Former RTE Atheltics commentator Tony O'Donoghue has died.
O'Donoghue spent over 40 years working with RTE and covered every Olympic Games between 1972 and 2012.
An athlete in his younger days he helped to colour the sport and boost its popularity during the years he spent behind the microphone.
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One of his most memorable commentary moments came in 1983 as Eamon Coghlan won gold in the 5,000m at the World Championships in Helsinki. As Coughlan approached the winning line O'Donoghue exclaimed, "Eamonn Coghlan is going to do what he has been threatening to do all his life.”
He helped make history in his own Athletics career back in 1958 when, during the Golden Mile race in Santry, he was one of five men who ran sub-minutes in the same race. A feat that had never been acheived before.
O'Donoghue was also a renowened and respected statistician. He also wrote and had his book 'Irish Championship Athletics 1873-1914' was published in 2005.
A number of his RTE colleagues have paid tribute to him on social media.
Des Cahill wrote, "Really sad news. I loved Tony as a commentator, and he was great company. May he rest in peace."
Greg Allen added, "Tony O’Donoghue (RIP) was a colleague I looked up to & my thoughts are with his family. He was so much more than a fine athletics commentator - a historian & statistician who backed his commentaries with painstaking deep ‘pre-internet’ research". Allen quote tweeted with a link to the aforementioned Coghlan commentary in 1983.
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