IN ALL FAIRNESS - Tisdall's heroics rightly remembered

IN ALL FAIRNESS

 

As part of the Nenagh 800 festivities this year it was great to see an exhibition launched last week of one of Ireland's greatest Olympians, Tipperary's own Bob Tisdall.

As the build-up begins to this years Olympics in Toyko, Tipperary is long overdue more Olympic glory and we hope that Nenagh's Aisling Keller will get the opportunity to represent Ireland in sailing and become the 88th athlete from the Premier County or with strong Tipperary connections to compete in the biggest sporting event in the world.

Clonmel’s own Dr Pat O’Callaghan was the first Irish man to win a gold medal in the modern Olympic Games when he won the Hammer at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.

Four years later, Bob Tisdall won the second in the 400m Hurdles at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Tisdall was born in Sri Lanka on 16th May 1907 but was raised in Hazel Point near Dromineer from an early age. He couldn't but be a sportsman as his father was an All-Irish Sprint champion while his mother played hockey for Ireland and was a formidable golfer also.

Tisdall had, in the midst of the difficult economic circumstances in Ireland at the time, what he describes as "the best job in the world", as an aide to a young Indian Maharaja (King), escorting him around Europe, showing him the cultural sights.
To pursue his Olympic dream, Tisdall had to leave this job and lived in a disused railway carriage in an orchard, where he trained by running around the rows of trees.

Early in 1932, he wrote to General Eoin O'Duffy, then the President of the Olympic Council of Ireland, and asked to be considered for the Irish Olympic team in the 400 metres hurdles, also confessing that he had not previously run in the event.

O'Duffy was convinced that Tisdall could achieve a good time and later invited him to compete in a special Olympic trial at Croke Park, hence the word Athletic in the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).

Tisdall failed to make the qualifying time, but General O'Duffy gave him another chance and Tisdall qualified for the Irish team by winning the National 440 yards (402m) hurdles title at the Irish Championships, also at Croke Park.

After winning his preliminary heat at the Olympic Games Los Angeles, Tisdall equaled the Olympic record of 52.8 seconds in the semi-finals. As this was only the fifth time he competed at this event, Tisdall said: "I said to myself, 'Well, you've run in the semi-finals and equaled the Olympic record; Bob, you're really getting the hang of this!"

Then in the final, despite stumbling at the final hurdle, he won the gold medal in 51.7 seconds which would have been a world record but for the fact that he had knocked over the last hurdle, and under the laws prevailing at the time, this ruled out recognition of a world record.

Still not bad for a man that wasn't proficiant in the distance only months early but it showed his perseverence to live the dream of bring an Olympian and not only that, become an Olympic champion. It is worth noting that four Olympic hurdles champions appeared in that one race.

Later, because of he hurdle-hitting incident, the rules were changed and the then President of the IOC Juan Antonio Samaranch presented Tisdall with a Waterford Crystal Rose Bowl with the image of him knocking over the last hurdle etched into the glass.

Indeed, one of the spikes worn by Bob in his 1932 Olympic success is on display at Nenagh Heritage Centre as part of the exhibition which also includes pictorial records of the various stages of his life and personal material donated by his family in Australia to Nenagh Heritage Centre.

In 2002, Tisdall along with North Tipperary's other two Olympians Matt McGrath and Johnny Hayes, who both competed and won gold medals for the United States were immortalised in life-size statues in the grounds of Nenagh Courthouse.

The Bob Tisdall exhibition will run at Nenagh Heritage Centre until June, from Tuesday to Friday, from 10am – 4pm