Reports:
- Olympics: Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy take lightweight gold for Ireland
- ‘An honour and a privilege’: Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan’s perfect execution lands second Olympic gold
- Ireland’s mixed relay team miss out on Olympic final as the heat and pace rises in Paris
- Michaela Walsh’s departure leaves Kellie Harrington as final Irish boxer at Olympic Games
Irish in action on Friday at the Olympics:
- Golf: 8.44am Shane Lowry (E), 11.06am Rory McIlroy (-5) - Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama and Tommy Fleetwood lead on -11
- Rowing: 9.30am Fiona Murtagh, Aifric Keogh (Women’s coxless pair B final) - finished second
- Rowing: 10.22am Ross Corrigan, Nathan Timoney (Men’s coxless pair A final), finished sixth
- Rowing: 11.02am Paul O’Donovan, Fintan McCarthy (Men’s lightweight double sculls finals) won gold
- Rowing: 11.22am Margaret Cremen, Aoife Casey (Women’s lightweight double sculls finals) finished fifth
- Swimming: 10.18am Ellen Walshe (Women’s 200m IM), qualified for semi-finals at 8.22 where she finished seventh in the second heat to finish 13th overall
- Athletics: 10.05am Andrew Coscoran, Cathal Doyle, Luke McCann (1,500m round 1) - all three runners go in to the repechage after failing to get the top six finishes required to automatically go through to the next round
- Athletics: 5.10pm Jodie McCann (5,000m, round 1) - failed to qualify from her heat.
- Athletics: 6.10pm 4 x 400m Mixed Relay (Round 1) - failed to qualify from semi-finals.
- Athletics: 7.10pm Eric Favors (Men’s Shot Put qualifying round). - failed to qualify after a best throw of 19.02 metres
- Sailing: 11.15am Eve McMahon (Dinghy series race), 2.35pm Finn Lynch (Dinghy series race).
- Sailing: 12.13pm Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove (Skiff medal race) - finished fourth overall
- Equestrian: 1pm Shane Sweetnam, Daniel Coyle, Cian O’Connor (Showjumping team final) - finished seventh.
- Boxing: 2.46pm Michaela Walsh (57Kg round 16) - lost 5-0 to Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva
- Hockey: 4pm Ireland v New Zealand - Ireland won 2-1 but exit the tournament having lost their opening four games.
Our final update for the night is on Eric Favors, who has missed out on qualification from the shot put with a best throw of 19.02 metres, which was the first of his three throws.
Okay, I’m off, we’re going to have a lie-in on Saturday morning after what has been a long but hugely successful week. Muireann Duffy will be back tomorrow afternoon for Rhys McClenaghan’s Pommel Horse final as he goes for gold, while tomorrow night Kellie Harrington will be looking to turn guaranteed bronze into at least silver when she takes on Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira, who she beat to win gold in Tokyo.
Bonne nuit mes amis!
Walshe finishes seventh in what was a stacked semi-final in 2:11.35 and misses out on a place in the final. The Templeogue swimmer finishes 13th overall.
And one last track result as Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei wins gold in the men’s 10,000m ahead of Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi and Grant Fisher of the USA.
Canada’s Stdney Pickrem has won the first heat of the women’s 200 IM and Ellen Walshe is up next in the second semi-final.
The 22-year-old from Toulouse breaks the Olympic record and joins Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps as the only male athletes to win four individual gold medals at an Olympic Games. Great Britain’s Duncan Scott came home second to take silver and China’s Wang Shun took bronze.
And here comes Leon Marchand and the Paris La Defense Arena goes wild for the young French swimmer, who is looking to win a fourth gold medal of the Games in the 200 IM.
And a second Australian winner of the night in the pool as Kaylee McKeown takes gold in the women’s 200m backstroke. It completes the double after her win in the 100m backstroke and indeed the double-double as she took those two titles in Tokyo three years ago.
Some great reads up on our site from Ireland’s brilliant gold medal earlier, with Denis Walsh and Johnny Watterson both witnessing history as Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy defended their lightweight double sculls title.
And Ian O’Riordan reports from Stade de France as the Ireland 4x400m mixed relay team missed out on the final after some seriously speedy heats.
Good evening all, Emmet Riordan here to take you home for the last of Friday’s action. And there’s some swimming finals ahead of Ellen Walshe going in the Women’s 200 IM semi-finals.
Australia’s Cameron McEvoy has taken gold for Australia in the men’s 50m freestyle ahead of Great Britain’s Benjamin Proud and French swimmer Florent Manaudou.
That’s it for today, the baton is being passed over to whoever isn’t too goggle-eyed from being glued to their tellies since morning. Coming up is shot putter Eric Favors in his qualifying competition at 7.10, and Ellen Walshe in her 200m individual medley semi-final at (around) 8.22.
What a day, Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy providing us with a very wondrous, golden moment. The pressure will be on Rhys McClenaghan tomorrow to produce another one, his pommel horse final starting soon after 4.0.
Kellie Harrington, already with a bronze medal guaranteed, will look to turn that in to at least silver when she takes on Beatriz Ferreira at 9.08pm in the semi-finals, the Brazilian the woman she beat to win gold in Tokyo three years ago.
And our golden boy Daniel Wiffen is back in the pool in the morning, in the heats of the 1,500m Freestyle. It could prove to another memorable day, enjoy it all. Thanks for your company.
Thomas Barr on RTE: “You can’t pick apart where anything went wrong, we did everything we possibly could, before this season, that’s a record-breaking team. There’s no lying, we are disappointed, we were aiming for that final, and we are definitely good enough to be there, as our results have shown this year. But on the day, it just didn’t come together, every team stepped up, it IS the Olympic Games, we just fell short today.”
Rob Heffernan on RTE: “They probably finished where they deserved to finish. It’s tough, they won gold medals at the Europeans, they were paraded about the place and met the president - and to drop back down to focus on the Olympics takes a lot out of you.”
Sonia O’Sullivan on RTE: “It’s a massive reality check for the level of 400m running in Ireland. We’re at a high level, but we’re not at a really high level, we don’t have the depth and the quality. The fact is that Rhasidat [Adeleke] is never going to be available to run in the heats, so we need to have better athletes to replace her.”
Athletics: Oh Lord, our 4x400m mixed relay team has failed to reach the final, finishing fifth in their heat but not quick enough to take one of the qualifying spots for the two fastest teams to finish outside the first three in each heat. Gutting.
Athletics: Right then, here comes our 4x400m mixed relay team - a place in the final is up for grabs.
Athletics: Holy smokes, the United States 4x400m mixed relay team have just broken the world record in the first heat of the evening - Ireland’s world record!
Athletics: Next up is our 4x400m mixed relay team, and as anticipated it won’t include Rhasidat Adeleke this evening, for now her focus on her individual events. Lining up in the next 15-ish minutes will be Thomas Barr, Chris O’Donnell, Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker.
Athletics: As expected, that 5,000m heat was too big an ask for Jodie McCann considering the quality of the opposition, the Dublin City Harriers runner finishing at the back of the field in 20th. Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet won the heat, followed by Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa and Australia’s Rose Davies.
That’s what friends are for.....
Athletics: Jodie McCann is really up against it in this 5,000m heat, the field packed with world class runners. Starting any second now.
Hockey: Ireland wrap up their Olympic campaign on a high note, beating New Zealand 2-1 in their final group game. They had to come from behind too, Ben Walker and Jeremy Duncan getting the goals after New Zealand had taken an early lead. It was a tough ask for the side in Paris, who were in a group with five of the world’s top 10 ranked sides, including number one nation Belgium. They had lost their four opening games before taking on NZ, so had no chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
Hockey: With one quarter to go, Ireland are 2-1 up against New Zealand in their final game at the Olympics, Jeremy Duncan giving them the lead.
Tom Cruise: Apparently, the movie man is to rappel 42 metres (137ft) from the roof of the Stade de France as part of the Olympic Games closing ceremony. No, some of us had no clue what that meant either, guessing that it might be some form of duet he would perform with Snoop Dogg. But according to the dictionary, it means to “descend a rock face or other near-vertical surface by using a doubled rope coiled around the body and fixed at a higher point”. In other words: abseil. It isn’t, of course, the same way we all go.
Athletics: With track and field getting up and running today, here’s Ian O’Riordan’s guide to each member of the Irish team - and he has a notion there are several genuine medal contenders among them.
Hockey: After losing their opening four group games, Ireland’s men bow out of the Olympics today after concluding their campaign against New Zealand. The sides are currently 1-1, as the game approaches half-time, Ben Walker equalising after Joseph Morrisson gave New Zealand an early lead.
Still to come today: Jodie McCann runs in the 5,000m heats (5.36), our mixed relay team are in action in their heats (6.22) and shot putter Eric Favors starts his qualifying competition at 7.10. And in swimming, Ellen Walshe is through to the 200m individual medley semi-finals which get under way at 8.22.
Golf: Rory McIlroy has a fair amount of work to do over the weekend if he is to get on that Olympic podium, his second round of 69 leaving him tied for 13th and six shots behind joint leaders Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama and Tommy Fleetwood. A frustrated Shane Lowry is another five strokes adrift after his second successive round of 71.
Ian O’Riordan - who is now hot-footing it to the athletics - reports from Château de Versailles (well for some) where the Irish showjumping team finished seventh in today’s final, “despite putting themselves right in the medal mix going into the last round”. That result matched Ireland’s best ever placing at the Olympics, but fell short of their target when they left for Paris, having won the five-star Nations Cup in Germany last month.
Kayak cross: Noel Hendrick and Liam Jegou finished 14th and 18th respectively out of 38 competitors in today’s time trial, all 38 advancing to tomorrow’s heats where, rather than today’s solo runs, they’ll race against three opponents.
Golf: With three holes to go, Rory McIlroy is still stuck on five under, eight shots behind leader Hideki Matsuyama. Three birdies would be nice.
Windsurfing: Windsurfing without wind is, well, surfing, so the finals of the men’s and women’s competitions have been postponed until tomorrow due to, well, an absence of wind.
Boxing: No judging controversies this time around, a classy Svetlana Staneva deservedly given a unanimous victory over Michaela Walsh. It’s been a disappointing Olympics for our boxers, Kellie Harrington our sole survivor - she’s in the semi-finals tomorrow against the woman she beat in the Tokyo final, Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira.
Boxing: A better round from Michaela Walsh, but four judges give the round to Svetlana Staneva.
Boxing: Michaela Walsh is finding the going tough against Svetlana Staneva, all five judges awarding the Bulgarian the first round.
Boxing: Michaela Walsh is about to step in to the ring for her round of 16 bout with Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva.
Showjumping: Disappointment in the end, then, for Ireland, but Daniel Coyle in particular will take huge confidence from his clear rounds in both qualifying and in the final when he takes part in the individual competition.
Showjumping: It’s gold for Britain in the team competition, the United States take silver, and France bronze - Ireland finish in seventh.
Showjumping: Nine faults for O’Connor, two fences down and one time penalty. So, Ireland are down to fifth, their medal hopes gone.
Showjumping: Medal-possibility alert. Start lighting candles. The final round of the team competition is nearing its completion, with Cian O’Connor and his horse Maurice last out for Ireland - NOW! Earlier, Daniel Coyle and Legacy had a brilliant clear round, while Shane Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz picked up five faults. That put Ireland in fourth place, so it all rests on O’Connor’s performance. Britain, France and the USA were in the medal positions going in to the final round, and they finish up after O’Connor.
SHOWJUMPING: The impressive Germans moved into first spot with their round.
SHOWJUMPING: Belgium and the hotly-fancied Swedes have both picked up faults. In case you are wondering what we are looking for from here it is basically this - we want Cian O’Connor to have a clear round, and then we hope one, or ideally all, of the competitors that follow him take a wrecking ball (or hoof) to every fence.
TENNIS: Just to switch codes for a second, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz has powered into the Olympic singles final with a brutal 6-1 6-1 thrashing of Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime at Roland Garros on Friday. The 21-year-old second seed is bidding to add the Olympic gold to the French Open and Wimbledon titles he won recently and was in devastating form on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Alcaraz will face either top seed Novak Djokovic or Italian Lorenzo Musetti in Sunday’s gold-medal match. They play their semi-final later on Friday.
SHOWJUMPING: Ok, here we go, the riders are about to come back out at the Chateau de Versailles. Cian O’Connor will go fourth last, or fifth of eight if you prefer, as the riders compete in reverse order. First out are Belgium.
SHOWJUMPING: They are taking a 20-minute break in the showjumping before the final third round riders are out. Ireland are currently sitting in fourth spot, behind Great Britain, France and the USA. Everything is very, very tight. One penalty essentially separates the first four. The tiniest of margins could win or lose a medal from here. Cian O’Connor is out next for Ireland, and will be the fourth-last to go out. Time to start chewing those fingernails...
Showjumping: RTE are about to go over to the showjumping team final now where Shane Sweetnam, Daniel Coyle and Cian O’Connor are representing Ireland.
Rowing: Paul O’Donovan has been downplaying his historic success again. Speaking on RTE, he said “it’s really special, but when it comes down to it this is the same distance course we have for training in Cork, believe me - there’s just a big grandstand and a fancy paint job here, so there’s no difference.”
And hardly had he collected his gold medal when he was already thinking four years ahead. Would he consider competing at the next Olympic Games? “Ah, yeah, it’s definitely something that’s on my mind at the minute. I’ll just have to go home and write out a plan for the next few years, see how to fit that one in.”
Fintan McCarthy, though, was emphatic about his plans: “I’m done”
The French team have promised to take the pair out for “baguettes and wine” in Paris this evening, said O’Donovan. You’d hope there’ll be champagne on offer too.
Athletics: It was a tough morning on the track for Cathal Doyle, Luke McCann and Andrew Coscoran in the 1,500m heats, the trio finishing ninth, eighth and 15th respectively. They all go into the new repechage round, introduced at the Olympics for the first time, set for Saturday evening (6.15pm Irish), offering them another shot at qualifying for Sunday’s semi-finals. You can read Ian O’Riordan’s report here.
Golf: Xander Schauffele and Hideki Matsuyama, on 10 under, are the current joint leaders in the golf tournament. Rory McIlroy is four strokes back and Shane Lowry is another five adrift.
Annalise Murphy suffered her own sailing heartbreak when she was a contender for gold in the medal race at London 2012, but finished fourth. Speaking on RTE, she’s distraught for Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove after their fourth place finish this afternoon.
“They’re going to be so disappointed. It’s one thing losing a medal when you sail the race really well and you get beaten, but to be over the start line and have to go back, and not even be in the race, you’re just watching from afar, just hoping your main competitors do badly in the race ... it’s just horrible to see it like that. They sailed so well all week, they deserved more. Sport is horrible sometimes. I feel so sorry for them, it’s really not a nice place to be.”
Hopefully they’ll take heart from Murphy’s achievement of bouncing back in Rio to win silver .... although, 2028 is unlikely to be on their minds today.
Medal Count: Oh my, doesn’t this look sweet?
Sailing: You know what they say, fourth is the very worst place to finish - and that’s where Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove have come overall in the Skiff event which was won by Spain. Starting too early, which led to them having to cut back, cost them dearly.
Sailing: Dickson and Waddilove are struggling in the Skiff medal race after having to cut back following their ‘false start’. They’re currently in ninth place in the race and fourth overall - that start is proving very costly.
Sailing: After the frustration of yesterday’s efforts to complete the Skiff medal race, Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove and their competitors are trying again - thankfully in much better conditions. But there could be a problem.... the Irish pair, along with two other boats, had a false start, so we’re waiting to see what the outcome for that transgression will be.
Rowing: ”Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy become the first Irish athletes since Dr Pat Callaghan in 1932 to successfully defend an Olympic title and did so with magisterial power and dominance,” writes Denis Walsh in his report on their golden display.
Rowing: The President has passed on his congratulations.
Rowing: Paul O’Donovan interviews are usually a hoot - here’s the latest.
Swimming: Ellen Walshe finished sixth in her 200m individual medley heat, 15th out of the 16 qualifiers who go through to the next round at 8.22 this evening.
Rowing: Amhrán na bhFiann is about to fill the air, Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy arrive for the medal ceremony.
Paul O’Donovan on becoming the first Irish Olympian to medal at three Games: “Ah, I think that’s a fluke, to be honest.” He’s one of a kind, that man.
Rowing: It’s gold for Britain, silver for Romania and bronze for Greece - Cremen and Casey finish fifth.
Rowing: Cremen and Casey still in fifth, struggling to close the gap on New Zealand and Greece.
Rowing: Cremen and Casey fifth in the early stages, Britain leading, followed by Romania, Greece and New Zealand, but it’s tight - and the Irish pair have a fast finish.
Rowing: And we’re off again, Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey gunning for a medal in their lightweight double sculls finals.
Paul O’Donovan (with kind of a straight face): “No one believed we could do it coming in to the competition. Against all the odds we stuck with it, trained hard. Italy were number one seeds, underdogs like ourselves put in a big dig. We’re very happy to have proved the doubters wrong. It’s a good day for the Irish.”
Rowing: Rewatch it in all its glory.
Rowing: Paul O’Donovan makes history by becoming the first Irish Olympian to medal at three Games - an outstanding performance by him and Fintan McCarthy.
Rowing: O’Donovan and McCarthy have done it, it’s GOLD!!! The Little Davids turned in to Goliaths! Magic!
Rowing: O’Donovan and McCarthy in the lead with 650m to go!
Rowing: O’Donovan and McCarthy in third at the 500m mark, Italy leading after an aggressive start. Greece in second.
Rowing: Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy are off in their lightweight double sculls final. Skibbereen (and all of Ireland) holds its breath.
Sinead Jennings, the former Olympic rower, is wondering by how much Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan will win their lightweight double sculls final, not whether they’ll win it. That class of talk is making us nervous. It’s up next.
Rowing: Ireland’s coxless pair Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh ended their Olympic Games with second place in the B final at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium. They pushed hard over the final 500m but couldn’t catch the Spanish pair who took a big lead early on.
Rowing: Corrigan and Timoney looked in with a shout of bronze at the half-way point of their final, but they dropped back thereafter and finished sixth. A nightmare ending for the British crew who caught a crab - not literally - at the death and were beaten on the line by Croatia. Switzerland took bronze.
Rowing: Britain pipped dramatically at the death by Croatia, Corrigan and Timoney finish in sixth.
Rowing: Corrigan and Timoney struggling now, their bronze hopes fading with 200m to go - Britain still leading.
Rowing: Corrigan and Timoney in sixth with 1300m to go, Britain leading the race.
Rowing: We’re off in the pair final, fair winds to you, Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney.
Sinead Jennings, speaking on RTE, reckons Enniskillen’s Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney will find it tough to win a medal in their pair final, this being their Olympic debut - so we should probably lower our expectations. A bit.
This is where we all need a bank of TVs and several sets of eyes - the rowing is about to clash with the athletics. Up first are Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney in the coxless pair final.
In athletics, no joy for Cathal Doyle in his 1500m heat, the Swords man finishing outside the top six - but he’ll have a second chance in the repechage.
In athletics, Cathal Doyle is up and running in his 1500m heat.
In athletics, we have three runners in the 1,500m heats this morning:
10:10: Cathal Doyle (Heat 1)
10:21: Luke McCann (Heat 2)
10:32: Andrew Coscoran (Heat 3)
Ian O’Riordan will be keeping an eye on everything on that very purple track - which is designed to give us a superior television experience. Why? No clue.
In rowing these are the times of the morning’s big finals, so take your phone off the hook:
10.22am - Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney (Coxless Pair Final)
11.02am - Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan (Lightweight Double Sculls Final)
11.22am - Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey (Lightweight Double Sculls Final)
The first of the Irish in action today is Shane Lowry whose second round at Le Golf National tees off at 8.44am, Rory McIlroy getting started at 11.06am.
Lowry finished on level par in his opening round, enduring a frustrating day that ended with bogeys on 15 and 18 after a short weather delay for thunder and lightning. McIlroy had a better time of it, carding a three-under-par round of 68 to leave him five shots adrift of leader Hideki Matsuyama.
There was no little controversy in the boxing yesterday when Daina Moorehouse lost her 50kg division bout to French opponent Wassila Lkhadiri on a split decision when, as Ireland boxing head coach Zaur Antia put it, “if you have eyes, you know, every round was 5-0″ for the Bray fighter. Ian O’Riordan was in the North Paris Arena to witness it all.
Good Olympic morning everyone, Mary Hannigan here. John O’Sullivan is taking a well-earned breather after guiding you through the first six days of the Games. He’s a hard act to follow, but his substitutes will make an Olympic effort to fill the void, in a Citius, Altius, Fortius kind of way.
It’s another very busy - and potentially very thrilling - day for the Irish team in France, three of our rowing teams through to their A finals this morning, Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove aiming for a medal in the rescheduled Skiff medal race, and our showjumpers eyeing a spot on the podium too after finishing sixth of the 20 nations on Thursday to make it through to this afternoon’s team final.
So, three rowing crews are in with a chance of an Olympic medal. Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney in the coxless pair, Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy and then Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey in the lightweight double sculls ..... by 11.30am-ish, with any luck, we’ll be inundated with medals.
Track and field gets under way today too, with Ireland’s European champions in the 4x400m mixed relay starting their campaign - although it looks as if Rhasidat Adeleke will not be involved in the heats, her focus, for now, on her individual races.
