Rowing

Team Ireland rowers Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch won a brilliant Olympic bronze medal in the final of the Men’s Double Sculls (M2x).

In doing so, the Irish duo has won Team Ireland’s fourth medal at these Olympic Games, after Mona McSharry claimed bronze, Daniel Wiffen won gold, and Kellie Harrington secured at least a bronze.

Before today’s performance from Doyle and Lynch, Ireland had won three Olympic rowing medals: one gold (LM2x Tokyo), one silver (LM2x Rio), and one bronze (W4—Tokyo).

Winning bronze today is Ireland’s first male heavyweight Olympic medal, so these incredible Irish oarsmen will soon have a place in history.

In a final contested in somewhat faster conditions than have been seen over the last number of days with a slight tailwind at Vaires-sur-Marne, the favoured Dutch crew was beaten into silver by a brilliant performance from the Romanian double, who took the race to the field to claim gold. The Irish outsprinted the Americans to claim the coveted bronze medal.

Banbridge’s Philip Doyle (Belfast Boat Club) and Clonmel’s Daire Lynch (Clonmel Rowing Club) have been competing together in the Men’s Double since the 2023 European Championships, and have been on an international podium four times since; Bronze at the 2023 World Cup III and World Championships, Bronze at the 2024 World Cup I and Gold at World Cup III. Doyle and Lynch also won gold in the final World Cup this season which was the first ever gold medal for a heavy men’s crew in Irish history. Men’s head coach Fran Keane coaches Doyle and Lynch.

The Tokyo Olympics was the first time a Men’s (Heavyweight) Double competed for Ireland. At those Games, Philip Doyle and Ronan Byrne contested the event together and finished fourth in the B Final, 10th place overall. At the time, Daire Lynch travelled to Tokyo with the team as the reserve rower, having narrowly missed out on qualification in the Men’s Single.

Doyle mentioned in his RTÉ interview that straight after coming off the water, he felt he made a slight mistake coming to the line. Here he explains: “There was actually a bit of a wash the whole way down and a bit more of a headwind than we thought. We were being pushed a little bit over, kind of overworking one side. I’ve got a bit of neck thing that’s been at me all year, and it just sort of then started seizing up.

“But we were on the red line and then I kind of just lost the handle a little bit in one of the strokes and I looked and I was like, ‘Jeez, please not now!’ and I looked up and I was like, ‘oh the Americans are far enough back.’

“We were moving on the Dutch but look, what can you do? You push yourself to the line. Sometimes you fall over it but you just manage to rectify the glitch. You just try and smooth it out and then relax a bit more, because if the body gets tense, then you’ll overwork it.”

On winning an Olympic medal just 15 months after they first got together as a crew Lynch gave this take: “Yeah, I was over America until the March last year and then when I came back, like I didn’t really know what to expect when I came back, I was just hoping to get into a boat. Straight away we started going very well and really, since then, we haven’t really been touched, and, like a lot of crews you have your ups and downs but we’ve been extremely consistent.”

Doyle added: “I had a campaign in the single on my mind and then Daire showed up from New York and we did a trial with some of the young guys off the U23 team and Daire won out and he wasn’t at his fittest after coming back from NY and then he just got fitter and faster and nobody else really had a chance to step into the boat. There’s lads in Ireland training hard, moving boats quickly , U23 lads who’ll go to Canada (World Championships this month) who I’m sure will have a stormer. I’m just delighted we were able to put the marker down all year and say ‘this is our boat, if you want my seat you’re gonna have to take it off me!’ It was great to stand by that on the biggest stage in the world.

The Banbridge man continued: “It’s all about synchronising, working together, making the most out of each other as a pairing and I think we’re ying and yang personalities maybe a little but we’ve found the best way to match together and work off each other’s strengths. The things I lack he brings, and the things he lacks I bring. It seems to work and it’s been a great partnership over the last 15 months which has born fruit again and again.”

Daire admitted he was in New York working and decided ‘there has to be more to life than this!’, started training again on the rowing machine in his apartment building morning and evening and was getting fit again and decided he’d try for the Olympics: “Who would have known a year and a half ago that I’d be getting a bronze medal!” he said.
Sailing

In Sailing the Medal Race of the Men’s Skiff, with Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove featuring, was abandoned twice today mid through both races in Marsielles due to light wind conditions. The first medal race got off as planned but not long after the crews reached the first mark it was abandoned as winds were not sufficient to ensure a fair race.

All ten crews waited on the water for about an hour, trying to find shade from the 35-degree heat under umbrellas provided by their coaching boats, before officials decided to start again when the wind met the required levels. In the second attempt, the medal race was abandoned at a similar point as the first when winds were significantly lighter upon reaching the top of the course than when starting out.

The Men’s Skiff Medal Race has been rescheduled for today in Marseilles when all will be hopeful of better conditions for racing. The Medal Race is over a shorter version of the course they have been racing all week, with points scored in it doubled and added to the series points to decide the medals.

The other half of the Irish Sailing team at these Games, Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) and Even McMahon (Howth Yacht Club), both got their respective Dinghy Fleet Series’ underway yesterday, with a 9th in Race 1 and a 25thin race two for Carlow’s Lynch leaving him 16th overall.

Making her Olympic debut 20-year-old McMahon was 8th in her first race, before her second race was also abandoned for the day.

Afterwards she spoke about how competing at her first Olympics felt: “It feels good, it feels nice to finally be able to start it. We were supposed to be out training but because of the 49er racing they weren’t letting us sail. So it’s kind of been hanging around and kind of being eager to go – like a lion in a cage.

We had really tricky conditions today and I was just really trying to look to get it a clear start, which is exactly what I did and then try to chip away at as many boasts as I could so, happy with the racing.

Obviously, inside with all the spectators, the crowds and everything there is a bit of a difference, and there’s a lot of rules as well, which are new to what we would have at a World Championships, but you know when I’m on the water, just everything is kind of blocked out – I’m just focusing on my own race and treat this event very much like any other event and it seems to be working so far.

 

Equestrian

The Irish show jumping team of Daniel Coyle with Legacy, Shane Sweetnam with the Irish-bred James Kann Cruz, and Cian O’Connor with Maurice, have qualified for today’s team final where the top 10 nations will contest the medals.

The Irish trio team finished in sixth place of 20 on a score of 9 faults. Shane Sweetnam opened up with 4 faults on James Kann Cruz, before Daniel Coyle and Legacy settled any potential nerves with a clear round. Anchor man Cian O’Connor was on his way to a flawless round, but knocked the plank in the triple before coming home just outside the time to finish on five faults.

Sweetnam got Ireland off to a solid start on board James Kann Cruz, finishing with four faults on the Irish-bred 11-year-old.In sweltering conditions at the Palace of Versailles, Cork man Sweetnam and the popular grey were ninth into the arena, jumping well on the whole, with the one fence down probably being an uncharacteristic one for the pair.

Sweetnam said: “It’s a very technical course, very light and obviously there’s a lot of different colours he wouldn’t have seen before, different jumps he wouldn’t have seen before and that’s always a tricky part of it so it’s not too easy to get a clear round.

“It’s hot out there, it’s a lot different to Galway, where he’s bred – but he’s used to it, being based in Florida and been to Kentucky a lot so while it’s early yet, so far so good.”

Coyle and Legacy were next into the arena for the Irish and the Derry man was magnificent on the 14-year-old mare, producing a faultless round to harden Ireland’s qualification position. On the face of it, there was never a moment’s doubt for the world number 11 as Legacy jumped superbly to come home clear in a time of 75.03 to leave Ireland sixth after the second round of riders.

“She was magic. Everything she’s done for me already, she owes me nothing, but when you get to places like this and she gives these performances you’re always left expecting more and expecting more of yourself.

“We’re not here just to compete, we’ve done that before at championships and it doesn’t always go right – it could be one fence from a win, lose or a draw but we’ll be fighting hard – we have a great team and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.

On his Olympics debut, Coyle looked at home in the magnificent Versailles arena but admitted to feeling an element of pressure. He added: “It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced, there definitely is extra pressure. I’ve rode in a lot of championships but there’s something different about this.”

Ireland’s anchor rider O’Connor, using all his experience, brought Maurice home with just the plank down at the triple, and slightly outside the time for 5 faults – it was a case of securing qualification for the Meath man, in his fourth Olympic Games.

“Perfect start to our competition – Shane got us off to a great start and Daniel’s mare was sensational. There’s something different about the three-man format – you saw Peder Fredricson nipped out at the well, and it’s very nearly cost them dearly so I want to be safe, get round in one piece, and have a go at it tomorrow.

“Top 10 finish was the aim of the day today – whether you finish first or tenth it’s just to determine the order of jumping so we didn’t put too much pressure on ourselves. We’ll have a good chat tonight and hopefully we’ll have a few more clears tomorrow.”

On Friday all 10 will start on zero penalties, and a jump-off will take place in the event of a tie to decide the medal placings.

 

Golf

Rory McIlroy says his opening round in the Men’s Individual Golf Singles gives him ‘something to build on’ as he launched his quest for Olympic glory at Le Golf National on Thursday.

McIlroy, who finished in a tie for fourth place at Tokyo 2020, carded a three-under-par round of 68 to leave him well positioned heading into Friday’s second round, while Shane Lowry signed for an opening round 71 to sit on level-par.

35-year-old McIlroy was left a little frustrated by the ‘up-and-down’ nature of his round as he returned to action for the first time since The Open last month in Royal Troon, but five birdies and an eagle augurs well for the weekend ahead.

A bogey on the second hole was an early setback for McIlroy but he bounced back impressively, picking up shots on three and five and then eagling the par five ninth to hit the turn three-under-par.

His back nine was one of mixed fortunes as three bogeys, including a three-putt on the last, were offset by three birdies as he shot a 68 to lie in a tie for 15th behind leader Hideki Matsuyama of Japan on eight-under-par.

Reflecting on his round, McIlroy said: “It was OK, a solid start. A bit up-and-down, which is to be expected. I didn’t do a whole lot between The Open and here so there was some good, some not so good. A little disappointing with the three-putt at the last but it’s something to build upon.”

On the large crowds at Le Golf National for the first day of golf at Paris 2024, the four-time Major winner said: “It was unbelievable, and actually surprising. With so many events going on spread all across the city, for people to venture out here and to watch us play, it was a really cool atmosphere to play in.”

Lowry, meanwhile, bogeyed the final hole after a short weather delay for thunder and lightning to finish on level-par for the day.

The Offaly man, who was Ireland’s flagbearer alongside Sarah Lavin for the Opening Ceremony, got off to a slow start with a dropped shot on the first but birdies on three and five repaired the early damage and injected momentum into his round.

Another shot gained on the par-four 14th set Lowry up for a strong finish but he was unable to capitalise as bogeys on 15 and 18 in between the delay meant he signed for a 71 to sit in a tie for 42nd.

Lowry tees off on Friday at 8.44am Irish time, while McIlroy gets his second round underway at 11.06am Irish time.

 

Swimming

Tom Fannon had another impressive showing in the semi-final of the 50m Freestyle on Thursday at La Defense setting a second Irish Record to place fourth in his semi-final and tenth overall. The 26-year-old, who broke the existing Irish Record of 21.82 in this morning’s heats lowering it to 21.79, lowered that time once again to 21.74, just missing out on the final by one tenth of a second.

Commenting on the race Fannon said: “It’s a really stacked heat, a really stacked event, the 50m Free is always fast and obviously to go back-to-back PBs, morning and evening is great. I would have liked to have gone a bit faster, I think. I think the morning swim in terms of the mistakes gave me more confidence than that 21.74 there and I think personally I could have gone 0.1 faster there.

“In hindsight and you can’t really work off that, at the end of the day it is really bittersweet, I have to be happy with the fact that, first Games, semi-final, just off a final, two Irish records, two PBs back-to-back, I mean I’d be silly to say I’m disappointed.”

With the 50m Freestyle Fannon’s sole event of the Games, he commented on his experience: “It’s been good, it’s hard to race one event especially when it’s 21 seconds, day six of the meet, it’s not easy and it’s about manging emotions throughout the week, just being in control of that, not getting too excited, knowing when to switch off, when to switch on, and I think I did really well, I think I managed that perfectly, in my opinion. But yeah, I would have liked to have done a Final but we learn from it, we move on and we reflect and also celebrate.”

With one withdrawal confirmed, Fannon is now first reserve for Friday’s Final.
Hockey

Ireland Men’s Hockey were left frustrated once again as they slipped to a narrow 2-1 defeat to Argentina in their penultimate Pool match at Paris 2024.Mark Tumilty’s side once again created a string of goal-scoring opportunities but were unable to make their possession count, suffering a fourth loss at Yves du Manoir Stadium.

Lee Cole doubled his tally at the Games with another well-executed penalty corner in the first half, but it was Argentina who secured the points to book their passage through to the quarter-finals.

After conceding early to Tomas Domene’s penalty corner, Ireland had to once again come from behind but they responded positively, enjoying large periods of possession and territory, and Cole’s deflected strike was just reward moments before the end of the second quarter.

But, sixty seconds later, Argentina restored their lead as Maico Casella Schuth’s powerful penalty corner left David Harte with no chance. The pattern of Ireland enjoying the majority of the ball continued after the half-time break, but Tumilty’s men were denied on multiple occasions by Argentina goalkeeper Tomas Santiago, a series of near misses from penalty corners adding to Ireland’s agony.

They did have a golden opportunity to draw level at the end of the third quarter as Shane O’Donoghue’s penalty corner was stopped on the line by the defender, but Santiago thwarted Cole from the resulting penalty stroke.

Reflecting on the game, O’Donoghue said: “We controlled large parts and certainly did enough to win but unfortunately when you’re playing the top teams, you’ve got to hit the ground running and we didn’t do that again today.

“We were under no illusions of the size of the challenge coming here and it’s clear we are getting better match on match but again you’ve got to be on the money from the get go. I think we showed what we can do out there with the ball and it’s testament to the group that we have produced good performances.”

 

Canoe Slalom

26-year-old Noel Hendrick bows out of the Men’s K1 with a 15th place finish in the semi-final. In his semi-final run the Kildare man started promisingly going out fast and keeping a tight line through the initial gates. Coming into the seventh gate, the Irish paddler momentarily capsized spinning the boat in the white water costing himself vital time. Although an unfortunate mistake, Hendrick dealt with it incredibly well, and with enormous skill and strength flipping right back up and pushing on through the remaining gates.

Shortly after his run first time Olympian Hendrick said, “I took a lot of risk in gate one probably more than I meant to, and it left me a bit unsettled but it was fine and then I was quite quick up until then, and then there was a critical move on gate seven and eight and you had to be very balanced on the move and I put a bit of weight on my paddle and I just capsized then and followed it in.

After that point I was finding it hard to get it back on track and I was trying to take some tight lines afterwards and execute the plan that we had set out, but it was very difficult, when you’ve had such a mess up like that you can feel very weak afterwards and almost like you’re completely tired and that’s how I felt.”

Two penalties were also picked up on gates 10 and 21, which added an additional four seconds to his run time. Finishing with a time of 102.46 seconds, Noel Hendrick ended his semi-final in fifteenth position with only the top twelve boats qualifying to the final.

Hendrick will be back on the water tomorrow with team mate Liam Jegou in the time trial of the exciting new Kayak Cross event.
Boxing

Jack Marley’s dream of bringing home a medal from his first Olympic games ended with a 4:1 defeat by Tajikistan’s Davlat Botaev in the 92kg quarter-finals. Despite his youth – the 21-year-old from Monkstown BC was the youngest in his entire heavyweight division in Paris – he gave everything he had against an Asian Games gold medallist who proved just too elusive.

The Sallynoggin man lost the first round 4-1 and the second round was stopped temporarily to check a cut above his eye which appeared to come from a clash of heads but despite losing the second round 4:1, he never quit, unleashing some great left hooks and combinations as he chased to the end, winning the third round 3:2.

“He was elusive, I thought I outpunched him but it is what it is and I’m really grateful for all the support I had out there,” Marley said.

“I thought I gave it socks and I always do that. I gave it a real rattle, that’s the least you do in this sport. We’ll just have to re-group and go again. It’s a hard one to swallow but I’ve an amazing group around me. After this I can take in the full Olympics experience and I’ll be up those stands now shouting on Michaela (Walsh) and Kellie (Harrington), just as much as I’d like to be cheered on.”

Earlier in the evening young Wicklow flyweight Daina Moorehouse(22) looked particularly unlucky not to get the decision after making a super Olympic debut in the last 16 of the 50kg.
The 22 year-old from Bray defied the baying, partisan crowd at the North Paris Arena by winning the first round (3:2) against French veteran Wassila Lkhadiri.

The Enniskerry BC fighter never took a backward step and was aggressive and accurate throughout against a much more experienced 28-year-old, yet the judges gave both the second and third rounds 4:1 to her opponent and the Frenchwoman won on a split 4:1 decision.

“When you’re getting beaten you feel you’re getting beaten, but I didn’t feel like I was losing,” Moorehouse said after losing to the woman who also beat her narrowly in the European Games last year.

“It was 3:2 when I met her last year and I think I won two of the three rounds. It would have been nice to finally beat her but maybe next time,” she said.

“I definitely thought I was landing the harder shots and was the busier boxer. I don’t think I could have done anything more. I pushed on in the third round thinking surely I have this. I just went for it.
“It is hard to take but I’m just so proud for even being here. I’m 22 years of age and I’m at the Olympics. It would have been a bonus to get a win and fight for a medal but I am happy to be here.”
With thanks to the Team Ireland Media group providing a great service from Paris

 

 

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