Irish in action at the Olympics today:
- 6.30am – Daniel Wiffen (Marathon swimming – men’s open water 10km). Finished 18th.
- 9.05am – Kate O’Connor (Heptathlon – long jump). Jumped 5.79, earning 786 points.
- 9.22am – Leona Maguire (Golf – third round). Shot round of 83, 11 over – 24 over after three rounds.
- 9.55am – Stephanie Meadow (Golf – third round). Shot round of 72, level par – eight over after three rounds.
- 9.40am – Ireland (Athletics – women’s 4x400m relay round one). Third in heat two, qualified for Saturday’s final.
- 10.23am – Kate O’Connor (Heptathlon – javelin throw). Threw a 50.36, earning her 867 points – now 14th overall on 5,249 points.
- 10.30am – Mark English (Athletics – men’s 800m semi-final). Sixth in semi-final one, failed to qualify for tomorrow’s final.
- 11.05am – Sarah Lavin (Athletics – women’s 100m hurdles semi-final). Sixth in semi-final two, failed to qualify for tomorrow’s final.
- 5.09pm – Alice Sharpe & Lara Gillespie (Track cycling – madison final). Finished 11th on three points.
- 7pm – Rhasidat Adeleke (Athletics – women’s 400m final). Finished fourth, ran 49.28.
- 7.25pm – Kate O’Connor (Heptathlon – 800m). Finished 14th overall.
Some Adeleke reading, from Malachy Clerkin:
“Beaten but not defeated, Rhasidat Adeleke came off the track with her back straight and her chin steeled. Fourth place in her first Olympic final is not how she saw this playing out. As a result, she wasn’t inclined to point anyone towards the bright side. Her 400m career is about winning things and we all presume that will happen eventually. But it didn’t happen here.”
And from Mary Hannigan:
“That strength could well show in Saturday’s 4x400m relay final but, if not, we’ll see plenty of it again. We could have a decade yet of watching her grow. And that is a very thrilling prospect.”
That is all from me for tonight! See you tomorrow for the final realistic medal chance of the Games, Ireland’s women’s 4x400m relay final. Good night.
Kate O’Connor: “Every Irish flag pushes me on a little further, there were a lot of kids out there, I like to give them a little wave. I like to encourage as multi-eventing is one of the best events in track and field. With Ireland, we have a lot of great track athletes, but now we’re started to push forward in field events. I want to show everyone that field events are just as fun, hopefully I inspire the younger generation.”
Soccer: Spain have beaten France 5-3 in a classic to win the Olympics men’s soccer gold medal.
Sergio Camello grabbed a brace in the added period to settle a Parc des Princes classic after France had levelled by scoring twice in the final 11 minutes of normal time.
Triple jump men’s: Jordan Díaz wins the triple jump with 17.86m, 2cm ahead of Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo, Italy’s Andy Díaz is third.
10,000m women’s: A very cagey first 5km to the 10,000m women’s race but the pace starting to pick up in the past few thousand.
A group of 10 women stay together until the bell at 400m. Finally a race and a great sprint for the finish. Beatrice Chebet wins to make it a 5000m and 10000m double, Nadia Battocletti gets a great silver medal, Sifan Hassan gets bronze.
Here’s Adeleke’s interview with RTÉ:
Ireland’s Kate O’Connor finished 14th overall in the heptathlon.
Rhasidat Adeleke confirms she will run the 4x400m women’s relay tomorrow. “Another opportunity there”. Some good news for Irish chances tomorrow. That will be at 8.07pm on Saturday.
Kate O’Connor finishes 6th in her race in the 800m, the last of the heptathlon. A fine run by the Irish woman, we will see where that leaves her by the end of the event.
Ian O’Riordan report from Paris:
“In a frantically tight finish to the Olympic 400 metres final Rhasidat Adeleke has finished has just short of a medal, run into fourth place down the homestretch after a magnificently heroic effort of one-lap racing.
Before another capacity crowd of 77,000 inside the Stade de France, on and the greatest sporting stage of all, Adeleke finished fourth in 49.28 seconds, losing out on bronze in the last 50m to Natala Kaczmarek from Poland, who finished in 48.98.
The gold medal was won by Marileidy Paulino in an Olympic record of 48.17 seconds, the 27-year-from the Dominican Republic adding to her silver won three years ago in Tokyo, and already the World champion.
Paulino produced another inspired and scintillating run, in a class of her own, Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain winning silver in 48.53, her fastest time this year.
The first Irish woman to make an Olympic sprint final, the 21-year-old Adeleke clearly didn’t want stop there, pouring everything she had into getting onto the medal podium, holding third place coming into the stretch.
Starting in lane four, Adeleke had all three of the main medal favourites outside of her, Paulino, Naser and Kaczmarek all standing on the global medal podium before, and never losing to Adeleke before. It seemed she may have got the charge on Kaczmarek this time, but it wasn’t to be, but Adeleke’s time will come again.”
[ Olympics: So near, yet so far as Rhasidat Adeleke misses out on 400m medalOpens in new window ]
Adeleke looks gutted and can hardly speak on RTÉ. Difficult to hear anyway in a very loud stadium
“I was just trying to stay in contention, just make sure I executed my own race, it is what it is. I need to build on this for the future.
“I just feel gutted, it’s okay, but we just have to move on from here.”
David Gillick handles it well and consoles her. She’ll get them next time.
Great run by Adeleke but just short of an Olympic medal! She would have needed a significant PB and sub-49 seconds to win it but wasn’t to be tonight in Paris. It is still a great achievement, the best ever Olympic performance by an Irish sprinter.
Rhasidat Adeleke finishes 4th in the Olympics final!
She runs 49.28, Paulino wins in dominant fashion with an Olympic record.
1. Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic) 48.17 OR
2. Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain) 48.53
3. Natala Kaczmarek (Poland) 48.98
4. Rhasidat Adeleke (Ireland) 49.28
Adeleke out on the track all smiles, to a good applause! Let’s go Rhasidat.
Next up is the big one, Rhasidat Adeleke in the 400m final! Here are the starting places ahead of the race:
How they line up
2. Sada Williams (Barbados): Age 26, lifetime best 49.58
3. Henriette Jaeger (Norway): Age 21, lifetime best 49.85
4. Rhasidat Adeleke (Ireland): Age 21, lifetime best 49.07
5. Amber Anning (Great Britain): Age 23, lifetime best 49.47
6. Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic): Age 27, lifetime best 48.76
7. Natala Kaczmarek (Poland): Age 26, lifetime best 48.90
8. Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain): Age 26, lifetime best 48.14
9. Alexis Holmes (USA): Age 27, lifetime best 49.78
4x100 men’s relay: America completely mess up the first changeover to leave themselves with a mountain of work to do. Canada win the gold with De Grasse taking it home in 37.50!
Gold Canada, silver South Africa and bronze for Britain.
The US made an absolute hames of that. Bednarek not paying attention, as they said on commentary “a schoolboy error”. Disqualified although they weren’t in contention anyway.
Next up on the track is the 4x100m men’s final, which should be an interesting one. No Jamaica though as they dropped the baton in the semi-final. Hard to see anyone but an American win if they get the baton safely around.
And Adeleke then coming up after that as the rain lashes down in Paris. 7pm start for the 400m.
Athletics 4x100 women’s relay: The USA have taken gold in the women’s 4x100m final, which was complicated greatly by some heavy rain before the race started. There were a lot of ropey-looking baton changes - Team GB could possibly have taken the race had they been a bit slicker - but the USA got there. Britain took silver and Germany claimed bronze.
Britain win the final sprint. Final result:
Italy gold
Britain silver
Netherlands bronze.
Ireland team of Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie finished 11th.
Ireland finally make a move, three points in sprint 10 behind Belgium to get into 11th position. Italy lap the field to take the lead, Italy, Netherlands and Britain the top 3.
Gillespie went on the attack but was overtaken. Italy extend their lead in the penultimate one. Italy lead ahead of the double points final sprint. Italy 37, Netherlands 28 and Britain 21. Ireland on 3.
After 7 it’s Britain, America and Denmark/France.
Netherlands win a sprint and move into 5th. Then they gain 20 points for lapping the field! It’s Netherlands by a considerable margin then Britain then USA after 8.
Ireland struggling to get a score on the board as it’s Britain, Denmark, France top 3 after 5 out of 12 sprints.
Italy win sprint 2, then Denmark, USA and Japan. Ireland yet to score. Third springt is France, Britain, USA and Netherlands.
The Swiss crash out while the first sprint takes place. Barker/Evans from Britain get 5 pts. France 3, Italy 2, Australia 1.
The Madison is up now. British riders are the favourites. Ireland team number 11.
David Gorman here logging on, the cycling race with Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie coming up in 15 minutes.
Next up for Team Ireland will be Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie competing in the madison event at the National Velodrome. Here’s your crash course before the get on their bikes shortly after 5pm.
The madison race is 30km for women and 50km for men and cyclists compete in teams of two with only one of them racing at any given time while their team-mate cycles at a reduced pace around the outer section of the track.
To take over from their team-mate, the non-racing cyclist must be tagged in by their partner by way of an arm sling (propelling the rider who’s taking over the racing forward to give them momentum) or a push.
Every 10 laps there’s also a sprint in which teams can pick up points, and points are also earned if you lap another team.
Sharpe and Gillespie will battle it out against 14 other teams. With all those bikes on the track, it’s chaos of the best kind and well worth a watch.
After making himself look quite at home at the Palace of Versailles for the equestrian events, Snoop Dogg ventured to La Concorde this afternoon to open the breaking events.
Nobody’s having a better time at these Games than Snoop.
We’re still a few hours out from the women’s 400m final, in which Rhasidat Adeleke will become the first Irish woman to race in an Olympic sprint final.
“After a fortnight when Team Ireland have written an unforgettable series of firsts into the annals of our Olympic history, now Rhasidat Adeleke gets her chance,” Ian O’Riordan writes from Paris.
“Can a nation hold its breath again for just under 50 seconds?
“In truth, at least on the evidence of recent days, winning another medal for Ireland might prove just beyond Adeleke at this stage of her young career, particularly given the Paris form of the principal medal contenders around her.
“But you know what they say about finals. Her chance is still there for the taking (400m final, 7pm Irish time), and that’s good enough to go with for now.”
Read his preview in full below...
[ Paris 2024: Opportunity comes knocking on the biggest stage for Rhasidat AdelekeOpens in new window ]
After yesterday’s dramatic men’s 200m final, after which bronze medallist Noah Lyles revealed he was Covid-positive, the 27-year-old American has said he believes that’s the end of his Games.
Having won the 100m on Sunday, Lyles had hoped to become the first man since Usain Bolt to claim gold in both sprint events, but was beaten to the line by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and his USA team-mate Kenneth Bednarek.
In a tweet on Friday morning, Lyles congratulated Tebogo and Bednarek on their medals, adding: “I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics. It is not the Olympics I dreamed of but it has left me with so much Joy in my heart.”
Being the athletics equivalent of marmite, even Lyles had to acknowledge: “I hope everyone enjoyed the show. Whether you were rooting for me or against me, you have to admit you watched, didn’t you?”, signing off: “Sincerely, Your world’s fastest man for the next 4 years!”
Lyles has been quite the loudmouth at the Paris Games, and Tebogo didn’t hold back in last night’s post-race press conference.
Asked if he could become the face of the sport following his gold-medal victory, the Botswanan replied: “I think, for me, I can’t be the face of athletics because I’m not an arrogant or a loud person like Noah, so I believe Noah is the face of athletics.” Cue a quick smile from Bednarek beside him.
Anyone else loving the candour on show from the Olympians? It’s great entertainment.
Now for something completely different as they say – breaking.
A new addition for the Paris Games, the breakdancing (apparently now an antiquated for those in the know) event makes its Olympic debut in the next hour with the girls’ pre-qualifier battle.
I’m going to put my hands up and admit I’m far from a leading authority on breaking, shocking I know, but thankfully we have this explainer to guide us through.
[ Breaking for beginners: All you need to know about Olympics’ newest sportOpens in new window ]
In short, breaking is a style of street dancing. The competition will see competitors go head-to-head in ‘battles’, showcasing their skills in 60-second stints.
There’s no prepared routines, the DJ picks the song, and the winner of each battle is decided by a panel of judges.
Different to what we’ve come to expect from the Olympics, but give it a chance – you’ll probably end up enjoying.
At Le Golf National, Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire have finished their third rounds.
Meadow shot a level par round of 72 to put her on eight over going into tomorrow’s final round, while it was a very difficult day for Maguire. The Cavan woman shot 11 over, putting her 24 over par across the three rounds.
Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux remains the leader, level par for the day thru 6, eight under overall.
For anyone just joining us, there were highs and lows at Stade de France this morning.
Sixth for Mark English in the men’s 800m semi-final and sixth also for Sarah Lavin in the women’s 100m hurdles semi-finals wasn’t enough to see them through to Saturday’s finals, bringing the Games in Paris to an end.
In the heptathlon, Kate O’Connor put in a solid performance in the long jump to post a best effort 5.79, which she followed up with an excellent 50.36 in the javelin throw, the third best result out of all 21 athletes. She’s now up to 14th overall on 5,249 points, with just the 800m event left to go this evening.
And there was a huge results for the Irish 4x400m women’s relay team, who came third in their semi-final to gain automatic qualification for tomorrow’s decider.
Ian O’Riordan has this from Paris:
The quartet of Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Kelly McGrory and Sharlene Mawdsley needed to finish in the top three to make sure of qualification, and running in the second heat, they did just that.
Mawdsley ran the anchor leg and the Tipperary runner produced her now trademark surge, moving Ireland from fourth to third in the final leg, while clocking the fastest split in their heat with her 49.65 seconds.
Jamaica took the win in 3:24.92, the Dutch quartet just holding on for second in 3:25.03, Mawdsley bringing Ireland home right beside them in third, in 3:25.05.
Read the rest of Ian’s report below...
[ Olympics: Ireland qualify for final of women’s 4x400m relayOpens in new window ]
Time we take a look at how things are going at Le Golf National in round three of the women’s individual stroke play.
Stephanie Meadow is currently one over par for the day as she plays the 17th, putting her on nine over across the three rounds. Leona Maguire is on 11 over playing the final hole, 24 over par overall.
Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux leads on nine under overall, currently playing one under having competed the first three holes in her third round.
After this morning’s 10km marathon swim in the Seine, Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen likely has a new found appreciation for the calm of the pool.
Wiffen finished 18th, becoming the first Irish athlete to compete in the event at the Olympics. It’s a world away from pool swimming, arguably having more in common with a combat sport when the swimmers are bunched, which the 23-year-old had to learn the hard way.
“I’d say the start was pretty bad when I got punched in the face,” he said. “I got hit in the head three times, somebody kicked me in the stomach, I think I pulled my groin halfway through and, in terms of the last lap, I was just absolutely dead. That was the worst thing.”
But double Olympic medallist has proven himself to be a tough cookie. He added: “It’s the worst and best thing I’ve ever done in my life. The reason why it was the worst is because it was the most painful thing I’ve ever done but, in terms of best, it’s because I’m happy to say I’m an Olympic open-water swimmer, dual-sport athlete, and a contact-sport athlete as well.”
His post-race interview with RTÉ's Jacqui Hurley is worth a watch. After a gruelling two hours of swimming, Wiffen still manages to see the funny side of the experience.
“I’m retiring from open water.” More power to you Daniel.
In the javelin throw event in the heptathalon, Ireland’s Kate O’Connor has thrown a phenomenal 50.36 on her first attempt to go third in group B.
Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium currently leads the group having thrown a 54.04.
Disappointment for Ireland, but both Mark English and Sarah Lavin put in commendable runs to bring down the curtain on their campaigns in Paris.
The line-up for tomorrow’s men’s 800m fill will be: Emmanuel Wanyonyi (Kenya), Bryce Hoppel (USA), Marco Arop (Canada), Djamel Sedjati (Algeria), Gabriel Tual (France), Tshepiso Masalela (Botswana), Max Burgin (GB) and Mohamed Attaoui (Spain).
And in the final of the women’s 100m hurdles, it’s: Alaysha Johnson (USA), Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Puerto Rico), Grace Stark (USA), Masai Russell (USA), Nadine Visser (Netherlands), Ackera Nugent (Jamaica), Devynne Charlton (Bahamas) and Cyrena Samba-Mayela (France).
Athletics: Sarah Lavin misses out on qualification. She crosses the line in sixth.
Athletics: The women’s 100m hurdles second semi-final is off! Ireland’s Sarah Lavin in lane 4.
Athletics: Team USA’s Grace Stark is home first in the opening semi-final of the women’s 100m hurdles, with Devynne Charlton (Bahamas) second, both qualifying for tomorrow’s final.
Ireland’s Sarah Lavin is up next in the second semi-final.
Next up for Ireland is Sarah Lavin in the semi-final of the women’s 100m hurdles. She’ll run in lane 4 of the second race, the first semi-final is set for 11.05am.
First two finishers from each of the three semi-finals automatically qualify for Saturday’s final, as well as the two fastest finishers from the rest of the field.
Athletics: English leads with 200m left but he’s overtaken on the home straight.
He finishes sixth. Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati is first, followed by Botswana’s Tshepiso Maselela, seeing them straight through to tomorrow’s final.
Athletics: The first men’s 800m semi-final is off. Mark English out quick for Ireland putting himself towards the front of the pack.
He’s slotted into third as they take the bell.
The javelin throw event in the heptathlon has started and Kate O’Connor’s throwing ninth in group B.
For now, we’ll focus on the men’s 800m semi-final. Ireland’s Mark English will run in lane 9 of the first semi-final which is due to get under way in the next couple of minutes.
Just to confirm how the long jump event in the heptathlon ended, Kate O’Connor improved with her final effort to jump 5.79, giving her 786 points. She’s 18th overall on 4,382.
GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson is still out in front, now on 5,030 points.
Up next for the heptathletes will be the javelin throw shortly after 10.20am.
Athletics: Another powerful finish from Mawdsley brings Ireland across the line in third, automatically qualifying for tomorrow’s final!
There was very little between first to third at the line. A superb finish.
Ireland’s 3:25.05 was seventh fastest overall across the two heats.
Athletics: Ireland lead at the second handover, but Kelly McGrory’s fallen back to fourth. Mawdsley up now.
Athletics: Great start from Becker, handing off first. Phil Healy’s up now.
Athletics: Sophie Becker is on the starting block in lane 8 for Ireland. And they’re off!
Athletics: An utterly dominant run from Team USA to win heat one. Very close finish for second, which went to GB, followed by France who took third.
They’re all straight through to Saturday’s final. Belgium’s fourth-place time of 3:24.92 will likely see them also qualify among the best of the rest.
It’s looking like Ireland will need a time of around 3:25.00 to qualify. Their heat is coming up in the next few minutes.
Athletics: The first heat in the women’s 4x400m relay is about to begin. First three finishers along with the two fastest teams from the remainder of the field qualify for tomorrow’s final.
Ireland race in lane 8 in heat two. Sophie Becker will start, passing to Phil Healy who’ll tag to Kelly McGrory before Sharlene Mawdsley races for the line.
After two attempts in the heptathlon’s long jump event, Kate O’Connor’s posted a best effort of 5.41m. She has one jump remaining.
Sofie Dokter leads group A in the event, jumping 6.25m. In group B, the best effort so far has been set by Colombia’s Martha Araujo on her final go.
Next up for Ireland is Kate O’Connor in the heptathlon.
They’re just about to get the long jump event under way at Stade de France. Kate’s jumping 10th in group A.
After yesterday’s four events – 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m – O’Connor is 19th with 3,596. Team GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads on 4,055.
Marathon swim: Daniel Wiffen gives the timing board a good rattle as he powers home in 18th, 6 minutes 27.4 seconds behind the first finisher.
For his first marathon swim, it’s an incredible result.
Overall, 29 swimmers took to the water this morning, with four non-finishers.
Marathon swim: Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky is pulling hard to put space between himself and Germany’s Oliver Klemet.
They’ve hit the timing board and it’s gold for the Hungarian, Klemet earns silver and it’s bronze for Rasovszky’s team-mate David Betlehem.
Rasovszky’s finishing time was 1:50:52.7.
We’re still waiting on Wiffen.
Marathon swim: The leaders are heading under the final bridge as they approach the finishing shoot which narrows the field to bring them to the timing pads at the finishing line.
As things stand it’s Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky and Germany’s Oliver Klemet out in front battling hard for the gold.
Marathon swim: They’re inside the final kilometre of the men’s 10km marathon swim and they’re speeding to the finish.
Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen is currently around 20th.
There are four swimmer out in a group at the front, lead by Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky.
Good morning! Muireann Duffy here to keep you company on day 14.
A lot to look forward to today, starting with Daniel Wiffen in the Seine and ending with Rhasidat Adeleke and Kate O’Connor at Stade de France.
On mention of Wiffen, he’s actually already in action since the men’s 10km marathon swim began at 6.30am (if you were up early to see them off, gold star for you). The first finishers are expected around the two-hour mark, so that’s where we’ll focus our attention for the next little while.
After two tough days for Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow, they’re back at Le Golf National for the third round of the women’s individual stroke play, teeing off at 9.22am and 9.55am.
And in the velodrome shortly after 5pm, Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie will represent Ireland in the madison final. Don’t worry, we’ll explain that event a little later.
But most of the day’s Irish outings are on the athletics track, where eight of our athletes are competing across five events.
First up is Kate O’Connor in day two of the heptathlon. After Thursday’s four events, she currently sits 19th overall on 3,596 points. The long jump is Friday’s first event, starting shortly after 9am, followed by the javelin throw and 800m later.
In the women’s 4x400m relay, Sophie Becker, Kelly McGrory, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley will need a big performance to take a place in Saturday’s final, running in heat two at around 9.45am.
Also looking for final spots will be Mark English and Sarah Lavin, racing in the semi-finals of the men’s 800m (10.30am) and women’s 100m hurdles (11.05am) respectively.
And the big one, the one it feels like we’ve been waiting so long for – at 7pm Rhasidat Adeleke takes to the starting blocks in lane 4 for the final of the women’s 400m.
It’s going to be long and busy day, but would we want it any other way? Let’s start by seeing how things are going in the Seine…
