Athletics: Women’s 5,000m

Fionnuala Britton was unable to qualify for the women’s 5,000 metres final, despite running a personal best time of 15.12.97. The Irish athlete finished 10th in the first of two heats, with the first five in each semi-final race plus the five fastest losers qualifying. Britton had to hope that the sixth place finisher didn’t beat her time in Heat 2, but unfortunately for the European Cross Country champion, four athletes managed to go quicker.

“These races are all about getting to finals not times,” she said when asked whether she would take any satisfaction from the personal best.

Women’s 100m hurdles

Derval O’Rourke last night equalled the time the she set in her 100m hurdles heat on Monday, but it wasn’t good enough for the Cork athlete to progress from the semi-finals as a fastest runner-up.

O’Rourke was drawn in lane two and was out of the blocks very quickly, along with eventual winner Sally Pearson (12.39 seconds), but she was soon reeled in by Jessica Zelinka of Canada (12.66), Lolo Jones of America (12.71) and Britain’s Tiffany Porter (12.79).

O’Rourke was sure she had more in the tank after the heats and will be disappointed she could not improve on 12.91, which was 15th fastest of the 22 runners.

Men’s 200m

Paul Hession missed out on the semi-finals of the 200m after a fifth-place finish in Heat 4 of seven. The Athenry athlete ran 20.69, outside a recent season best of 20.54, in a race won by Jamaican Yohan Blake, who led the field home in time of 20.38.

“It wasn’t to be,” Hession said. “It was a tough heat. It (my time) should have been around 20.50 but you get those days.”

Sailing: Men’s 470

The last of Ireland’s sailors finished racing in Weymouth yesterday when Ger Owens and Scott Flanigan were able to salvage some pride for their underperformance over the last week. The pair improved from last place overall to 23rd out of 27 boats thanks to their best day yet when they placed 15th followed by fifth in the final race.

Australia’s Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page lead overall with five wins and are certain of winning at least silver when they go head to head with Britain’s Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell in tomorrow’s medal race final.

Triathlon

Limerick-based Fermanagh athlete Gavin Noble produced a superb performance to finish 23rd in a 56-strong field in the Men’s Triathlon.

The 31-year-old from Enniskillen produced a cracking race and was prominent at the head of affairs in both the swim and cycle before fading a little in the 10km run.

Britain’s Alistair Brownlee won gold, ahead of Spain’s Javier Gomez and his brother Jonathan Brownlee, who took bronze, despite having to take a 15-second time penalty.

Boxing: Men’s flyweight

Belfast flyweight Michael Conlan secured Ireland a third boxing medal last night with a 22-18 win over France’s Nordine Oubaali.

It took a thunderous quarter-final third round from the 20-year-old to separate the two men at the Excel Arena.

Conlan’s brilliant evasiveness, was in evidence in the first round as the Frenchman poured forward. Conlan scored on the back-foot skilfully at times and it was 5-5 at the bell. Nothing could separate them after the second either, but Conlan produced the cleaner punches in a 7-7 round . The third was a war as both boxers threw everything at each other but Conlan’s cleaner punches helped him secure the round 10-6.