SWIMMING

In Marathon Swimming, Olympic 800m Freestyle Champion and 1500m Freestyle Bronze medallist Daniel Wiffen takes on the gruelling Men’s Marathon Swim and is in the water as we write this morning.

Wiffen, who has never competed in an international open water race, will set another piece of Irish history as he becomes Ireland’s first ever competitor in Marathon Swimming at an Olympic Games.

The 10km route will be on a 1.67km loop (6 loops) in the River Seine; the original venue for the swimming competition at these Games in 1924, between the Pont Alexandre III (where the boats started out for Opening Ceremony), and the Pont de l’Alma.

The beginning of each loop will be easier as the 31 swimmers entered will have the current on their side, but the return more arduous, as competitors battle against the tide. The race kicked off at 06:30 and is expected to take just under two hours to complete.

ATHLETICS

Rhasidat Adeleke will be the first Irish woman to contest an Olympic 400m final tonight at the Stade de France in Paris.

The 21-year-old from Tallaght takes to the track at 7pm Irish time aiming to be in the mix, but the task ahead will be far from straightforward, with a particularly high calibre field vying for podium places.

Amongst them are reigning world champion and Tokyo silver medallist Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic) who won the second semi-final last night by a distance.

Also featuring are European champion and 2023 world silver medallist Natalia Kaczmarek (Poland), and world bronze medallist Sada Williams (Barbados). Great Britain’s Amber Anning beat Kaczmarek to the line last night looking quite controlled posting a new PB in the process.

Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain), a former world champion, who won Adeleke’s semi-final last night in a season’s best, and the fastest time of all eight qualifiers, also poses a major threat. Naser returned this year having served a two year ban from the sport for whereabouts violations.

Adeleke has been drawn in lane four and will have Anning on her right and Norwegian Henriette Jaeger on her inside.

The morning session features several Irish athletes, with two featuring in individual semi-finals.

Sarah Lavin from Limerick looked strong in automatically advancing out of Wednesday’s heat.

The Emerald AC athlete knows however that she will need the race of her life to become the first Irish female sprint hurdler to make an Olympic final.

She goes in the second of the three semi-finals with only the top two in each making the final, along with two non-automatic time qualifying spots across the three races.

There are five women with faster personal bests than Sarah Lavin in her semi-final and it features Netherland’s Olympic finalist Nadine Visser, double European medallist Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland, and America’s Alaysha Johnson who has the fastest PB in the field (12:31).

Despite a brilliant run in his heat Mark English also may need to significantly lower his national record to make a final in the Men’s 800m. Six of those he will be competing against have faster seasons best times than the Finn Valley AC man. He goes in the first of three semi-finals with only the first two booking a place in the final, along with two non-automatic time qualifying spots across the three races.

Earlier in the session the Women’s 4x400m Relay team will race in heat two of their event. Having had an excellent year and not lacking squad depth, they will be aiming to secure one of three automatic spots in Saturday evening’s final. There are also two non-automatic time qualifying spots up for grabs.

Their heat features some serious competition in European champions Netherlands, world championships silver medallists Jamaica, as well as Poland whose team won relay silver in Tokyo. The Irish team will not be confirmed until final declarations are submitted.

Meanwhile Kate O’Connor will be in action in the Heptathlon in both sessions. In the morning she competes in the Long Jump, where her best is 6.10m, and her strongest event the Javelin Throw where she has come close to breaking 53metres (52.92m), while her Olympic campaign concludes with the gruelling 800m finale event.

TRACK CYCLING

The Irish pairing of Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie will race against 14 teams in the always spectacular and highly entertaining Madison event just after 5 PM Irish time today.

The Madison is a relay event race in pairs like a tag team with one rider competing while the other recovers by riding slowly around the top of the track, before the changeover via a ‘hand sling’ from their team-mate. It’s a 120 lap, 30km points race with a sprint every ten laps and the potential to make big points gains by lapping the main group.

Sharpe and Gillespie, fresh from their national record setting performance in the Women’s Team Pursuit on Tuesday, will take to the Saint Quentin En Yvellines velodrome buoyed by a strong fourth place finish in a stacked field at the Ghent International in June. Earlier in the season they had 6th place finish in the European championships, and a 12th place finish at the world championships last October.

GOLF

Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire will be hopeful of a significant change in fortunes when they take on round three of the individual singles at Le Golf National tomorrow; a course that has not been kind to the Irish pair at these Olympic Games.

SCHEDULE DAY 14 – FRIDAY 9TH AUGUST 2024

(All times are Irish times – Paris is one hour ahead)

06:30 Swimming, Men’s 10km Open Water, Daniel Wiffen
08:11 Golf, Women’s Individual, Round 3, Leona Maguire
08:22 Golf, Women’s Individual, Round 3, Stephanie Meadow
09:05 Athletics, Women’s Heptathlon, Long Jump, Kate O’Connor
09:40 Women’s 4x400m Relay, heat 1/2
10:23 Athletics, Women’s Heptathlon, Javelin Group A, Kate O’Connor
10:30 Athletics, Men’s 800m semi-final 1/3, Mark English
11:13 Athletics, Women’s 100m Hurdles semi-final 2/3, Sarah Lavin
17:09 Track Cycling, Women’s Madison, Lara Gillespie & Alice Sharpe
19:00 Athletics, Women’s 400m Final, Rhasidat Adeleke
19:25 Women’s Heptathlon 800m, Kate O’Connor

 

 

 

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