ATHLETICS
Rhasidat Adeleke powered into the Women’s 400m semi-finals with ease on Monday morning on day ten of Paris 2024.
The 21-year-old produced a mature performance to take a comfortable victory in the final heat of the event clocking 50.09 seconds.
There was a moment of terror for the Irish in the Stade de france when a false start was called but it was not Rhasidat.
Adeleke, who is from Tallaght in Dublin, then had the luxury of being able to ease down towards the line, beginning to look around her shoulder with around 60m to go, before the finish ahead of the field.
Speaking afterwards Adeleke was pleased with how she performed: “I feel like my first 200m was pretty calm. I didn’t go too aggressive. I went out at the right pace and I just kind of shut down in the last 100m. I didn’t want to use too much energy. I just wanted to do what I needed to do to qualify. It didn’t feel like a really hard run.”
She also reacted to the feeling of finally becoming an Olympian: “Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend what it really is because I guess I’ve been building up to this for so long. And sometimes it’s expected as a given and the way I am, I’m not happy to participate, I want to achieve my goals. My goal wasn’t just to come to the Olympics, my goal was to do something special. And that’s what my goal will remain.”
Elsewhere, Sharlene Mawdsley clocked the fastest time of her career, 50.71 seconds, to finish fourth in the penultimate heat. Despite missing out on automatic qualification to the semi-finals by four hundredths of a second the Tipperary star was delighted to perform to her best on the biggest stage.
Mawdsley said: “I’m happy. I think I really committed to the race which I hadn’t done really this year. I’m actually really proud of myself after that performance. Had I been in a different heat I would have qualified automatically, which is a bit annoying but we all know I love running so I have another round tomorrow to try and get into the semi-final.”
In the opening heat Wexford’s Sophie Becker finished sixth in 51.87 seconds, also missing out on automatic qualification.
“It’s disappointing. I was hoping for a good bit faster than that. To make a semi, or run a PB, or both is obviously what I’d have liked to do. I’m happy with my first 250m – I ran that really well, I put myself in the mix, It’s definitely a learning curve for tomorrow,” she said.
Becker and Mawdsley will return to action in the repechages on Tuesday morning. There will be four repechages with only the winner in each, and the top two fastest of the next best advancing to the semi-finals. Adeleke heads straight to the semi-finals on Wednesday evening.
EQUESTRIAN
Two Irish show jumpers finished in the top three of the individual jumping qualifying in Versailles, but sadly Ireland’s 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Cian O’Connor did not make it, just edged out of the 30 combinations (from 66 starters) who will battle it out in the final.
Cork’s Shane Sweetnam and his grey James Kann Cruz were first of the Irish into action and had a stunning clear round in the second fastest time of the day (73:35 seconds).
Next came Derry’s Daniel Coyle and his brilliant mare Legacy and they were equally as good, clear in a time of 73:64 which ranked them third best overall.
O’Connor and his gelding Maurice came very late in the order, and clipped a plank at the sixth fence, finishing on four faults and a time of 75:17 seconds. That left him in 30th place but there were still seven riders to follow and he had an anxious wait until being unfortunately edged out, finishing 33rd overall.
However having two Irishmen in the top three of qualifying, with the final run off in reverse order, puts them in a great position and makes up for their disappointment in the team event. Both riders were thrilled with their horses’ performances.
“He jumped great, still had a lot of energy which I was a little worried about because this is unknown territory and it’s quite hot out today, but the course was straightforward,” said Florida-based Sweetnam.
“The big thing I wanted was to be quick enough, that if I knocked one that I’d still have a chance for tomorrow. He just loves to jump! Normally we have clear rounds and he was a bit unlucky the last two days. When I watched the video of Friday, I think he breathed on it! I don’t know what happened but in the replay it looked like he didn’t touch it. You just have to have a little bit of luck and today we had luck.”
Coyle’s partnership with his mare in Paris so far has been breath-taking. They produced their third clear round, despite the searing heat and Coyle said: “She’s 14 but her mind doesn’t think it, which is hard sometimes. I was expecting her to be more tired but when I felt she was fresh I thought ‘OK, I need to change a little bit how I’m going to rider her today, otherwise I’ll end up making a mistake.’
“After the week she’s had she deserves to be in the final, no matter what. I’d have been disappointed if she wasn’t.”
He performed brilliantly himself despite illness on Sunday, admitting to having “a very tough 24 hours” beforehand. Cian O’Connor came heartbreakingly close to joining them, just three places off another Olympic final.
“I’m not upset. These horses aren’t machines,” he stressed. “They’ve been jumping all over the world. We started up with Maurice in Spain last October, went to Mexico, California, Florida, Ocala, Rome, Aachen and they’ve given us their all.
“A horse has a pole down and people get excited and say ‘it wasn’t able for it.’ or whatever. The horse jumped really well, just touched a plank. He earned his place to be here, jumped class again today and I’m absolutely over the moon with him.”
SAILING
Carlow’s Finn Lynch has qualified for the Men’s Dinghy Final after low winds in Marseille forced the cancellation of Races 9 and 10 on Monday afternoon. The cancellation of today’s racing in the Men’s Dinghy event meant the top 10 in the current standings advanced through to Tuesday’s Medal Race.
Twenty-eight-year-old Lynch, sitting in 10th position, progresses through to the Medal Race. In the Medal Race the course is shorter and the points scored are doubled, and added to the series points to decide the final standings.
Lynch spoke after a frustrating day: “It was a long day on the water; unfortunately, we didn’t get any racing so I’m a little bit sad that I couldn’t fight one more day and try get a bit higher but (I’m) into the medal race so hopefully I end the regatta with my best race. I’m not happy with the way I sailed this week, I really didn’t perform very well so I just want to end the regatta with a good race.
Unfortunately Eve McMahon narrowly misses out on progression to the Women’s Dinghy Medal Race after the 10th and final race was cancelled earlier. Olympic debutant McMahon was sitting in 13th place after the nine races, having moved up to that position today with an impressive 7th in race 9 meaning she was disappointed not to get the opportunity to contest a final fleet series race.
Afterwards McMahon said: “I’m a little bit disappointed not to get the second race in today, I raced my heart out and I was really climbing up, making the points a lot smaller to the gap to the medal race. I kind of went out with a mission and I did pretty well. It’s just been a lot of hard work put into it, and I was quite close, but just when you wanted that last race. Looking back on the results, I’ve beaten the Silver medallist from Tokyo and the current European champion so I’m really happy, but it’s a little bit heart breaking too.
However for the twenty-year-old to have placed 13th of the 43 nations contesting the Olympic regatta is a significant achievement in itself that bodes very well for her future in the sport.
McMahon spoke about her debut Olympic experience: “I’m hugely proud and I really have to thank my family for all their help and support. I would never be here without them. I raced my heart out, I gave it everything I had. I think the LA cycle is going to be a new chapter and something I’m really looking forward to; this has just made me so much hungrier.”
DIVING
Ciara McGing made her Olympic debut at the Centre Aquatique on Tuesday morning. The 23-year-old who had unfortunately been suffering from illness for the last couple of days was relieved to be able to complete her five dives.
Finishing 29th on 188.50 points, McGing’s best score came from her third dive, a reverse 2 ½ somersaults for 50.40 points.
Speaking afterwards McGing said: “I’m just really grateful that I got on the boards this morning. If this was yesterday, I wouldn’t be here this morning and so I’m just so very grateful to the doctors in Team Ireland that helped me get here and I know I still have to be proud of myself that I dove today, not at my best but I am proud. I’m just so grateful that my family were here and got to see me, I know it wasn’t my best, but they still got to see me dive in the Olympics.”
Sport for Business will host a Members’ Round Table event on Sport and Data in Dublin on Thursday, August 22nd. This is one of many events planned for the remainder of 2024.
Register your interest to attend a Sport for Business event here.
The Olympic Federation of Ireland and PTSB are among the 300 organisations, which include all the leading sports and sponsors, as well as commercial and state agencies, that are members of the Sport for Business community.
Find out more about joining us today.
Check out our upcoming events to discover ways of connecting in person with our membership.
