The Morning Sports Briefing

Wonderful Wednesday for Ireland

It was a fantastic day for Ireland in Rio yesterday, as their Paralympics came roaring into life with four medals - two golds, silver and a bronze - bringing the team total up to seven, just one shy of the pre-Games target of eight.

The two golds came in less than two minutes and both in the road racing, as Eoghan Clifford crossed the in the men’s C3 time trial before the Women’s B Tandem of Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal made it a truly golden afternoon.

Earlier there had been more success on the bike, as Colin Lynch bounced back from velodrome disappointment to take silver in the C2 time trial, while the day’s other medal came in the pool after Ellen Keane secured bronze in the S8 100m backstroke.

Dream start for Leicester

Leicester City’s Champions League campaign got off to the perfect start last night as they outplayed a very poor Club Brugge side at the Jan Breydel Stadium, with goals from Marc Albrighton and a Riyad Mahrez double giving the Foxes a 3-0 win and moving them to the top of Group G.

Elsewhere Tottenham Hotspur may have sold-out Wembley but looked a long way from home as they were beaten 2-1 by AS Monaco, while Manchester City beat Borussia Monchengladbach 4-0.

Tonight Dundlak get their Europa League campaign underway against AZ Alkmaar, while Manchester United are also in the Netherlands as they take on Feyenoord.

GAA Statistics

In today’s GAA Statistics column Eamon Donoghue looks ahead to Sunday’s All-Ireland final and how best Mayo can utilise star-man Aidan O’Shea. He suggests the Dubs are at their most vulnerable between the 25th and 50th minute - which is when the big man can strike.

August award for Murphy

And Annalise Murphy has been named The Irish Times/ Sport Ireland Sportswoman award for August after her silver medal in the Rio Olympics.