It’s a quiet enough day for Team Ireland over in France with just three of our crew in action – Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow in golf, and Kate O’Connor in the heptathlon. Both golfers had a tough time of it in their opening rounds at Le Golf National, both finishing on six-over, tied for 50th in the 60-strong field. That leaves them a whole 13 shots behind leader Celine Boutier of France, so a podium place looks like a very distant dream. But O’Connor achieved her dream this morning by becoming the first Irish athlete to compete in the heptathlon at the Olympic Games, opening with her 100m hurdles run. Also in her schedule today are the high jump and shot, before she finishes up tomorrow with the long jump, javelin and 800m. You’d be tired just thinking about it.
Ian O’Riordan reports on Rhasidat Adekele becoming the first Irish woman to make an Olympic sprint final after she finished second in her 400m semi-final on Wednesday evening. It was, by her own admission, “a very messy race”, but she’s hell bent on “fixing everything” for the final. Malachy Clerkin, meanwhile, was at the Grand Palais in Paris to see another Tallaght athlete in action, this time Jack Woolley, and he was left asking “who knew taekwondo could be such a whirlpool of emotions?” It wasn’t to be in the end for the 25-year-old who was just two minutes away from a bronze medal match, but he was proud of his efforts. “Not every young guy from Tallaght can say he’s a two-time Olympian,” he said.
Barry Roche caught up with Limerick native Kieran Duggan who was in Paris to see the equestrian events at Versailles. He flew back to Dublin on Tuesday and happened to find himself sitting near two double Olympic gold medallists on the plane, Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy – and he ended up giving them a lift home to Cork. “It is not everyone can say they went to the Olympics and brought home two gold medallists,” writes Barry.
Back in Paris, there’s a mountain more action to watch today, with finals taking place in athletics, boxing, canoe sprint, diving, hockey, sailing and cycling, to name but a few. Among the highlights should be the women’s 400m hurdles, which pitches Femke Bol of the Netherlands against Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the United States, the two fastest women of all time over the distance. And in the men’s 200m final, Noah Lyles will be aiming to complete the first Olympic sprint double since Usain Bolt achieved the feat (just the three times).
Elsewhere, a couple of League of Ireland clubs are in European action this evening. Shamrock Rovers travel to Slovenia to face NK Celje, coached by former Liverpool winger Albert Riera, in the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie. St Pat’s host Sabah from Azerbaijan at Tallaght Stadium at the same stage of Europa Conference League qualifying. Neither match is on Irish TV.
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