Athletics
21-year-old Rhasidat Adeleke comfortably advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s Olympic 400m on Monday morning. Delivering a fine performance, Adeleke sealed the final heat victory with a time of 50.09 seconds, allowing herself to ease and glance over her shoulder with about 60 metres remaining. The semi-finals are set for Wednesday evening.
While Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker didn’t qualify automatically for the semi-finals, they will get a second chance in Tuesday morning’s repechage.
Equestrian
After finishing among the top three in the individual jumping qualifiers in Versailles, Shane Sweetnam and Daniel Coyle are set to compete for medals on Tuesday morning. However, Ireland’s 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Cian O’Connor just missed out and won’t be among the 30 pairings (from 66 initial entrants) competing in the final.
Sweetnam, from Cork, riding his grey James Kann Cruz, had a clean run in the second quickest time of the day (73.35 seconds). Daniel Coyle, from Derry, and his mare Legacy also completed a clear round in 73.64 seconds, ranking them as the third-best overall.
O’Connor and his gelding Maurice experienced a late start due to a shoe issue, clipping a plank at the sixth fence and finishing with four faults and a time of 75:17 seconds, placing him 30th. Unfortunately, with seven riders still to come, O’Connor was eventually pushed out to 33rd place overall. The final will follow in reverse order.
Sailing
Finn Lynch from Carlow has made it to Tuesday afternoon’s men’s dinghy final, following the cancellation of races nine and ten on Monday afternoon due to insufficient winds in Marseille.
Lynch is set to compete in the medal race from the 10th spot, even though he is too far behind to vie for any medals. Regardless, he could end his Games participation on a high note with a victory in the race.
Eve McMahon, unfortunately, didn’t secure her place in the women’s dinghy medal race as the final and decisive 10th race was called off. Despite an impressive 7th place finish in the ninth race that moved her up to 13th spot, McMahon failed to qualify in her first Olympic appearance.
Diving segment of the games saw Ciara McGing making her first Olympic appearance. After being unwell for several days, the 23-year-old was relieved to complete all five of her attempts at the Centre Aquatique on Tuesday morning. Scoring a total of 188.50 points and landing at the 29th position, McGing’s highest-scoring dive was her third attempt – a reverse 2 ½ somersaults, which earned her 50.40 points.