How the Irish squad fared at the Olympics yesterday
EQUESTRIAN SPORT
Ireland’s Aoife Clark, Joseph Murphy and Mark Kyle finished fifth in the eventing team competition at Greenwich Park yesterday as Germany retained the gold medal they won four years ago in Hong Kong with Britain taking silver and New Zealand the bronze.
The three Irish riders made it through to the second round of show jumping for the individual medals in the afternoon when Kyle, who had the front pole of the oxer at four down in the morning, lowered the troublesome white gate at three with Ronnie Bartlett’s Ghareeb gelding Coolio to finish 21st.
Westmeath native Murphy put in a second superb clear with the 11-year-old Electric Cruise which saw them climb to 14th place from 29th after the cross-country. The chestnut Cruising gelding is owned by a syndicate of the rider’s partner Jill Andrews, Annette O’Callaghan and Noel Good.
Clark and the 11-year-old Master Crusoe, which is owned by the Lilywhites Syndicate, proved their selection justified yesterday with a double clear, their stylish afternoon round seeing them move up to sixth from 11th, while they had been 21st overnight.
In winning individual gold with Sam, Germany’s Michael Jung, on his 30th birthday, made history by becoming the first rider to hold the Olympic, European and world titles at the same time. Sweden’s Sara Algotsson took silver ahead of Germany’s Sandra Auffarth on Opgun Louvo.
SAILING
A day of rest at Weymouth following six races for the Star class will allow Peter O’Leary and David Burrows to regroup following a second disappointing day yesterday. The pair had an 11th and a 12th in the 15-strong class and dropped to ninth place.
Although Annalise Murphy’s performance in the Laser Radial is said to have “buzzed” the rest of the Irish sailing squad, this failed to generate the opening-day performance of the Cork/Dublin pair when they finished that day in second overall.
The event has now passed the halfway stage and the discard came into force yesterday. O’Leary and Burrows had a 14th place to drop but yesterday’s results outside the top 10 will weigh heavily on their score.
Their medal prospects are dimming and a place in the medal race is now at stake.
After a shaky start to the series, Britain’s Iain Percy with Andrew Simpson have scored all top three results confirming pre-event expectations that they are gold medal contenders.
Meanwhile, Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern struck a more optimistic note in the 49er skiff class yesterday with a second place in race four, their best so far on their first Olympic outing. The Belfast Lough duo lie sixth overall, though this could improve today after the series discard comes into play.
Already they have exceeded expectations against a very high calibre class of multiple Olympic medallists and world champions and while still early days in their series, they remain in contention for the podium.
Ireland’s James Espey moved up the Laser men’s event yesterday and now lies 39th after four races in the 49-strong class that saw Pavlos Kontides from Cyprus challenge overall leader Tom Slingsby from Australia with two race wins.
The fifth Irish squad boat comprising Ger Owens on his third Olympic appearance with newcomer Scott Flanigan begin the 470 event tomorrow.
ROWING
Ireland’s Sanita Puspure (right) was unable to achieve her goal of a place in the B final of the women’s single sculls in the rowing competition at Eton Dorney yesterday.
The Latvian-born rower advanced straight to the C final later in the week after finishing fourth in the quarter-finals in a time of 7 minutes 44.19 seconds.
Puspure began strongly but didn’t have the stamina to stay with eventual winner Miroslava Knapkova of the Czech Republic and was overtaken by American Genevra Stone (second) and Sweden’s Frida Svensson (third) before finishing nearly four seconds outside the semi-final places.
