Beijing appointment for Pierce O’Callaghan Ireland’s Pierce O’Callaghan has received a dramatic late call up to officiate at the athletics events at Olympic Games in Beijing later this week. O’Callaghan, who is currently the Communication Director of the European Athletics Association based in Lausanne, Switzerland, was in Beijing on holidays baby-sitting his 5 month-old daughter Savanagh, while his wife, Tamara, works as a Sponsorship Manager with the IOC.
The 32-year-old, who is the only Irish athletics official to have gained the highest level IAAF qualification has been appointed to the position of Deputy Chief Judge for all three race walking events, all of which include Irish athletes.
His 11th hour call up came as a result of a sudden heart illness suffered by Canadian official Daniel Michaud and came as a welcome surprise to the native of Ashbourne, Co. Meath.
A former athlete of international level, O’Callaghan actually achieved the B standard for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 before illness forced a premature end to his career. He subsequently coached Jamie Costin to that Olympics in Sydney and the Athens Olympics four years later.
“I was absolutely thrilled to get the phone call from the IAAF, although it now means a different challenge to get a baby-sitter while all three races are on!” he joked.
“It’s a massive honour and one I’m very proud of, but I also feel it is a fair reflection of where Irish race walking is on a world wide level”
Ireland has four race walkers taking part including medal hopeful Robert Heffernan (Cork) & Olive Loughnane (Galway) in the 20km and Jamie Costin (Waterford) and Colin Griffin (Leitrim) in the 50km.
Altogether, eight judges will officiate in the race walking events and O’Callaghan has been handed the onerous task to inform the unfortunate walkers in the event they receive warnings from three judges.
His wife, formerly Tamara O’Driscoll, is the ex-CEO of Cycling Ireland and is now a Senior Sponsorship Manager for the IOC based in Lausanne.
Incidentally, the Management Team of RunBritain.com is delighted to announce that Pierce has been appointed as the new Business Manager
O’Callaghan will take up his new position with effect from 1st October. He was Events Manager with scottishathletics for 18 months before taking up his present EAA position.
Athletics Ireland congratulates Pierce on his well earned appointment in Beijing and wish him an incident-free time as Deputy Chief Judge for the Walks.