Reigning world champion Daniel Wiffen eased his way into tomorrow night’s 800m Freestyle final qualifying fastest of all eight swimmers in a time of 7:41.53. Team mate Ellen Walshe booked her spot in her first Olympic final tonight; her favoured event the women’s 400m Individual Medley by finishing fourth in her heat. Second time Olympian Danielle Hill secured a spot in the semi-finals of tonight’s women’s 100m backstroke with a fourth place heat finish also.
Despite a strong performance the men’s hockey team went down 2-1 to world #3 side Australia in their second pool match this morning. The sole rowing crew back on the water today; the women’s lightweight double Mags Cremen and Aoife Casey won their repechage to book a spot in the semi-finals tomorrow.
In Sailing, after their impressive win in race three yesterday Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove return to the water in Marseilles for races four, five and six of the men’s Skiff but currently the races have been delayed due to poor wind conditions.
In Equestrian the Eventing team of Susie Berry and Austin O’Connor with Aoife Clark, who replaced Sarah Ennis are currently contested the final leg with the show jumping at the Palace of Versailles. Aoife Clark was up first and had just the one pole down. Susie Berry soon followed and also incurred just four faults for a finish of 31st overall individually. Austin O’Connor on Colorado Blue had two fences down in his round to see the team finish ninth overall in the team event having earlier today incurred a penalty for replacing Sarah Ennis. O’Connor did enough to make it to the Individual Show jumping final later for the top 25 finishers.
Swimming
It was a magic Monday at Paris La Defense for Irish swimmers as Daniel Wiffen, Ellen Walshe and Danielle Hill all advanced from their heats. Walshe and Wiffen are now only the third and fourth Olympic Swimming finalists for Ireland in the history of the Games, the latter the first male. Team Ireland will have three swimmers in action tonight with Mona McSharry also set to swim in the 100m Breaststroke Final after her Irish Record swim of 1:05.51 to qualify as second seed on Sunday.
Daniel Wiffen will be the top seed in Tuesday’s Final after an outstanding swim in the 800m Freestyle Heats. The reigning World Champion in the event swam his third fastest time ever clocking 7:41.53 to win his heat. Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi was the closest to Wiffen in second place touching in 7:42.08.
A confident Wiffen spoke after the race: “I mean it’s never comfortable, I just wasn’t at 100% that’s all I’ll say. I mean you didn’t see my legs coming in at the end so that’s where it is really, but was on good pace, happy with the morning swim, and you know a fast time as well, nearly as fast as my World Champs winning time so pretty happy.”
First out this morning, Ellen Walshe had an excellent swim in the 400m Individual Medley. Eighth after the Butterfly and Backstroke legs, the Templeogue swimmer stormed through the Breaststroke and Freestyle to secure her place in the Final in 4:39.97; fourth in her heat and seventh overall.
Speaking after the race Walshe said: “It’s a bit of a shock. I saw fourth on the board and I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know, it’s just a waiting game’. I hadn’t seen the results from the heats before me and once I saw it, it was such a relief. I don’t think it was quite there this morning. The backstroke is probably my weakest stroke, I knew I had 200 to go, I could see the middle of the field and thought, ‘Okay, I just need to turn on the gears and fight.’ I had a strong finish, and I am delighted to go into the final tonight.”
Danielle Hill, competing at her second Olympic Games, is semi-final bound after a fourth-place finish in her heat of the 100m Backstroke in 1:00.40. The Larne swimmer had a nervy wait to confirm her place, eventually securing sixteenth place overall.
Afterwards Hill said; “I’m happy with how I put it together, the stuff that we’ve been working on is there and now tonight I’ve got to utilise what I’ve always had. I hope there’s another gear. We’ve done job one, now I’ve got to reset and see what I can do tonight.
Hockey
Ireland Men’s Hockey team produced a battling performance in their second outing, pushing FIH Pro League champions Australia all the way in this morning’s Pool B clash at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium before ultimately slipping to a narrow 2-1 defeat. Lee Cole scored Ireland’s opening goal of these Olympics, finishing brilliant from a penalty corner in the first half, and Mark Tumilty’s side defended stoically throughout, trading blows with the world’s third-ranked team in a really encouraging display in Paris.
After Corey Weyer had given Australia an early lead, Ireland responded strongly as Cole slammed home into the bottom corner following a well-worked Irish penalty corner, sparking celebrations among the green army inside Yves-du-Manoir Stadium.
Shutting down Australia’s lethal attacking threat at one end, goalkeeper David Harte once again totemic between the posts, Ireland pushed forward repeatedly with intent and accuracy during an intense contest, but Australia regained the lead moments before half-time as Blake Covers converted a penalty stroke despite Harte’s best efforts.
With Matthew Nelson and Ben Walker looking dangerous in attack, Ireland searched for an equaliser in the final quarter and despite falling just short, there are no lack of positives for Tumilty and his players to take into tomorrow’s third Pool outing against India. Four of the six teams in each pool will progress to the quarter-finals.
Speaking after the defeat Irish captain Seán Murray gave this assessment: “I think it was a fantastic performance from the guys, we went out there with a confidence and a belief to try and get a result against one of the top sides in the world and credit to Australia, they defended really well and they took their chances. I think since January when we qualified, we have been doing so much work behind the scenes with the coaches and S&C on our physicality. Australia are a renowned team to run you off the park and you could see at the end of the game, some of those guys were on their knees so I think physically and also technically we matched them.
“It’s great to get off the mark with a great strike from Lee Cole and we said after Belgium we wanted to create more chances and to play with a bit more belief and be a bit more direct, don’t be so conservative, and I think we did that today. We have three games to go, we’re living the dream out here and we want to get those two results we’re chasing to reach a quarter-final.”
Team reserve Jonny Lynch made his Olympic debut when he was drafted into the team ahead of today’s game to replace Nick Page ,who suffered a wrist injury in the opening game, but will hopefully be fit enough to return later in the week.
Rowing
The Lightweight Women’s Double of Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey recorded a convincing win in their repechage this morning. Getting cleanly off the start, Ireland held a good position moving to the front ahead of the Canadian double The Chinese double caught some water in the opening strokes which led to a boat stopping crab, ruling them out of the top runners. Through the second quarter of the race, Ireland settled into their rhythm, moving efficiently in the water, increasing their lead as they went.
Afterwards Cremen has this reaction: “It was a really solid race so it was great, and felt good. It was our goal today to just feel in control and execute our plan. I think we did that, and I think we just wanted to be with the pack as long as we could and then have confidence in ourselves so that we can push through then with the fitness we have.”
Crossing the line three lengths ahead of the Canadian double, who finished fourth at last year’s World Championships, Cremen and Casey head into the semi-finals on Wednesday (July 31st) with the fastest time of the two repechages.
Equestrian
Aoife Clark kicked off the final day of the team eventing competition with just a single pole down, coming home inside the time for four faults on board Sportsfield Freelance. Clark replaced Sarah Ennis in the team for the show jumping phase after Ennis’s mare Action Lady M had picked up an injury on the cross country track yesterday.
Commenting on the round Clark said: “I was gutted for Sarah and her mare after they had put in such a good performance on the cross country. Thankfully it’s just a small injury and she’ll be fine. I love, love, love this little mare – she’s such a trier. She was nervous going in but we’ve got such a good partnership but she took a deep breath and trusted me. She busted a gut, she really did. I’ll have to take the blame for the four faults – I just got her in a bit deep to the fence. But it’s a good round for the team and I’m delighted with that.”
Soon after Susie Berry completed her first Olympics with Wellfields Lincoln after an excellent round of show jumping, adding four penalties to end on a score of 52.2 and finish in 31st place. On the whole, Berry was happy with her performance over the three days, although she was left to rue the fence dropped in the arena this afternoon.
Speaking at the arena she said: “What an incredible opportunity and experience it’s been. I’m a little bit gutted he had a fence down, to be honest. t’s a clever track, and that line to the double is tricky. It’s tight up to the end of the arena and it comes up quite quickly so there isn’t much time to adjust. It’s big in there and well designed – it’s a technical and tricky, but it needs to be for my lad to drop one, and I’m so proud of him.”
Austin O’Connor was the last of the Irish trio in action with Colorado Blue but was disappointed to have the last two fences down for eight faults. The Cork man did however manage to sneak into the individual show jumping final (top 25 on cumulative scores) later.
LATER
Off the back of their win against South Africa the women’s rugby Sevens team return to the Stade de France to face Australia in their final Pool game. Australia impressed hugely beating Great Britain 38-5 in their second Pool game on Sunday.
In Canoe Slalom double Olympian Liam Jegou returns to action when he goes in the semi-final of the men’s C1 at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium. 16 paddlers will each get just one run down the 250m course with the top 12 gaining a spot in the Olympic final. Clare man Jegou, who qualified in 16th place will be the first to take on the course and try and post a strong time when the event starts at 2.30pm.
Defending lightweight champion Kellie Harrington steps into the ring this afternoon when she faces Italy’s Alessia Mesiano in the last 16. Mesiano was a lightweight world bronze medallist in 2022 and comes into the fight with one victory already under her belt in Paris; a 4-1 victory over a Turk in the preliminary round. The duo have met once before, in 2021, which Harrington won 5-0.
Following his brilliant win in his opening game on Saturday Badminton double Olympian Nhat Nguyen will face Prince Dehal of Nepal in his second group game tonight.
Sligo swimmer Mona McSharry will have all Irish eyes on her tonight when she lines up in the women’s 100m breaststroke final tonight at 8.25pm Irish time.
