Daniel Wiffen will be going for his second Olympic Games gold medal on Sunday evening in the 1,500 metres freestyle final after recording the best time in the heats on Saturday.
The history-maker, in other words, can make yet more history.
Already the first Irish man to win a swimming gold medal, Wiffen – with his twin Nathan again roaring him on from poolside – is favourite to add another in his favoured distance and, then, it will be on to next week’s swim in the Seine to perhaps cap it all off.
Rory McIlroy has played himself into contention in the men’s golf tournament, a brilliant bogey-free five-under-par 66 moving him to 10 under and within four shots of joint leaders Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm on a glittering leaderboard.
Ciara Mageean: ‘I just felt numb. It wasn’t even sadness, it was just emptiness’
Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year: Celebrity ‘manifesting’ influences 2024 choice
Sonia O’Sullivan: A jog down Olympic memory lane shows how far Irish athletes have come
Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn retires from competitive breaking after Olympic upset
Shane Lowry also went low on Saturday, matching McIlroy’s 66 to move to five under. The Offaly man will be looking to go low, but Denmark’s Nicolai Højgaard has shown that low scores are out there after he tied the course record of 62 to move to 11 under.
Finn Lynch (15th) and Eve McMahon (17th) will be looking to move up the overall leaderboard in the dinghy events in Marseille, while there’s a trio of Irish competitors in action in the Kayak Cross as Noel Hendrick, Liam Jegou and Madison Corcoran take the water. On dry land, as long as there’s no more of the rain that made the time trial such a lottery, Megan Armitage goes in the women’s cycling road race from 1pm.
Nicola Tuthill goes in the women’s hammer qualifying in the morning, while Cathal Doyle is rewarded for his brilliant repechage win in the 1,500m with a place in the evening’s semi-finals.
Worth a watch
Two titans of tennis go head to head in the men’s singles final with Novak Djokovic looking for a first ever Olympic gold medal ... with, ahem, only Carlos Alcaraz standing in his way.
The super Serb has pretty much done all that can be done in the game, except take a gold medal. His best result so far has been a bronze medal but at least now he will turn that into a gold or a silver.
Could the challenge be any more difficult though that facing the in-form Spaniard? It should be a blockbuster of final between the two, at Roland Garros (11am Irish time).
Sunday’s Irish schedule
From 8am: Shane Lowry (8.55am), Rory McIlroy (10,44am) (Golf – final round)
From 9.20am: Nicola Tuthill (Women’s Hammer qualifying round)
11.05am: Finn Lynch (Sailing – Dinghy series race)
1pm: Megan Armitage (Women’s Cycling Road Race)
1.35pm: Eve McMahon (Sailing – Dinghy series race), from 10am
2.30pm: Liam Jegou, Noel Hendrick (Men’s Kayak Cross heats)
3.45pm: Madison Corcoran (Women’s Kayak Cross heats)
5.36pm: Daniel Wiffen (Men’s 1500m Freestyle final)
8.10pm: Cathal Doyle (1,500m semi-finals)
