Rowing
Ireland added another medal to their haul on Thursday morning, thanks to Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch in the men’s double sculls, who won bronze. This is the fourth medal for the Irish team in Paris, but Kellie Harrington’s medal colour is yet to be declared.
Doyle and Lynch finished third behind Romania and the Netherlands on the water, marking Ireland’s first heavyweight Olympic rowing medal win. Post the medal presentation, Doyle expressed, “I tucked in last night with hopes of us clinching the gold but, truth be told, bagging an Olympic medal leaves no room for regret.
“I actually faltered a bit towards the end; a neck injury that I’ve been dealing with cramped up in the closing 100 metres because we pushed ourselves to our absolute limits; it proves that we were at our breaking point but thankfully, we had trained hard enough to enable a quick recovery and cross the finish line.”
As for the crux of his experience that day, “Phenomenal” was Doyle’s choice of word. He added, “It was an extraordinary day, a fantastic course, and an enriching experience.”
In another event, Zoe Hyde and Alison Bergin represented Ireland in the women’s double sculls B final, finishing fourth to the teams from Australia, Czechia, and the US, ending in the tenth position overall.
In the women’s four B final, Ireland’s Emily Hegarty, Natalie Long, Eimear Lambe and Imogen Magner emerged victoriously, thereby securing the seventh spot overall.
Boxing
For 21-year-old Jack Marley, who dreamt of winning an Olympic medal in his debut games, suffered a 4:1 defeat in the 92kg quarter-finals to Tajikistan’s Davlat Botaev. Despite his young age, the Monkstown BC native showed great determination against the Asian Games gold medallist, who proved to be a tough competitor.
Earlier in the evening, young Wicklow flyweight Daina Moorehouse was unfortunate to miss out on a decision despite showing a stellar performance in her first Olympic appearance in the 50kg’s last 16. The 22-year-old from Bray silenced the predominantly supportive crowd at the North Paris Arena by securing the first round (3:2) against French veteran Wassila Lkhadiri. Despite taking the aggressive stance and demonstrating accuracy throughout the match against her 28-year-old competitor, the judges chose to award the second and third rounds 4:1 to her opponent causing the French opponent to win with a split 4:1 decision.
Swimming sensation Tom Fannon leaves an impression with his semi-final performance in the 50m freestyle at La Defense, claiming fourth place in the semi-final and tenth overall. The 26-year-old breaks and sets a new Irish record of 21.74, narrowly missing the final by one-tenth of a second.
In the case of the hockey event, the Ireland men’s team faced yet another defeat in their fourth Pool B match against Argentina, ending the game with a 2-1 score. Tomas Domene of Argentina scored the first goal in the 17th minute. Lee Cole of Ireland responded with a goal 10 minutes later. However, Maico Casella Schuth retaliated within a minute bringing the score to 2-1 just before halftime.
In the equestrian circuit, the trio consisting of Shane Sweetnam, Daniel Coyle, and Cian O’Connor came in sixth place in the team show jumping event at the Palace of Versailles. Securing the middle spot among ten countries, Ireland secured a spot in Friday’s final with nine penalties – Germany being the only team to qualify with zero penalties.
On Thursday, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry initiated their Olympic journey by participating in the initial round of the men’s individual stroke play. McIlroy, who set off first among the two, ended his game under three with a 68 round score. Lowry stands a little off pace in the competition with a neutral par after recording a score of 71 in the initial round. His game faced hindrances with a momentary pause due to lightning when he was at 17.
Moving on to sailing, the Men’s Skiff medal race, in which Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove were participating, was halted twice amidst the races in Marsielles today because of insufficient wind speeds, and has been postponed until tomorrow.
In addition, Finn Lynch and Even McMahon began their Dinghy Fleet Series’ today, with Lynch securing a 9th place in Race 1 and 25th place in Race 2, ranking him 16th in total. McMahon, on her first Olympic stint, secured an 8th place in her initial race before it was called off for the day.
Speaking of the Canoe Slalom, Noel Hendrick met with disappointment in the K1 semi-final as his time of 102.46 disqualified him from the finals. Hendrick had some difficulties at the beginning of his run, nearly tipping over but recuperated well. Nevertheless, the interruption and two ensuing gate penalties led to the conclusion of his competition, finalising him in the 15th place.