting that up yeah. Yeah okay so that's the latest on Mark English he's not going to be at the nationals he's going to be in Germany we'll all keep a close eye on that Patsy but there is of course a host of other athletes from the northwest who are all heading to Sanctuary for three days of action. It's underway on Friday. We'll start with your own Gerhard Summerlecki, joint winner of the high jump last year. She had a very very good jump recently in England where she won the championship there last weekend. She's going on as one of the favorites for the high jump again Patsy. Yes she is and you know she just needs to find her form to be sure to be sure and you know yes as you say she tied for the championship last year she is a former winner of the championship and she's a big time jumper so you have to hope that we'll all come together for her on the day. Now she's still trying to find her real form but she is as we know from over many many years she's a quality athlete and we're looking forward to her performance at the weekend absolutely. Yeah no John Kelly this year he's out injured so up steps the brother James he won silver last year and he's going to go in the shots Gavin McLaughlin of Lufford-Staban also in the shot as well if I'm right Patsy. So there could be a couple of medals coming back down the road for Donny Gall again. Hi well Gavin McLaughlin's Finn Valley as well so the two of them could be a Finn Valley 1-2 there and that would be a very interesting a really nice story to think the two boys out of the same club out of Donny Gall could get 1-2. That's the target McLaughlin and Kelly to hit 1-2 on the day and unfortunately John's in Sweden and they had a bit of an operation and you know he's out for the season but we're looking forward to getting him back again but James will have to just carry the can this time along with Gavin McLaughlin as far as we here in Donny Gall are concerned at Finn Valley. So basically a 1-2 we're looking for a 1-2 let's see what happens. Okay let's talk about Lufford-Staban Gavin Crawford's going on the javelin Brendan O'Donnell in the hammer two big names and throws event for them and they'll be looking for medals and they'll be chasing Golding in Patsy. Yes they will and Brendan O'Donnell is the defending champion in the hammer a great achievement for him last year and he's thrown over 61 on and around 61-62 this year so you know he's going to be in there shooting for a medal most definitely shooting for a medal and indeed he'd be thinking in his mind that he can won this so good luck to him I hope that can happen and obviously his other hammer thrown compatriot from Lufford-Staban Adrian Gall broken Donny Gall record over 50 meters she got a medal last year and you know I expect her to get into the medals again this time she may not want it because of the gear from Brandon that's particularly good and there's another gear from my own particularly good but the bronze medal is there for Adrian if she can if she can really kick it out there and as you say Gareth Crawford he got a medal in the nationals a few times a few times at senior level he's thrown over 65 meters at the moment you know I'd be nice to think that he could record Donny Gall record his Donny Gall record which is 66 plus so you know all all worth watching the three of them very very very interesting to watch the three of them those three throwers from Lufford-Staban yeah yeah couple of your conal athletes as well chasing medals Colin McMahan and the triple jump and as always we know Kelly McGrory always steps up when it comes this time of year to national competitions and she's a good bet for a medal and she's not only a good bet for a medal she's the best farm of her life really she's 59 77 the first Donny Gall athlete ever to break 60 seconds over 400 meter hurdles so I mean she's going to be looking to won the title and she has done it before now and um so let's let's let's hope that she can that she can do the business on the day uh from Chicano Athletic Club of course and as you say Colin McMahan the the interest around him is you know yes he can get a medal uh yes he can jump 14 meters plus um can he break can he break Nick Sweeney from Dunlose long long long standing Donny Gall triple jump record that that'll be the kindest kind of kind of story I'll be looking for in the championships from him and he's been very close he's only been a few centimetres off that mark and um it'd be nice to see the triple jump record fall and a new a new new name appearing there so that's Colin McMahan yes he can get a medal he can get a medal and again Chicano Athletic Club yeah yeah obviously I have to mention the the Flanigans from County Toronto is there anybody else from Donny Gall that would have hopes of getting the medal Patsy? No I think that's about that that's in my head now at the minute that would be that would be the tally on the on Donny Gall um then as you say the Flanigan sisters rushing and um and Elish Elish ran last weekend in Madrid um she's in an interesting position um both of them have come home for for the summer from Adam State University both of them are standout athletes uh Elish is the national collegiate champion from the States and um she's not all that far away from Olympic qualifying you see but again just just to underline it Elish they're from Garching um and she is in 55th position at the moment in the world rankings for the Olympic Games 45 qualifying that event um she'll get a hundred points if she wins the Nationals um she's got a race on her hands against a girl called Michelle Finn who has qualified for the Olympics so it's very much up in the air for Elish and there is a possibility uh come the weekend that that I could be telling the story about a young girl from Garching having got to the Olympic Games but she's a wee bit off it so we'll have to just fingers crossed that everything else in the world of of steeplechase uh works in her favour her sister also um I've no doubt that she's medal as well rushing so in on the track so there there's a lot there's a lot of stories over the three days the championship started on the Friday and go on through Saturday and Sunday so it's uh it's a busy it's a busy busy weekend and obviously again with the COVID story 400 people are going to be allowed in on Saturday but it's it's hard it's hard to get a ticket and the athlete needs to indicate to you and it's it's just so messy and as a result of COVID situation Dempsey McGuigan who would be expected to won the hammer is not traveling because he just isn't prepared to do seven days sitting around in quarantine and uh Molly Griffin who got a medal a year ago or so and in the long jump isn't going to travel from the States because she would be sitting in a bloody hotel somewhere for a couple of weeks and that I just told her to stay where she is so basically it's about the people we've talked about so it's going to go through going to go through mainly heats on Friday night and then the real the real story started to emerge on the Saturday so just to say from Highland News Point of view I'll be on the case right through Saturday and Sunday. Good stuff Patsy, let's look forward to Buzzy McGuigan. Many thanks for joining us Patsy, speak to you over the weekend. Thanks Patsy.