Day four’s evening session at the Youth Olympic Games will see Mona McSharry and Niamh Coyne vying for medals in the women’s 100m breaststroke and Nhat Nguyen in action in the quarter finals of the men’s badminton singles. The team experienced defeats earlier in the day in tennis and swimming.
Tennis:
Georgia Drummy was beaten 0-2 by Latvian Daniela Vismane in the women’s singles at the Youth Olympic Games. Vismane put the pressure on from the start, winning the first set 6-2. Drummy fought back in an attempt to gain control in the second set, but the Latvian proved too strong, winning the second set 6-2, and moving into the quarter finals.
A disappointed Drummy said; “I knew she [Vismane] was going to be quite good on clay, she moves well and plays a lot of high heavy balls, so I was aware of that. But I think I just didn’t play my best tennis and I wasn’t making enough balls in the court. I was being too aggressive, and I wasn’t putting it out.”
“Since I’ve been growing up on hard courts, I prefer moving on that, my game style suits it more with the aggressiveness. But I’ve been training on clay, so I should be a bit better, the points are higher and longer so the ball is a bit slower. I feel a bit disappointed, but we learn from our matches so I’m just going to get back out on the court and start training again.”
Swimming:
There was disappointment for Powell, finishing 8th in his heat with a time of 26.35 in the men’s 50 butterfly heats. This was outside his personal best time of 25.19 which he recorded earlier this year. Athlone’s Powell will now switch his focus to the heats of the men’s 100 freestyle tomorrow.
This evening sees Emma Slevin in the balance beam qualifiers. Yesterday Slevin performed out of her skin to achieve a personal best score in the uneven bars (12.833) booking her place in the finals next Saturday as 7th qualifier. Lauren Crowley Walsh and David Kitt are currently in action on the green in the women’s and men’s golf individuals respectively. Nhat Nguyen will shortly play Shifeng Li in the quarter finals of the men’s singles. Tallaght’s Niamh Coyne and Sligo’s Mona McSharry compete in the finals of the women’s 100 breaststroke. Coyne is going into the final as the third fastest qualifier.
Team Ireland in Buenos Aires comprises of a squad of 16 athletes from 9 sports. The team of 5 male athletes and 11 female athletes includes Nhat Nguyen (Badminton) and Mona McSharry (Swimming), recipients of Olympic Solidarity Scholarships which were awarded to assist with qualification and preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
This is the third edition of the Youth Olympic Games which are hosted every four years. The Games, running from October 6 to October 18 will feature more than 4,000 talented junior athletes aged 15 to 18 from 200 countries in over 32 sports.
