O’Flynn taking aim at Rio
Daire Walsh
Four years on from missing out on a place at the Olympics in London, Cork native Audrey O’Flynn will be hoping to reach this year’s competition as part of the Irish Women’s Sevens squad.
O’Flynn was a member of the Irish hockey team when they lost a qualifying final in 2012, but with Irish hosting a Women’s Olympic Sevens Repechage tournament in UCD this weekend, she feels they can make their home advantage count.
“Yeah, this time four years ago, our Olympic qualifiers for hockey were in March in Belgium, and we lost in the final to Belgium. They had their home crowd, there was about 4,000 at the game, a compact stadium and the noise that they made! I was playing with a broken jaw at the time, and I didn’t know it,” O’Flynn stated.
“I had gum shields in. I remember the noise was so loud, you couldn’t hear anything and I was playing left-back, and I was trying to shout up to Lucy Jacob, who did play rugby for a bit, who was playing left-mid. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t hear, but the Belgians did have the advantage of the home crowd.
“Home advantage for us will be really important for this tournament here.”