A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Jezierski wins B final to finish in ninth place overall
Polish born Andrzej Jezierski, now competing for Ireland, won the C1 200m B final at Eton Dorney, to finish ninth overall at the London Games. The Cork based canoeist finished second in Friday morning’s heat but missed out on a place in the elite final when coming in fourth in one of three semi-finals.
Jerzierski won the B final in a time of 44.041, ahead of Vadim Menkov of Uzbekistan in 44.168. Attila Vajda of Hungary was third. The naturalised Irishman – he’s a former world champion – finished fifth in the European Championships earlier in the year. His achievement on Saturday will have garnered some valuable ranking points in terms of future championships.
Russian sports minister raises questions over judging of Taylor title fight
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has questioned some of the judging at the London Olympics, specifically pointing to Irish lightweight Katie Taylor’s 10-8 win over Russia’s Sofya Ochigava in the women’s final on Thursday.
“How can you give such scores? You’d have to be blind,” Mutko was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
The head of Russia’s Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, said the judges may have been swayed by the enthusiastic cheering from the Irish fans. Mutko, however, was less forgiving, suggesting the judges have favoured certain nations in boxing and weightlifting events.
“We see that a happy ending is being prepared in boxing,” he said.
Coyle brings curtain down with ninth-placed finish
Natalya Coyle brought the curtain down on the London Games with a fantastic ninth-placed finish in the modern pentathlon. The 21-year-old from Co Meath seems destined for a huge future in the multi-discipline event after exceeding expectations on her Olympic debut.
Coyle, who got stronger and stronger as the day progressed, ultimately left herself with too much to do going into the combined shooting and running finale but will take great satisfaction from a place in the top 10.
She made an encouraging start to her programme yesterday morning, finishing 11th in the fencing at the Copper Box. Coyle had 19 wins to collect 856 points before the competition moved to the Aquatic Centre for the 200m freestyle.
Despite winning her heat, Coyle would drop to 15th in the overall standings but in the show jumping she managed to claw back five places.
That left her 30 seconds behind the leader in joint 10th ahead of the final event at Greenwich Park with the athletes required to run three 1km laps, interspersed with shooting at targets.With the overall leaders going out first, Coyle was never likely to trouble the podium but battled to claim another two places after an exhilarating day.
Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite took gold, storming to a convincing win to bag the final medal of the Games. Britain’s Samantha Murray, who was in fourth place after the first three events, took the silver to a deafening roar from the home crowd.
Brazil’s Yane Marques, who figured prominently throughout the event, eventually took the bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe finished 25th in the modern pentathlon. He had a great start in the day’s first event, the fencing, but tailed off and couldn’t make up the ground.
“I’ve had a great season in fencing, it’s been my best event, and halfway through I was like, ‘Yes, here we go, another great fence’.
“And then the second half I got about two hits, which I’m just putting down to experience. I got too high, I let the occasion get to me too much, and then when I started losing I didn’t know how to deal with it.
“I got a very nervy in the shooting with the big crowd but I’m happy enough. If someone said I would be 25th at the start of the day, I’d probably have taken it.”
