Irish in Action at the Olympics on Sunday:
- 10.17am: Golf - Shane Lowry (Final round) - finished -5, T26
- From 10.45am: Athletics - Nicola Tuthill (Hammer qualifying round) - finished 16th in qualifying, four places short of reaching the final.
- From 11.0am: Sailing - Finn Lynch (Dinghy races 7 and 8) - finished 13th and 11th to move to 10th overall. Two more races on Monday before medal race on Tuesday
- 11.28am: Golf - Rory McIlroy (Final round) - finished -15, T5
- 1pm: Cycling - Megan Armitage (Road Race) - finished 35th
- From 1.30pm: Sailing - Eve McMahon (Dinghy races 7 and 8) - finished 6th and 15th to move to 14th overall. Two more races on Monday before medal race on Tuesday
- 2.35pm: Canoe Slalom - Liam Jegou (Kayak Cross heat 2) - finished 3rd, eliminated
- 3.0pm: Canoe Slalom - Noel Hendrick (Kayak Cross heat 7) - finished 3rd, eliminated
- 4.20pm: Canoe Slalom - Madison Corcoran (Kayak Cross heat 8) - finished 4th in heat, eliminated
- 5.37pm: Swimming - Daniel Wiffen (1,500m Freestyle final) - wins bronze medal
- 8.10pm: Athletics - Cathal Doyle (1,500m semi-finals) - finished 10th in second semi-final (PB)
That’s it from us for the evening. See you tomorrow when there is plenty Irish interest, starting early. Night!
9.00am: Ciara McGing (Diving – 10m Platform)
10.55am: Rhasidat Adeleke, Sharlene Mawdsley, Sophie Becker (Athletics – 400m heats)
11.55am: Eve McMahon (Sailing – Dinghy series race)
From 1.00pm: Shane Sweetnam, Daniel Coyle, Cian O’Connor (Equestrian Showjumping – Individual qualifiers)
1.40pm: Finn McCarthy (Sailing – Dinghy series race)
Athletics: Would they have called that a dead heat in the old days? Who knows. Either way, Noah Lyles has made a big deal of celebrating, running around with his name tag held over his head for all to see, so they’ll hardly take it off him at this stage. What a finish!
Athletics: Pretty extraordinary finish in the men’s 100m final where it felt like most of the field crossed the line simultaneously. The gold medal has gone to Noah Lyles of the USA although he actually finished in the same time, 9.79 seconds, as Kishane Thompson of Jamaica. Poor Thompson - that one will be tough to take. Fred Kerley of USA takes the bronze.
And here’s Johnny Watterson reporting from Le Golf National where Rory McIlroy saw his back nine surge come to an abrupt end when his approach to the 15th found the water, in the end leaving him narrowly outside the medals.
[ More frustration for McIlroy as Scheffler’s stunning surge seals Olympic goldOpens in new window ]
Swimming: Here’s Ian O’Riordan’s report on Daniel Wiffen’s bronze medal this evening.
History: For the first time ever, Ireland has won seven medals at an Olympic Games. It’s champagne time.
Swimming: A fair point from Andrew Bree on RTE - if Wiffen had won bronze first, and then gold, we’d be dancing in the streets. But the other way ‘round and we’re going ‘is that all?’ We’re a hoot.
Daniel Wiffen speaking on RTE: “Right now I’m happy but disappointed at the same time. Looking across the week, I can’t be more pleased than to be an Olympic champion, but the bronze medal .... I know I said I’d be happy with any medal, but when you take gold in the first race you don’t want less than that. But I’m happy, we never had a medal before in the Olympics, for men, so to come away with two, I’m very happy. I did try to dig deep and push it, but I just didn’t have enough today.”
“But I couldn’t dream of anything better [at these Games], being an Olympic champion is a dream come true. I did have my sights set on a world record, but today wasn’t the day. Well done to Bobby, he did class to get a world record. We’ll be back better next time. Tonight I’m going to celebrate, I’m ready to put the pool behind me until next season. To be honest, it’s quite emotional. Today’s race didn’t go my way, but who cares, I’m an Olympic champion.”
Swimming: What are we like, disappointed with bronze? But you’d have a notion that Daniel Wiffen won’t be happy with that, such are the standards the fella has set for himself.
Swimming: Bobby Finke has retained his 1,500m freestyle Olympic title - and has broken the world record set by Chinese swimmer Sun Yang at London 2012. Daniel Wiffen takes bronze, having never really challenged for the lead. Gregorio Paltrinieri wins silver.
Swimming: Wiffen struggling to close the gap on the front two with 250m to go, he’s still in third.
Swimming: With 500m to go, it’s still Finke leading, inside world record pace, Paltrinieri in second and Wiffen in third.... he has a fair bit of work to do.
Swimming: No change in the order of the leading three, Finke setting a blinding rate that’s inside world record pace. 650m to go.
Swimming: Bobby Finke leading, Gregorio Paltrinieri in second, Daniel Wiffen up to third with 1,000m to go. Very, very tight.
Swimming: And they’re off in the men’s 1,500m freestyle final - go on Daniel, ya good thing! How confident is he? Well, he made a W with his fingers when he came out, which RTE tells us means he’s going for that world record. If only he had some confidence.
Swimming: It’s almost Wiffen time, Daniel aiming for his second gold medal at these games in the 1,500m final (5.37pm). These are the, eh, runners and riders in lane order.
1 Damien Joly (France)
2 Kuzey Tuncelli (Turkey)
3 Ahmed Jaouadi (Tunisia)
4 Daniel Wiffen (Ireland)
5 Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy)
6 David Aubry (France)
7 Bobby Finke (USA)
8 David Bethlehem (Hungary)
Finke and Paltrinieri finished second and third, respectively, behind Wiffen in the 800m freestyle final, Finke having done the 800m and 1,500m double in Tokyo, Paltrinieri the 1,500m champion in Rio 2016.
Amazingly, Finke is the United States’ last hope of an individual men’s gold at these Games - they won six in Tokyo. No disrespect to the fella, but here’s to Wiffin leaving them with a duck.
The RTE panel is feeling mega confident. Earl McCarthy reckons there’s no doubt that he’ll win, the only question is whether he’ll break the world record. “I think we’re in for something special,” said Andrew Bree. Tingles.
Golf: As well as being the world number one, Scottie Scheffler is now Olympic champion. Tommy Fleetwood couldn’t get that birdie he needed to force a play-off, so he takes silver. Hideki Matsuyama collects bronze, with Jon Rahm tying with Rory McIlroy for sixth. Rahm is left to wonder where it all went wrong. He looked a cert for gold until his round fell apart with six dropped shots in the final nine.
Golf: Tommy Fleetwood needs a birdie on the 18th if he is to force a play-off with Scottie Scheffler - the American is in the clubhouse on 19 under after a brilliant round of 62. Hideki Matsuyama’s work is done, he’s in third place, with only Jon Rahm, a shot behind, able to catch him.
Golf: There’ll be no medal for Rory McIlroy, he finishes on 15 under which has him in sixth. That trip to the water proved oh so costly.
Tennis: Novak Djokovic has done it, he’s only gone and beaten the boy wonder Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (7-3) 6-6 (7-2) to take Olympic gold. His collection of honours is complete.
Golf: Scottie Scheffler finishes with a joint course record of 62, he’s level with Tommy Fleetwood on 19 under - Fleetwood has two holes left to play. Rory McIlroy needs a ..... miracle?
Sailing: Excellent news from the Dinghy event, Finn Lynch has moved in to the top 10 after his final outing of the day, if he holds that position after tomorrow’s two races, he’ll be through to Tuesday’s medal race.
Golf: ...... but, Scottie Scheffler is in a spot on bother on the 18th after a decidedly stray shot. Hold it, he just played a beaut in to the green. He’s something else.
Golf: Big prediction here - Scottie Scheffler has a future in golf. He’s having a storming finish to this tournament and is on track to break the course record. He’s now in the lead on his own, one ahead of Tommy Fleetwood.
Golf: A frustrating day for Shane Lowry, he bogeyed two of the last three holes to finish with a 71 - that leaves him tied for 26th for now.
Golf: This is excruciating.
Golf: Scottie Scheffler, as is his habit, is in serious gold contention now after a birdie saw him join Tommy Fleetwood on 18 under. Jon Rahm is having a nightmarish conclusion to this round, having been cruising to gold earlier - he’s just had a double bogey and drops to 16 under.
Golf: As feared, it is indeed a double bogey for Rory McIlroy at the 15th after he found the water. He’s down to 15 under, three off the lead with six players now in front of him.
Golf: You clearly didn’t light enough candles, Rory has just found the water with his second shot to the 15th. He’s facing a double bogey here.
Golf: Start lighting candles. This minute.
Golf: Another birdie for McIlroy!! His fifth in a row! And he came mighty close to an eagle! He’s now just one stroke behind joint leaders Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood with four to play. Breeeeeeeathe.
Golf: There’s live coverage of this fantabulous conclusion to the tournament on the RTE News channel - RTE2 and BBC1 are dropping in and out.
Golf: Holy smokes, Jon Rahm has just had back-to-back bogeys! And Rory is only two shots behind him!
Kellie Harrington: Johnny Watterson writes about what is likely to be Harrington’s final international bout when she defends her Olympic title against China’s Yang Wenlu at Roland Garros on Tuesday. “It may have been her 100th win in the North Paris Arena late on Saturday night, but the 101st will mean much more to the Irish lightweight Olympic champion than any other of her career.”
[ Kellie Harrington targeting a golden finale to her international careerOpens in new window ]
Tennis: It’s turning in to another epic Novak Djokovic v Carlos Alcaraz battle in a brilliant Olympic final. Djokovic might be 16 years the Spaniard’s senior, be the possessor of a dodgy right knee, and is playing on his less favoured surface of clay (although French Open wins in 2016, 2021 and 2023 suggest he’s not rubbish on it) .... but he’s just taken the first set on a tie-break. There’s life in the auld fella yet.
Golf: A third birdie on the trot for Rory McIlroy at the 12th! He’s up to 15 under, just one shot off the bronze slot. Jon Rahm (-19) now just two shots clear of Hideki Matsuyama and Tommy Fleetwood.
By the By: In that ad for a certain telecommunications company, why does that boy and his family live in a lighthouse? And how come that girl he likes just happened to be passing by?
Golf: Ooooh, not long after we said Rory McIlroy was having trouble finding birdies, he’s just helped himself to two. He’s up to 14 under, which has him tied for fifth and getting close to a medal spot. Jon Rahm is still three shots clear at the top.
Sailing: Finn Lynch is up to 13th in the men’s Dinghy overall standings, three spots short of the required top 10 finish to qualify for Tuesday’s medal race. He has one more race later today, and another two tomorrow to clinch his place.
Golf: Jon Rahm is three shots clear now, Rory McIlroy still on 12 under, birdies proving hard to find.
Golf: We were just about to tell you that Jon Rahm was playing flawlessly to take a two shot lead - and then his drive from the eighth tee nearly ended up in Spain. Rory McIlroy is six shots behind, and Shane Lowry is another five adrift.
Table tennis: For the first time since 2004, we don’t have an all-Chinese men’s singles final after Sweden’s Truls Möregårdh, ranked 26 in the world, upset the odds by making it through to meet Fan Zhendong, the beaten finalist in Tokyo. Starting any minute now.
Tennis: RTE2 have left the golf for now and are bringing live coverage of the men’s singles final, Novak Djokovic v Carlos Alcaraz.
Cycling: The women’s road race is about to get under way, all 157.6km of it - there’s live coverage on Eurosport 2.
Golf: This is the current state of play on top of the leaderboard, Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm leading the field, Rory McIlroy four shots further back. It’s live now on RTE2.
Cycling: Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky, the reigning world champion, is the favourite to take gold in the road race, but there’ll be a strong Dutch challenge from Lorena Wiebes, Demi Vollering and the legend that is Marianne Vos, the 37-year-old who has just about won it all in cycling - including gold in the road race at the 2012 Games. Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini and Elisa Balsamo and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma will be expected to be in the medal hunt too.
In an effort to deceive you all in to believing that there’s nothing this blog doesn’t know about Vos, a visit was, of course, paid to Wikipedia. A measure of the achievements of the ‘GOAT’ is that they had to set up an entire separate page from her biography to list all she’s won in the sport. And it would take a sizeable amount of time to scroll down to the bottom of that roll of honour. Gobsmacking.
Cycling: At 1.0, Megan Armitage will become the first female Irish cyclist to compete at the Olympic Games since the late Deirdre Murphy in Sydney in 2000. Remarkably, the 28-year-old native of Shinrone, Co Offaly only took up cycling four years ago after an injury forced her to put her marathon running on hold.
She was a student in Toulouse at the time, during the Erasmus year of her law and French course in UCD, and caught her new sporting bug when she went on a cycling holiday in the Pyrenees. When she returned home during lockdown after Covid hit, she passed her time cycling up and down Slieve Bloom. And here she is, an Olympian cyclist. Netflix have made documentaries out of lesser stories.
Golf: Two birdies in his opening three holes have nudged Rory McIlroy further up the leaderboard - he’s now just two strokes behind joint leaders Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm, and one behind Scottie Scheffler.
Rhys McClenaghan: He’s out and about in Paris, atop an imaginary pommel horse.
Nicola Tuthill: “I’m happy. I’m always looking for that 70 throw, I’ve been at 69.90 twice now in my last two competitions, so I’m dying to break it. I’m not massively far off. But to bring out the 69, yeah, delighted. I’m only 20, I was the youngest in the field, so to be here was amazing. The first throw didn’t go my way, so I was a little bit stressed, but to be able to put out a 68 and then a 69, I’m so happy. I’ve had such a good year, I made the Olympics, which is pretty cool. Keep building, hopefully. I’m not finished yet, I’m going to keep working.”
Daniel Wiffen: Ian O’Riordan was in the Paris La Défense Arena on Saturday morning to see Wiffen cruise to qualification for this afternoon’s 1,500m final, earning himself the key lane four by being the fastest of the eight men to make it through. He’s not just targeting his second gold medal of these Games, though.
“I’ll give you a little insight, I am going to try and crack the world record,” he said. 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.” You wouldn’t put anything past this fella.
[ Daniel Wiffen on course for Olympic swimming double after heat processionOpens in new window ]
Athletics: Before Saturday evening, the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia (population: 178,696) had never won an Olympic medal of any colour, and then Julien Alfred came along and took gold in the 100m final. She’s a University of Texas team-mate and training partner of our own Rhasidat Adeleke …. who had a 100m win over her earlier in the year. As if we weren’t excited enough about the Tallaght woman. Need it be said, the Saint Lucia folk were a bit chuffed.
Hammer: Nicola Tuthill finishes up with a fine throw of 69.90m. That moved her up to 16th in the overall rankings, four short of the required placing to make the final. But an impressive showing from the 20-year-old who learned her craft in the home-made throwing circle and cage that her father set up for her on their dairy farm in Cork. Finland’s Krista Tervo’s 74.79m throw was the longest in qualification.
Tennis: Novak Djokovic meets Carlos Alcaraz in today’s singles final, in what is a repeat of last month’s Wimbledon decider which the Spaniard won in straight sets. The match will start around 12.30.
Hammer: After failing to register a throw with her first effort, Nicola Tuthill gets on the board with a solid 68.87m with her second. She’s up to sixth in her 16-strong qualifying group with the top 12 going through to the final.
Golf: Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry both produced fine rounds of 66 on Saturday, but Lowry is still nine strokes off the lead, so will need a minor-ish miracle in today’s final round to get himself into contention for a spot on the podium - he teed off at 10.17am. McIlroy, though, has a more than decent chance of a medal if he can find his mojo. He’s tied for sixth, just four shots adrift of leaders Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm, three behind Tommy Fleetwood, and one short of Hideki Matsuyama and Nicolai Hoejgaard. He starts at 11.28am.
[ Rory McIlroy moves into Olympic gold medal picture after 66 in third roundOpens in new window ]
Hammer: Bandon’s Nicola Tuthill makes her Olympic bow this morning in the qualifying round of the hammer, the 20-year-old the youngest competitor in the field. She made a big impression in the European Championships back in June when she finished ninth in what was her first senior final. She is only the third female Irish thrower to make it to the Olympics, following Patricia Walsh (discus, 1984) and Eileen O’Keeffe (hammer, 2008).
Kellie Harrington: There’s no pulling punches here, so to speak, but it’s been a hugely disappointing Olympics for our boxing team, nine of the 10-strong group making early exits, one or two not helped by peculiar judging, to put it politely. Harrington, then, was left to fly the flag, securing at least bronze with a brilliant display in her quarter-final.
And now we’re talking at least silver after she beat Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira in her semi-final on Saturday night, the same woman she defeated to win gold in Tokyo. Johnny Watterson was on hand to see Harrington remain on track to retain her Olympic title.
Rhys McClenaghan: Where else would we start our Saturday catch-up but with this fella? After the heartache he endured in Tokyo, he’d have been forgiven for packing it all in and choosing a more leisurely life. But there he was in the Arena Bercy with gold draped around his neck, Ireland’s first Olympic medallist in gymnastics. Magnificent.
Ian O’Riordan was there to witness McClenaghan “again balancing his incredibly cool nerve and biting ambition with another dazzling display of excellence on the pommel horse”. (In time, our consciences will forgive us for hoping the last four competitors in the final would, well, slip off their high horses).
Good morning everyone. Did any of you have the maddest of dreams last night about Ireland winning a medal on each and every one of the last six days at these Olympic Games, the latest a gold for Rhys McClenaghan on Saturday? And then you woke up and realised it all actually happened? Same here. We’re in pinch-yerself territory. We’ve already matched our highest ever medal haul, achieved at London 2012 ….. with a whole week to go.
Lest you forget: Monday: Mona McSharry (bronze). Tuesday: Daniel Wiffen (gold). Wednesday: Kellie Harrington (bronze, at least… and now with another shot at gold). Thursday: Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch (bronze). Friday: Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy (gold). Saturday: Rhys McClenaghan (gold). Sunday: No pressure at all, Daniel Wiffen, but it would be very nice if you could keep this daily dose of delight going in this afternoon’s 1,500m freestyle final (5.37pm).
But after the glut of Irish activity the last week, we have a slightly quieter day today with a mere 11 of our team in action. Among the day’s highlights are finals in the men’s 100m in athletics, the women’s 50m freestyle in swimming, and in the men’s singles in tennis and table tennis.
