Rowing
There was another medal for Ireland on Thursday morning with Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch earning bronze in the men’s double sculls.
It’s Team Ireland’s fourth finish in the medals so far in Paris, although the colour of Kellie Harrington’s is yet to be determined.
On the water, Doyle and Lynch came home in third behind Romania and the Netherlands, securing Ireland’s first heavyweight Olympic rowing medal.
Speaking after the medal ceremony, Doyle said: “I went to bed last night thinking we might win the thing to be honest but to be honest to come away with an Olympic medal you can never be disappointed.
“I made a little mistake there at the end; bit of a neck injury seized up on me in the last 100 metres but it’s because we pushed the body to the limit; it shows that you’re at the limit and luckily we had enough work done that we could recover and then come across the line.”
But the word of the day? Phenomenal. “Phenomenal day, phenomenal course, great experience,” said Doyle.
Earlier, Zoe Hyde and Alison Bergin were in action in the women’s double sculls B final, with a fourth-place finish behind Australi, Czechia and the US, leaving them 10th overall.
And in the women’s four B final Ireland’s Emily Hegarty, Natalie Long, Eimear Lambe and Imogen Magner finished first to take seventh overall.
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.
Earlier in the evening young Wicklow flyweight Daina Moorehouse 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.
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 2174, just missing out on the final by one tenth of a second.
Shane Ryan was named to compete in the eighth heat did not take to the starting block.
Hockey
There was another disappoint defeat for the Ireland men’s hockey team, with their fourth Pool B game against Argentina ending 2-1.
Tomas Domene struck first for the Argentine’s in the 17th minute, with Lee Cole providing Ireland’s response 10 minutes later.
But hope of a comeback quickly dwindled when Maico Casella Schuth struck back within a minute to make it 2-1 just before the midway point, which is how the scoreboard remained until the final buzzer.
Equestrian
The trio of Shane Sweetnam, Daniel Coyle and Cian O’Connor qualified sixth for the final of the team show jumping event at the Palace of Versailles.
With 10 countries qualifying for Friday’s showdown, a total of nine faults for Ireland put them in the middle of the field, with only Germany managing to qualify without picking up a single penalty.
Golf
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry got their Olympic campaigns underway on Thursday, teeing off in the opening round of the men’s individual stroke play.
McIlroy was the first of the pair to tee-off, ultimately finishing three under with a round of 68.
Lowry finds himself further back the field on level par after shooting a round of 71. His round was disrupted when he was thru 17 with play briefly suspended due to lightning.
Sailing
The medal race of the Men’s Skiff, with Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove featuring, was abandoned twice today mid-way through both races in Marsielles due to light wind conditions. It has been rescheduled for tomorrow.
Finn Lynch and Even McMahon both got their respective Dinghy Fleet Series’ underway today with a 9th in Race 1 and a 25th in race two for Lynch leaving him 16th overall. Making her Olympic debut McMahon was 8th in her first race before her second race was also abandoned for the day.
Canoe Slalom
There was disappointment for Noel Hendrick in the K1 semi-final, with his time of 102.46 putting him outside the qualifiers for the final.
Hendrick got into difficulty early in his run, almost capsizing but recovered well. However, the delay, coupled with two gate penalties saw an end to his competition, finishing 15th.
