Each weekend we review the best of the Irish sporting action from around the world through the medium of numbers…
85 – Captain Fantastic Calls it a Day 
Ireland’s Rugby Captain Fiona Coghlan announced her retirement in Paris yesterday after a glittering career and 85 caps. The last game defeat to France will have hurt but will be forgotten in time, unlike the first ever Grand Slam in 2013 and the first even win over New Zealand at this tournament. To captain an international side of such success while still doing the day job as a PE teacher in Dublin is an incredible achievement and while the playing days are now over, this will not be the end of her contribution to the game.
3 – Men’s Athletics Steps up a Gear 
Donegal medical student Mark English was the athletics star of the weekend with a Bronze medal in Friday night’s 800 metres final at the European Championships in Switzerland. He was ably supported by Paul Robinson and Ciaran O’Lionaird in the 1,500 metres on Sunday with the former running into a 4th place finish and the latter in a strong position before falling on the penultimate lap. To have three finalists in the blue riband middle distance division is a great result for the team.
67,728 – Hurling Surge 
Cork and Tipperary drew a record semi-final crowd of 67,728 to Croke Park yesterday, backing up the 72,000+ crowd that attended the previous weekend’s Football Championship quarter finals. The figure was well ahead of all bar one of the Premier League football matches that kicked off the season on Saturday and will boost GAA finances at the business end of the season. Tipperary will now face Kilkenny in the Final on September 7th.
6 – Unbeaten run for Irish Cricket at Euro Championships
Irish Women’s Cricket was determined to live up to the high bar set this summer for team sports by rugby and soccer and it did so in style. The Senior Team secured the Division 1 title for Developing nations with wins over Scotland and the Netherlands in England. This meant that Ireland have won all four European Championships they competed in this summer at Senior, U19, U17 and U15 levels. Cecelia Joyce was also named as the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament.
25 – Swimming Marathon sees Ireland’s Bryan finish 9th
Attention turns to Swimming in terms of European Championships this week and Ireland got off to a strong start in the 25KM Final of the Open Swim Category in Berlin at the weekend. Chris Bryan was in contention for a medal until the closing stages of the race. Barry Murphy heads up four competitors racing in qualifiers on Monday morning. All the images used on Sport for Business are courtesy of our photography partners Inpho.ie.
Captains, Crowds, Medals and Sweeps…
