DIASPORA CLAIMS

Flora Duffy won the Women’s Triathlon Gold medal and Siobhan Bernadette Haughey got through to the final of the Women’s 200 Metre Freestyle event in the pool. A scan of the headlines from Day 4 in Tokyo so far would have you believe it was a red-letter day for Ireland but the two hail from Bermuda and Hong Kong so their performances are celebrated in further corners around the world.

Actually, we can make no known claim on Duffy but we could cheer as she claimed the first gold Medal of any Olympic Games for the Caribbean island.

The connection to Haughey is a lot closer with her Father Darragh and Irish Emigré and if the surname is familiar it is because her Great uncle was one Charles J Haughey, formerly of this parish who was fond of the occasional sporting podium during his tenure as Taoiseach.

MONA MAGIC

We saw at the launch of the Sport Ireland High-Performance Strategy prior to the Olympics that a Top 10 finish is a key stepping stone to the podium. We have been performing well at that level without quite converting to medals in the same way that New Zealand and Denmark do, but knowing that is halfway to fixing that.

We are excited already to see how Mona McSharry develops over the next three years having broken through as Ireland’s second-ever Swimming Finalist at these games.

She beamed as she entered the arena in the early hours and was competitive in swimming her third sub-one minute and seven-second race of the games. Finishing eight is a massive achievement, and with her swimming career at College in Tennesee putting her up against the best of the best we can only have high hopes that we will see her again in three years time in Paris.

43 SECONDS AWAY

The Irish Men’s Rugby Sevens still have a chance to finish Top 10 but they missed out on a quarter-final spot this morning by conceding a converted try with only 43 seconds left on the clock. A 12-7 victory was not enough to overhaul Canada’s -14 points difference as the best third-place finisher so we head to the battle for 9th to 12th.

Two dropped passes on the wing by Jordan Conroy and a missed conversion by Billy Dardis were the most obvious points at which things could have been different but it was the defeat to Team USA that had really sealed the fate and with continued investment in the programme and greater visibility around Ireland for the sport you’d hope that as one of the main Rugby nations of the world that we might go better in Paris.

NHAT ON FORM

Nhat Nguyen got his Olympic Badminton debut off to a fantastic start in the first round of Group Play stages. Ranking 54th in the world, Nguyen faced Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka in a testing group match, beating Karunaratne in straight sets, 21-16 21-14.

Nguyen will now face Top 10 Seed Tzu-Wei in the final game of the three-man group in Wednesday’s Group Play stages with the winner of the group moving on to the round of 16 knockout phase.

HAYES FINISHES STRONG

She will have bruises from a tough swim in the Women’s Triathlon but Carolyn Hayes from Newcastle who was our Irish Olympian of the Day yesterday put up a Top 10 run to climb from 42nd exiting the water to 23rd at the finish line.

“Financially crippled but emotionally fulfilled’ by the Olympic journey that began a long time after her rivals she will now consider how to balance the demands of the Anasthaesiology department of Cork University Hospital with the prospect of going again for Paris in three years time. There was a glint in her eye though in the post-race interview so we would not rule anything out.

WALSH MAKES QUARTER FINAL

Aidan Walsh made it through to the quarter-finals of the Men’s Featherweight boxing with victory over his Cameroonian opponent. Cheered from the arena by his sister Michaela who went out of her tournament yesterday we now have two through their opening bouts with two more boxers still to compete

OSAKA OUT

Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic Flame on Friday but had her dreams of home glory snuffed out this morning going down to World number 42 Marketa Vondrousova in a major upset.

Local officials had rolled the dice on having their superstar in Tennis transition to become the smiling face of victory at these games and the blow will have been felt across the nation.

“I’m disappointed in every loss, but feel this one sucks more than the others,” she said afterwards.

RUSSIA HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE

Russia itself is banned from the international sport for the massive state-backed doping programme that was condemned by the world. And yet you’d have to wonder about the impact of such a ban when the national football team competed at Euro 2020 and the Men’s Gymnastics team, albeit under the flag of the Russioan Olympic Committee beat the hosts Japan to Gold in the Team Gymnastics final this morning.

Add in the Russian judges that are in evidence across the board, including for Aidan Walsh’s boxing this morning, and you’d really have to wonder how much of a paper tiger the ban actually is.

 

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