06:30-10:30 Equestrian Day 1 Dressage
Geoff Curran, Niall Griffin, Louise Lyons, Austin O’Connor and Patricia Ryan
Austin O’Connor on board Hobby Du Mee was officially the first Irish team member in action at the Olympic Games in the Dressage o0f the three-day eventing in Hong Kong. O’Connor received 52.80 penalty points. He was followed by Geoff Curran on Kilkishen who scored 61.70 penalty points. After two riders for each country Ireland currently lie in 8th place in the team event. Louise Lyons goes in this evening’s session.
09:00-13:30 Shooting – Men’s Trap qualifying
Derek Burnett
Derek Burnett lies in 15th position after three rounds of the individual trap. Derek stared well hitting 24 of 25 targets in the first round but managed only 22 in the second which dropped him down the rankings. A score of 23 in the third round lifted him to 15th place with two more rounds of qualifying to come tomorrow.
10:00 Fencing – Women’s Individual Sabre first round
Siobhan Byrne v Irena Wieckowska (Poland) winner to meet Elena Nechaeva (Russia)
Siobhan Byrne lost in the first round to Irena Wieckowska (Poland) 8-15. The Polish girl went on to beat the reigning world champion Elena Nechaeva (Russia) in the last 32.
On the bout
“I’m disappointed. I just didn’t feel the bout form the beginning she was awkward to fence, she wasn’t really moving and I found it hard to get into a rhythm, I found myself 8-1 down but after the break I began to get into the bout but it’s hard to psychologically fight back like that. I changed my preparation and I went with the flow but it was too late.”
On Wieckowska winning her next bout
“I wasn’t expecting her to win that fight but obviously this is her day.”
10:45 Badminton – Men’s Singles first round
Scott Evans v Marc Zwiebler (Germany)
Evans recieving an Olympic Council of Ireland training grant to cover training costs in Denmark, with Coach Jim Laugesen
Scott Evans lost his last 64 match to Marc Zwiebler (Germany) 18-21, 21-18, 19-21. Scott put up a terrific battle and led 18-15 in the deciding set only to lose to a player ranked 23 places above him in the world rankings.
On losing to ZWIEBLER:
“I played okay but I’m obviously devastated with the loss. I came so close. I just had a few chances and I didn’t take them. Today wasn’t my day.”
On his first Olympics:
“I was just a little bit nervous. It’s tough to get used to the big hall. Once I got going it was fine.”
On the conditions on the court:
“There was a little bit of a drift in the hall, so I couldn’t play to the back of the court. I had to change my game plan because it wasn’t working.”
“The crowd gave me that extra bit in the second game and in the third when I needed it.”
11:00-17:30 Cycling – Men’s Road Race
Nicholas Roche and Philip Deignan
After 245km around Beijing and then out to the Great Wall Nicholas Roche finished 64th and Philip Deignan 81st out of 90 riders who completed the race.
13:00-19:00 Sailing – Men’s Finn class races 1 and 2
Tim Goodbody
Tim Goodbody lies 20th overall after scoring a 22nd in Race 1 and 13th in Race 2.
15:30 Boxing – Men’s Light Heavyweight
Kenny Egan v Julius Jackson (ISV)
Kenny Egan got the boxing team off to the best possible start with an easy 22-2 points win over Julius Jackson (ISV).
On the win
“I’m happy enough to get the ball rolling for the team and myself. The guy I beat there I boxed him in the World Championships in Chicago and I beat him handy but he is a strong lad, his right hand and that. We had a plan to get the lead, feinting all the time and making my opponent miss, that’s what I done. It’s worked out.”
17:50 Rowing – Men’s Four Heat 3 IRL, France, Germany and Australia (first 3 to semi-final)
Cormac Folan, Sean Casey, Jonathon Devlin, Sean O’Neill
The men’s heavyweight four progressed to the semi-finals with a third place finish in the heats at Shunyi. They edged out France to avoid the repechage finishing behind Australia and Germany.
18:50 Badminton – Ladies Singles first round
Chloe Magee v Kati Tolmoff (Estonia)
Chloe Magee came from one game down to beat Kati Tolmoff (Estonia) 18-21, 21-18, 21-19 to reach the last 32 of the ladies singles where she will meet Jaeyoun Jun (Korea) tomorrow at 10:10am (Beijing time)
On the atmosphere
“Crowd is unreal. They helped me so much and helped my nerves because I was shaking in this arena so they really helped me out.”
On Scott Evans losing in the morning
“I’m gutted for Scott because he had such a good chance to win, he really played a really good match and deserved to win so I’m just happy that I can lift the spirits in the camp.”
On the match
“I feel amazing at this present minute. The whole match I was thinking ‘Chloe, if you don’t get your ass in action you’re going to lose’ so I just thought it’s the Olympics, go out and fight for it and that’s what I did, I went for everything at the end! If it wasn’t going to come off it wasn’t my day but it did and I’m just lucky.”
“I feel amazing at this present minute. The whole match I was thinking ‘Chloe, if you don’t get your ass in action you’re going to lose’ so I just thought it’s the Olympics, go out and fight for it and that’s what I did, I went for everything at the end! If it wasn’t going to come off it wasn’t my day but it did and I’m just lucky.”
On tomorrow morning’s game
“ My only goal was to go out there and play my best badminton and if I played my best badminton in the Olympics then I’d be happen.”
19:15 Equestrian Day 1 Dressage
Geoff Curran, Niall Griffin, Louise Lyons, Austin O’Connor and Patricia Ryan
Louise Lyons riding Watership Down went for Ireland in the evening session of the dressage and scored 57.40 penalty points.
At the end of the first day Ireland lie in ninth place in the team event. Niall Griffin and Patricia Ryan will go tomorrow in the second day of dressage.
20:35 Swimming – Men’s 100m breaststroke heat 5
Andrew Bree
An Irish record for Andrew Bree as he finished in second place in his heat. His personal best time of 1:01.76 beat his previous record of 1:01.83. Bree was ranked 30th and missed out on tomorrow’s semi-finals.
On his swim
“My finish was ugly, I could have shaved a few hundredths more of the time but I’m pretty pleased. Obviously the bulk of my work isn’t geared towards the 100m and on Tuesday I’ll probably go out in 1:02.00 and feel pretty comfortable. It’s a small personal best and Irish record which was okay I guess but first swim out of the way and now I’m just looking forward to Tuesday.”
On the facility
“It’s a fast pool, it feels very good but there are improvements to be made and now I’m just looking forward to Tuesday and the 200m and I’m getting pretty excited about that”
On his fitness
“I’ve gotten stronger and I really needed to, I need to use my size as much as possible.”
On being at his second Olympics
“It’s great to be here especially after all the craziness this year and it’s great to be racing, the best in the world are here and just to mix it up with them is exciting. I was nineteen in Sydney, didn’t know what I was doing. I was a bit of a rookie, the eight years have gone by really fast and who knows, maybe I’ll be talking to you all in London”
