Boxing
Reigning Olympic champion Kellie Harrington put in a commanding performance beating Valdes Pana of Columbia on a unanimous decision 5-0, to advance to the semi-finals of the lightweight division (60kg), and guarantee herself a least a bronze medal at these Games. In securing Team Ireland’s third medal at these Paris Olympic Games the Dubliner wrote herself into the history books as only the fourth Irish athlete to win medals at two separate Olympic Games.
It also secures the 38th medal in Irish Olympic sport in the country’s 100th anniversary at the Games and brings Irish boxing’s extraordinary contribution to 19 of that total.
Speaking afterwards Harrington said: “You don’t have time to think about what you’ve just done. You just think about what’s next. I’m very happy with my performances, I’m very proud of myself, I’m just glad to be here and doing what I love/hate to do, hate-to-love, love-to-hate.
“I’m just doing what I do. I’m just taking each day as it comes. I’m just enjoying it. This Olympics is about me enjoying it. About me doing it for me and me being happy again. I’m happy in what I’m doing and I’ve said it from day one; whatever happens happens.”
Only three other Irish athletes — two-time hammer champion Dr Pat O’Callaghan, boxer Paddy Barnes and rower Paul O’Donovan — have ever won medals at two separate Olympic Games, so the 34-year-old Dubliner has already joined a very exclusive club.
Earlier on Olympic debutant Jude Gallagher was beaten in his last 16 Featherweight (57kg) contest by previous Olympic medallist Carlo Paalam of the Philippines.
Aoife O’Rourke lost out in her 75kg fight, losing on a split decision after a messy bout against Poland’s Elzbieta Wojcik. It was a hugely disappointing defeat for the three-time European champion and second seed.
Rowing
Four Irish crews were on the water contesting semi-finals of their events, each needing to secure one of the top three spots in their respective semi-finals to progress to their Olympic finals.
Three of the four were successful with the Men’s Pair and both Lightweight Doubles all booking places in their respective Olympic finals which take place on Friday. Along with the Men’s Double of Doyle and Lynch, Team Ireland will now feature in four rowing finals at these Games, the highest number ever for the country.
The Men’s Pair of 23-year-old Nathan Timoney and 25-year-old Ross Corrigan were first of the three to advance, taking third in their semi-final.
Reigning Olympic and World Champions Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy secured their place in the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls final on Friday with another stunning performance on the water at Vaires-sur-Marne. The Cork duo lay third behind the French and Swiss crews at the 500m mark, but after a push they moved through them at the halfway point and by the time they hit the 1,500m mark they had clear water on both.
Giving his take afterwards O’Donovan said: “We felt good with the performance. The legs are feeling strong, I was feeling that way on camp on our training camp, we were moving the boat well and we had a lot of fatigue in the legs then, but freshening up a little bit now and starting to improve the technique a little bit since we’ve been here so we’re very much looking forward to Friday.”
An incredible race from Ireland’s Lightweight Women’s Double of Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey sees the Cork duo progress to their first Olympic final. Back in Tokyo, the pair finished in 8th place overall so to make the final at these Games is a clear sign of how much they have improved in the intervening years.
Cremen and Casey went off the start well, held their composure through the middle of the race, and broke the French double with 150m to go and pushed through them to take the third spot, just behind Greece and European champions Romania in top spot. Great Britain won the other semi-final over New Zealand and USA, and are considered favourites for gold on Friday.
There was much disappointment for the Women’s Pair of Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh as they missed out on the final with a sixth-place finish and a lacklustre performance in their semi-final.
Sailing
The last of the fleet series of races was completed today in the Men’s Skiff in Marseilles. Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove were 11th in race 10, and followed that up with 12th in race 11, but raced brilliantly by finishing second in the final race of the fleet series. The Dublin duo have qualified for the medal race lying second overall.
They qualify for Thursday’s medal race lying second overall just behind Spain, and marginally ahead of New Zealand. Dickson and Waddilove produced a stunning final race of the series, making a gutsy call at the start line to sail to the opposite side of the course to the bulk of the fleet. It was a move that paid dividends for the Irish crew who then led the entire race until the finishing line when the Croatians just pipped them by mere centimetres. Securing second or even third place in that final race keeps them in second overall for the fourth consecutive day.
The medal race, which is set for 1.43pm is over a shorter version of the course they have been racing all week, with points scored in it doubled and added to the series points to decide the medals.
As they came off the water Dickson said: “We’re really happy with how the week has gone. If someone had asked us, would you take second place going to the medal race with a chance of gold, at the start of the week we definitely would have taken it. Today was a really tough day, we had two really hard races, but we manage to bounce back — it was a really good last race.”
[ Opportunity knocks for Robert Dickson and Sean WaddiloveOpens in new window ]
Swimming
Mona McSharry was back inside the Paris La Défense Arena just over 36 hours after her bronze medal swim in the 100m breaststroke, this time moving up to the 200m distance, and although progressing to the semi-finals later on Wednesday night, her sixth place finish in 2:24.48 wasn’t enough to make the eight-woman final this time.
McSharry ended up ranked 11th, down on her 2:23.98 time from the heat earlier in the morning. She’ll have one more go in the Olympic pool, part of the women’s medley relay this weekend.
[ Mona McSharry runs out of steam and misses out on Olympic 200m breaststroke finalOpens in new window ]
Badminton
Team Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen produced another strong performance in his third and final Group match in the Men’s Badminton Singles group stages, providing defending Olympic champion Victor Axelsen with a firm test at La Chapelle Arena. Having won his opening two Group P matches at these Games, Dubliner Nguyen was hopeful heading into Wednesday morning’s clash with his Danish opponent, despite Axelsen’s extraordinary CV — reigning double world champion, Olympic champion, and four-time European champion. But despite giving his very best he lost out on a 21-13, 21-10 scoreline.
After losing her debut to a Swiss player in a three-game thriller, Rachael Darragh had somewhat of a mountain to climb; her second and final group game was against Spanish veteran Carolina Marin, the Rio Olympic champion who is a three-time world champion and the fourth seed in Paris. The Donegal player concluded her Games with a straight sets defeat to Carolina Marin at La Chapelle Arena (21-5, 21-5).
