CANOEINGIreland's Hannah Craig, the first Irishwoman to make an Olympic canoeing final after a remarkable effort in the semi, finished 10th in the women's K1 slalom at Lee Valley.
The 29-year-old from Co Antrim, ranked 49th in the world before the Games, was unfortunately over 10 seconds slower in her second run after incurring six seconds in penalties when hitting gates five, nine and 16. Her time of 127.36 seconds saw her finish well adrift of eventual winner Emilie Fer of France (105.90 seconds).
ROWING
They are separated by 32 years but they share something unique. As the warm sun graced the Olympic rowing venue at Eton Dorney, Francis Cryan sought out Sanita Puspure yesterday and showered her with encouragement: Ireland’s woman Olympic rower from 1980 passing on the baton to her successor.
Puspure won the C/D semi-final yesterday and looks a good bet to win her C Final tomorrow to finish 13th overall, but it emerged yesterday she was ill in the days before she left for Eton Dorney.
SWIMMING
Melanie Nocher seemed to have a problem as she finished seventh in her heat of the 200 metres backstroke in a sluggish time of 2:16.29. The Holywood, Co Down swimmer was visibly upset after her race after clocking a time way outside her personal best.
Nocher declined to speak to the media after her event but took to Twitter to explain she had been poorly since the weekend.
“Well I gave it my best have had gastro intensitis since sunday so have been feeling anything but good, least I can say I gave it my all,” she explained.
Barry Murphy did not progress to the semi-finals of the 50 metres freestyle after an underwhelming swim of 22.76 seconds.
EQUESTRIAN
Ireland’s Anna Merveldt lies in 14th place following yesterday’s first session of Grand Prix dressage at Greenwich Park.
Competing in heavy rain just after lunch, the Italy-based rider was awarded a combined score of 69.772% for her work with the 16-year-old gelding Coryolano. Judges Lief Tornblad of Denmark at H and Mexico’s Maribel Alonso at B both had her on 71.064, with her worst score, 67.128, coming from The Netherlands’ Wim Ernes at K.
SAILING
Ger Owens and Scott Flanigan endured a rough start to their Olympic campaign, when finishing 18th and 25th in the first two races at Weymouth to lie 23rd of 27 heading into today.
The 49er crew of Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern tackle today’s three races (1.30pm, 2.15pm and 3pm) from ninth place overall, after finishing 11th and ninth in yesterday’s two races.
The Cork duo of Peter O’Leary and David Burrows were disqualified from Race 7 and finished ninth in Race 8 of the Men’s Star to sit ninth overall on 57 points.
