Fifth place for Slevin in the balance beam, 14th for Miranda Tcheuthchoua in the women’s 3kg hammer throw while Team Ireland golfers Kitt and Crowley Walsh finished up T13 in the Mixed Team event.
Gymnastics:
Emma Slevin has finished fifth in the balance beam finals at the Youth Olympic Games with a score of 11.800. The Renmore Gymnastics Club fifteen-year-old surpassed all expectations to feature in four finals, before finishing in a fine fifth place in the beam tonight, on her last day of competition.
It wasn’t Slevin’s best result in the beam, after her personal best in qualifying, but it was enough to secure fifth on the night, she said afterwards; “it went okay, it definitely wasn’t my best routine, but it wasn’t my worst, and I’m really happy with the result. I’m absolutely wrecked,” Slevin added after the long week of competition, “I’m sure everyone else is the same. It’s just such a tiring way to do a competition. None of us have ever done this format before, but it wasn’t too bad. I got over it, and I got to the end, so I’m happy. I still can’t believe it now so it will sink in soon, and I can believe it then. I think it will be an amazing feeling, I’ll never forget this.”
Resilient Slevin came through a long week of competition, including a foot injury that she suffered in the warm up for the vault, and came out stronger, saying that her message to young upcoming gymnasts is, “If you are struggling, like me with my foot injury the last day, I got through it and I got to the end and I came fifth on beam – it just shows you should never give up and keep pushing.”
Golf:
Golfers Lauren Crowley Walsh and David Kitt finished up T13 in the Mixed Team, with +6 in the Four-Ball Stroke Play, T5 in the Foursomes and a final T24 in the Cumulative Play.
Speaking afterwards Walsh said, “I guess today probably wasn’t our best day on the course, we didn’t get off to the fast start that we were looking for, but that’s how golf goes. We didn’t really hole on the greens, we really struggled and didn’t get many of the drops. Overall, we got off to a good start on the first few days, and it was today that let us down.”
This week’s event presented a new concept for the golfers, combining the Four-Bally Stroke Play, Foursomes and Cumulative Play in a team event. Kitt added, “It was really good, something new, I’ve never played it before, so it was great. The first few days especially we played really well and gelled nicely as a partnership. Unfortunately, today we didn’t play great, but the first two days were really good.”
The Irish teenagers enjoyed the golf course, which was different to what they were used to. “The grass firstly is really different, not used to it in Ireland,” explained Kitt. “The first few days it took us a bit of time to adjust to it, because it’s so different. On the course the green is really small, at home they are small but not this small. If you are a fraction out you are really penalised, so you have to be really precise with your shots. Overall, it’s an enjoyable course, and it was nice to play it.”
It’s been a long week for Walsh from Castlewarden, Dublin and Kitt from Athenry Golf Club, and both have enjoyed the experience. “It’s been a brilliant week,” said Walsh, “you get to play against the best players in the world, and to see where you are against them. It’s nice to play with some really good players, and you learn from them. I guess you get to see where the gaps are in your game, and where you can improve.”
Last week Walsh was playing in a group with US teen sensation, Lucy Li, who was playing as a Professional when she was twelve as well as the Argentinian player, which gathered a lot of attention. Lauren enjoyed the extra crowds, “That was really fun, we had a lot of crowds out that day, Lucy is the top ranked girl here this week, and the Argentinian girl had all the local support out. It’s good to get used to playing in front of a crowd, we don’t build great crowds for tournaments at home, it’s good to get the experience out here.”
Athletics:
In the Women’s Hammer Throw 3kg, Miranda Tcheuthchoua climbed one place to fourteenth after her second day of competition, with a score of 106.60.
Day ten of the Youth Olympic Games will see Dean Clancy and Dearbhla Rooney in action in the men’s and women’s flyweight category’s respectively with Miriam Daly racing in the second stage of the women’s 400m hurdles.
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.
