Rowing
Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan sensationally won back-to -back Olympic gold medals. The Skibbereen superstars rowed the perfect race to become double Olympic champions in front a massive Irish crowd in Paris. The remarkable duo won Ireland’s fifth medal at these Paris Olympic Games, after team-mates Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch won bronze in the men’s heavyweight double yesterday, Mona McSharry claimed bronze, Daniel Wiffen gold, and Kellie Harrington secured at least a bronze.
Earlier, Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney finished sixth in the final of the Men’s Pair. In an incredibly hot race, that included the reigning Olympic, World and European champions, the Fermanagh duo struggled to keep pace and were dropped in the final quarter of the race. And Aoife Casey and Mags Cremen finished fifth in the final of the lightweight women’s double sculls in their first Olympic final.
Sailing
Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove suffered heartbreak in the In the men’s Skiff medal race in Marseilles. Lying second overall heading into the final test, the brilliant Irish duo needed a fourth-place finish in the race to claim a medal. However, their medal ambitions came undone right at the start, when, with a handful of other boats, they marginally crossed the start line ahead of the official start and were forced to turn around, and restart, leaving them with a mountain to climb to catch the leaders over the short medal race course. Dickson and Waddilove pushed hard to catch up but finished the medal race in ninth place which left them an agonising fourth overall in the final standings.
Equestrian
Ireland finished seventh in the team show jumping event, finishing on a total of 14 faults on an ultimately disappointing afternoon in Versailles. The team of Shane Sweetnam, Daniel Coyle, and Cian O’Connor were well placed going in to the final round after an initial five faults from Sweetnam and a fantastic clear from Coyle. They required another clear from O’Connor to be in with a chance of the medals. However It wasn’t to be for the combination, and the team, as two poles down and a single time penalty left the Irish in seventh. However, that equalled their best ever team result at an Olympic Games.
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Boxing
Belfast featherweight Michaela Walsh had a long wait to compete in her second Olympic Games and, when she finally did today, bowed out to a far more experienced boxer in the last 16 of the 57kg. The Holy Family BC boxer battled bravely with 2023 world silver medallist Svetlana Kamenova Staneva; a 34-year-old with multiple European medals to her name, but the Bulgarian won on a unanimous 5-0 decision. The referee cautioned both fighters to engage at one point in the first round and, of the few early punches traded, the Bulgarian was the more accurate and won it 5-0. The Sri Lankan judge was the only one to give Walsh the second round (4-1) and, with nothing to lose, the Belfast woman got in some good combinations and gave it everything in the third, but all five judges gave it to the Bulgarian who proved a very seasoned and elusive opponent.
Golf
Rory McIlroy rallied strongly during the second round to stay within touch of the leading pack heading into the weekend’s action at Le Golf National. McIlroy produced a brilliant birdie on his final hole on Friday evening to sign for a two-under-par 69, to lie six shots behind halfway leaders Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama, and Tommy Fleetwood. The 35-year-old is five-under-par overall after the opening rounds of Paris 2024, his birdie three on 18 ensuring a positive finish to the day.
Canoe
Irish canoeists Noel Hendrick and Liam Jegou returned to the water for the Kayak Cross time trials. Both Hendrick and Jegou had solid runs, coming down the course with tight lines and staying clean, avoiding any penalties. Jegou was the first Irish man down and set a time of 70.81, shortly followed up with a time of 69.31 by Hendrick. The Kildare paddler finished up in 14th position with Jegou just behind in 18th; both in the top half of the group.
Madison Corcoran completed her run in the time trials also without any faults. Struggling with one of the upstream gates, Corcoran lost a bit of time paddling back around to clear it. She finished the time trial in 35th place.
Athletics
The Irish Mixed 4x400m Relay team failed to advance to the final on day seven of the Olympic Games in Paris at the Stade de France. Despite the best efforts of the quartet, which comprised of Christopher O’Donnell, Sophie Becker, Thomas Barr, and Sharlene Mawdsley, they fell just short of making tomorrow’s decider, placing tenth overall with a time of 3:12.67.
Meanwhile there was also disappointment for Eric Favors in the Men’s Shot Put as he didn’t progress to the final of the event. The 27-year-old Raheny Shamrock AC athlete was competing at his first Games, threw a best of 19.02m to finish 27th overall.
Earlier in the evening Jodie McCann made her Olympic debut in the Women’s 5000m. The 23-year-old Dubliner finished 20th in her heat in a time of 15:55.08, failing to advance to the final.
Swimming
Ellen Walshe concluded her individual competition at these Games in the women’s 200m Individual Medley semi-final. Walshe, who became only Ireland’s third ever swimming finalist in the 400m IM earlier this week, swam her second fastest time ever, placing seventh in her heat and 13th overall in 2:11.35, just 0.43 off her Irish Record of 2:10.92.
Walshe returns to the pool on Saturday for the heats of the 4x100m Medley Relay.
Hockey
Ireland’s Men’s hockey team recorded a brilliant comeback victory over New Zealand to finish their Paris 2024 campaign on a high at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium.
Mark Tumilty’s side had been unlucky not to pick up points from their previous Pool B outings, but they put the disappointment of those results behind them to finish with a flourish on Friday evening, as goals from Ben Walker and Jeremy Duncan sealed a 2-1 win over the Black Sticks.
