The opportunity to host major international events can often seem like a million miles away from what we can realistically hope for in Ireland but that does not need to be the case.
The 2015 European Modern Pentathlon Championships are to be announced at the University of Bath in England. The University is home to Pentathlon GB’s National Training Centre but is little better equipped from a facility perspective, and arguably some way behind the National Sports Campus here in Dublin.
There is a block of student accommodation which would be needed but the European Championships caters for only 100 athletes and there is enough accommodation around the near vicinity to make a tilt at future events like this a genuine consideration.
Ireland already boasts a strong tradition in the sport of Modern Pentathlon with Natalie Coyle, Eanna Bailey and Arthur Lanigan O’Keefe competing at Olympic and international standard.
“It will be a fabulous occasion for British athletes to compete on home soil in front of friends, families and supporters,” said Samantha Murray who trains at Bath and won Silver for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics. “That’s always an advantage.”
“The Senior European Modern Pentathlon Championships will be the first of UK Sport’s Gold Event Series Championships to be held in Bath and is a great example of UK Sport’s commitment to staging world-class sport throughout the UK,” added Simon Morton, director of major events and international relations at UK Sport.
The Gold Event Series, comprising 27 international class events is funded by the National Lottery and is a good example of how different strands of public funding can be applied to benefit sport, the health and economic wealth of the nation and an international profile in hosting big events.
2014 is the year in which Government has pledged to bring a Master plan for Sport to life. We hope that the ambition and imagination of the plan will stretch to events of manageable scale but great profile that can show Ireland to be as good as it is.
Lesson for Sport: Pitching for international events is likely to draw support from a host of different areas
Lesson for Business: Sport recognises no boundaries. International competition lifts sport and the brands that back it to a global scale.
