Gymnastics
Rhys McClenaghan won an Olympic gold medal in the Pommel Horse final, with a magnificent score of 15.533.
In doing so the Co Down gymnast won Team Ireland’s sixth medal at these Games and third gold.
In becoming Olympic champion the 25-five-year-old writes himself into the history books by becoming the first Irish gymnast ever to win an Olympic medal.
McClenaghan performed the routine of a lifetime, scoring 15:333 with a huge difficulty score of 6.600 and a typically brilliant execution score of 8.933.
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McClenaghan was asked if he thought he’d done enough for gold on landing.
“No, I didn’t know that I’d won as soon as I landed. But I knew that I had done my job. I’d done the most difficult routine I could do on this day and that’s where the tears and the emotions came from really.
“This was the best pommel horse final that has ever happened in my eyes, ever, in the history of men’s gymnastics. To be a part of that is incredible and any one of those eight finalists could have taken gold today.”
On his emotions when he’d completed his routine: “I guess relief is always one when you land. Proud of myself as well for doing it under that pressure. I just saw Louis Smith there in the media zone and one of my favourite Olympic moments, maybe my favourite, was when he performed his routine at the London 2012 Olympic Games and I went to and watched the Opening Ceremony and saw posters of Louis Smith everywhere.
“It seemed like the weight of the world was on his shoulders and it felt like this was my Louis Smith London 2012 moment coming in here – I’m the double world champion coming into this, Ireland knew this could be our first ever Olympic gymnastics medal and I delivered under that pressure. That was the emotion that you were seeing there that I had done my job regardless of that pressure I was under.”
Boxing
A sublime Kellie Harrington became the first women in Irish history to contest two Olympic finals in boxing when she earned a 4-1 split decision win over Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira.
Reacting after her fight on RTÉ, Harrington said: “I actually have no words, for a change I’m speechless. It’s not often you get that. I just can’t believe that happened again.
“I thought she was just going to rush at me, I think she tried to outbox me, but I felt good, I felt happy.
“At one stage she hit me with her head and I genuinely thought my tooth was after coming out, but they’re still there, thank God.
“She’s an incredible fighter, she’s a pro now. I’m not looking at anything other than embracing the moment and enjoying it. As long as I get out of the ring and I’m happy, that’s all that matters. It’s only a sport, at the end of the day, that’s all it is. It doesn’t define me as a person, I’m still Kellie Harrington.”
Harrington will fight China’s Wenlu Yang in Tuesday night’s final at 10.06pm Irish time, with the boxing deciders moving to the tennis stadium at Roland Garros.
Swimming
Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen has secured a centre lane for Sunday’s 1,500m freestyle final (5.37pm Irish time) after a cool and controlled heat swim on Saturday morning. The Armagh man touched in 14:40.34 ahead of 800m freestyle bronze medallist Gregorio Paltrinieri (14:42.56) of Italy and Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi (14:44.20) in his heat.
The time is Wiffen’s fourth fastest ever and second fastest in 2024 behind his gold-medal world championships swim in Doha (14:34.07).
After his swim Wiffen said: “I’m not gonna lie, I felt like I was carrying a bit of fatigue still. I haven’t really slept properly since the 800m. I’m still getting eight hours but it’s not the perfect sleep that I want.
“The start was a bit uncomfortable and then I really settled into the pace and I was actually kind of surprised that I went that fast. It felt like a 14:50 swim but it was a 14:40, maybe my pace is a bit off in my head but we’ll see.
Talking about how he plans to recover between now and Sunday’s final, he said: “Just sleep a lot. That’s what the Chinese 100m freestyler said when he broke the world record and that’s exactly what I’m going to do ... sleep a lot. I’ve had to park the 800, put it in the back of my mind, going into this race I’m looking at it as I haven’t won anything and going in with the same attitude as the 800m final.
“I’ll give you a little insight. I am going to try and crack the world record. If it happens it happens, and if it doesn’t it doesn’t but I think personally that it’s going to take that to win gold. We’ll see.”
Both Ireland’s men’s and women’s 4x100m medley relays secured sixth place in their heats and 11th overall in new Irish records. The men’s team of Conor Ferguson (backstroke), Darragh Greene (breaststroke), Max McCusker (butterfly) and Shane Ryan (freestyle) broke the record of 3:34.62 set in May 2021 – a team that included Greene and Ryan – in 3:33.81, moving them up four places on the entry rankings.
It was the first time an Ireland men’s medley relay competed at an Olympic Games, while Ryan also made history as the first Irishman to swim at three Olympic Games.
Mona McSharry, bronze medallist in the 100m breaststroke, was joined by Danielle Hill (backstroke), Ellen Walshe (butterfly) and Grace Davison (freestyle) in the women’s event. The team broke the 4:01.75 Irish record set at the World Championships in Fukuoka in 2023 that qualified them for Paris swimming a combined 4:00.12. That team included McSharry, Hill and Walshe with Victoria Catterson. It is also the first time since 1972 that Ireland have had a team in the medley event.
In the Women’s 50m freestyle, Hill clocked her third fastest time ever to finish eighth in her heat and 21st overall in 25.02. The Larne swimmer has had a busy week competing in the women’s freestyle relay and 100m backstroke as well as two events on Saturday morning. She progressed to the semi-final of the backstroke event.
Golf
Rory McIlroy has catapulted himself into medal contention in the men’s Individual golf with a blemish-free round of 66 at Le Golf National.
Knowing he had to shoot a low score to kick-start his hopes of a podium finish at Paris 2024, McIlroy carded five birdies on Saturday to sit on 10 under par and four shots behind co-leaders Xander Schauffele of America and Spain’s Jon Rahm heading into Sunday’s final round.
McIlroy is in a tie for sixth and part of a star-studded top 10 including defending Olympic champion Schauffele, Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama and world number one Scottie Scheffler.
Shane Lowry also powered up the leaderboard on Saturday morning, as eight birdies helped him to a third round 66. He sits on a tie for 23rd nine shots off the lead.
Cycling
Ben Healy finished 10th in the 272.1km men’s road race to record Ireland’s best-ever finish in Olympic cycling after an impressive attacking performance from the Irish duo of Healy and Ryan Mullen. Mullen went on the attack with three other riders just 70m in, and bridged to the leaders who were eventually distanced by the power of the Irish rider.
Ben Healy counterattacked in typically forthright style from the main peloton alongside Alexiy Lutsenko with 92km remaining. After joining Mullen up front with 76km to go, who notably emptied the tank to put team-mate Healy in with a shout, Mullen dropped back 10km later, and Healy pressed on with the Kazak rider in tow. He was joined by a quality chase group and remained in a lead break of three inside the last 30km when eventual race winner Remco Evenepoel and silver medal winner Valentin Madouas pressed on.
Healy was absorbed by the chasers but was still hung on with considerable grit an eight-rider group, one minute 16 seconds down sprinting for the bronze medal at the Trocadero in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on a memorable day for Irish cycling. After his breakaway heroics Ryan Mullen completed the race in 60th position, just under 16m 56s behind Evenepoel.
Afterwards Healy said: “I did what I could and played my cards the best way I knew how to, which gave me the best opportunity of trying to go for a medal. I’m super proud of the performance and the team. I’ve got to be happy with that. Maybe if I had a little more in the tank I could’ve been super close to a medal but top 10 is something to be proud of.”
Sailing
In the women’s dinghy, 21-year-old Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) finished 22nd in race 4 of her fleet series, and 34th in race 5, which will probably be her discard score. McMahon finished the day in more positive fashion with a 13th in race 6 to leave her 17th overall.
In race 5 of the men’s dinghy, Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) placed 12th improving to an impressive 7th in race six to end the day lying 15th overall.
Canoe Slalom
All three canoeists successfully moved through to the next round of Kayak Cross. Madison Corcoran is through to Sunday’s Women’s Kayak Cross heats after a second-place finish in the repechage. She crossed the line in fourth place on Saturday morning in round one which meant that she had to race again this evening in the repechage.
Struggling at the first upstream gate, Corcoran was left behind by the Chinese and Polish canoeists. Catching up with China in the next upstream gate, she made sure to fully complete the gate. China crossed the line ahead of Ireland but they picked up a fault on the gate, so it was Corcoran taking that place through to the heats.
In round one of the men’s Kayak Cross both Noel Hendrick and Liam Jegou missed out on direct qualification to the heats and had to race in this afternoon’s repechage. Hendrick finished third in his round one race and Jegou finished in fourth place.
In a strong performance in the reps, Hendrick took the win in his race, guaranteeing his spot in Sunday’s heats.
Liam Jegou also had a win in his repechage putting him into the mix for the next round.
Athletics
Cathal Doyle produced a clinical performance to advance to the semi-finals of the Men’s 1,500m. The 26-year-old Dubliner demonstrated all his tactical nous to stride clear to victory in his repechage of the event in a time of 3:34.92.
Luke McCann finished seventh in the same race, running 3:36.50, with only the top three advancing failed to qualify. There was also disappointment for Andrew Coscoran who was off his best in his repechage, coming home in 12th position in a time of 3:39.45.
