Raducanu's riding high.

DEREK LYNG insists Kilkenny’s 10-year famine has nothing to do with the current crop. 

The Cats have been starved of success in the last decade, and have not won Liam MacCarthy since 2015.

TJ Reid, Richie Reid and stopper Eoin Murphy are the only survivors from their last title when Lyng was a selector under Brian Cody. 

But their boss says there is no 10-year cloud over the dressing room ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary. 

He said: “None whatsoever, none whatsoever. That’s not on this group. That’s sport. Anytime you get through and win something you have to earn it. That’s what we’ve been trying to do. 

“What I’m looking for from the team is a really good attitude and application in terms of how they go about the games. I’ve been really pleased with how we’ve done that so far. 

“We think we have a bit to go yet and we know we need to up it again this weekend. That’s all we’re looking for.”

Sunday’s clash is one of hurling’s great rivalries, and Lyng grew up in Urlingford where that edge was felt the most. 

The border with Tipperary was only a couple of kilometres away, so he was no stranger to what these games meant as a child. 

He sat in the Hogan stand when Tipp prevailed in the 1991 All-Ireland before facing his neighbours in four championship games as a player, winning three and losing one. 

Lyng prevailed in back to back semi-finals in 2003, as well as the 2009 All-Ireland final before Liam Sheedy’s men halted their drive for five a year later. 

Sunday’s clash will be their first championship showdown since Tipp won the 2019 All-Ireland, and blew the Cats away 3-25 to 0-20. 

After romping to their sixth Leinster title in a row against Galway last month, game seven awaits in their quest for glory. 

Kilkenny’s manager will block out the rivalry as much as he can, but it will never go away.

He said: “I think it’s a healthy rivalry, and I get it. I think when Kilkenny and Tipp meet, there’ll be a lot of talk this week in media – and that’s fine and it adds to the whole story of it and it builds up the game and everything else. 

“The fact that we’re playing Tipperary adds to it, if anything. Nothing else comes into play. This team are after performing really well all year. 

“Any game you play against Tipperary that I’ve been involved in is always a tough game. I think there’s a lot of respect there between both counties, always has been. 

“There have been massive games with Tipperary right the way through. Some we got out on top of, some we didn’t.

“But at the same time, when we go to play each other, we’re both competitive and we want to win and perform.

“That’s what makes it special, then you get the games that we’ve got in the past. But like I said, for ourselves, it’s just about focusing on our performance now.

“We know what the challenge is, we have to take it to another level now. That’s what’s in front of us, so that’s where the focus is going.

“But for us, it’s the next game. It’s about performing and you can’t get caught up too much in the emotion of it all. For us, an All-Ireland semi-final is a huge event in itself.”

KILKENNY DEMONS

And Kilkenny have their semi-final demons to banish too. The Cats held a commanding 1-11 to 0-8 lead against Clare in the last four a year ago. 

But a whopping second half surge from the Banner killed the game as Brian Lohan’s men edged it 0-24 to 2-16 and went on to land the big one against Cork in the final. 

Kilkenny’s failure to kill them off dominated the post-mortems. But Lyng insists the best team won, and hopes his players have learned their lesson.

He said: “I don’t think we threw it away, I think the best team won on the day. I don’t think we earned it. This is a different year, a different game. 

“Obviously, you try and learn from that game and you bring that into the start of the year. We definitely didn’t throw it away. 

“We were obviously in a strong position at half-time and that’s been well documented. We didn’t do enough in the second half, simple as that. The better team won. 

“We know we’re going to have to perform for over 75 minutes in this game to win an All-Ireland semi-final. You have to. Games ebb and flow. 

“You’re not going to have it your way all the time. It’s about digging out that. The other team gets on top for a while and seeing that through and taking advantage when you’re on top. 

“And that’s really the game, being efficient when you get those chances. Anytime you’re in an All-Ireland semi-final it’s a huge opportunity. You’re one game away from being in the final. 

“We’re playing Tipperary so straight away it’s not exactly a team that hasn’t been used to playing in All-Ireland finals or used to success. The opportunity is always there. 

“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. Like I said before, Tipperary brings an added excitement to the whole thing. For us the focus doesn’t change, really.”

KATE O’CONNOR’S Masters dissertation is on how to boost audiences for major championships.

When it comes to Ireland at least, she may well be the answer as well as the one posing the question.

With a European bronze and world silver in pentathlon, the Newry woman has already made her mark on the indoor season.

Now she is gearing up to do likewise outdoors in heptathlon and almost casually mentions she expects to break her own national record of 6,297 points at the World University Games in Germany this month.

O’Connor – speaking from her training camp in Portugal –  said: “At the start of the year, I gave myself a couple of goals.

“And I broke them multiple times during indoors, but my obvious goal at World University’s is to break the national record.

“If I finish, that should definitely happen. I’m not really putting a limit on the score I could do, just go out and have a bit of fun, see where I am.

“My first barrier is to break 6500, I’d like to do that at World University Games and then build on it.

“I think I will put together a pretty big score, but I obviously have to go out and do it.”

It will be her last such championship with her dissertation for her post-grad course in Communications and Public Relations due in September.

she  said: “It ‘s actually an athletics based dissertation. I’m looking at visibility of the world champs in 2023 and how to kind of boost the audience for other championships in the future. 

“It’s been very interesting, looking at it from a different perspective but I can’t wait to get it done to be honest. I’ve it about half done.”

Her exploits, along with others such as Rhasidat Adeleke, Sarah Healy and Mark English, have gone some way to raising the profile of track and field here.

And she admitted she was underprepared for the fallout for her two podium finishes earlier in the year.

She said: “I was probably very naive. I took like three weeks off after World Indoors – ‘I’ll just deal with all the media stuff then, I’ll get all that stuff out of the way and then I’ll just go back into training’. 

“And it hasn’t really been like that. It’s kind of like now every week there’s something where people are kind of wanting me to do different things.

“So it’s been busy and I’ve had to change things around a little bit and trying to work out when to say yes to stuff and no to other stuff.”

In the absence of an agent, her father, and coach, Michael has assumed additional responsibilities to deal with the extra demands on her time.

But the impact of her achievements has largely been positive, attracting increased sponsorship to deal with the significant outlay that comes with being a multi-disciplinary athlete.

BIG DEAL

She recently signed a contract with Adidas and the plan is to be a full-time athlete for at least a few years, although she is honest enough to admit that her studies were in a distant second place of late.

After the World University Games, she plans to compete in some individual events, including at the National Championships in a month’s time as she gears up for the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

Javelin is earmarked for improvement, with her personal best dating back to 2025. And world silver medalist Anna Hall’s 800m time of 2:01.23 – a heptathlon world record – as part of a PB of 7032 in Austria last month served as a reminder of how standards are rising.

She said: “Her performance was amazing to watch. I think what she’s done in the 800m has changed everyone’s perspective on what multi-eventers should be running.

“It used to be that if you were running a sub 2:10, you were a great 800m runner. Now it’s going to shift towards having to run 2:05 to be at the races.

“I think that it’ll take another couple of years to be challenging for the top spot. And that’s ultimately my goal.”

O’Connor was speaking as it was announced 123.ie was extending its partnership with Athletics Ireland to 2030 in a multi-annual six figure deal.

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