Team Ireland
Team Ireland’s work is nearly done, just two more days to go in what has been a highly memorable fortnight for our crew. We have just four athletes in individual action over the weekend, as well as our women’s 4x400m relay team, and after all that they can let their hair down and party. Although they might prefer just to sleep for a month.
On Saturday, Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are out for their final rounds in the golf, the experience has been a bit of an ordeal for both so far. Meadow did at least fire her best round of the tournament on Friday, a 72, to climb into the top 50, but Maguire’s 83 has her second from bottom of the leaderboard.
The highlight of the day — fingers, toes and anything crossable crossed — will be that 4x400m relay final at 8.14pm, the last track event of the Olympic programme. Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Kelly McGrory and Sharlene Mawdsley produced the goods in their semi-final with a third-place finish, but if Rhasidat Adeleke is feeling up to it after her 400m final on Friday night, she is expected to take over from one of the team for the final.
The United States are sizzlingly hot favourites to take gold, the Netherlands is expected to be their closest rivals … but you know yourself, that baton-exchanging lark can prove treacherous. The line-up is completed by Ireland, Jamaica, Britain, France and outsiders Belgium and Canada.
On Sunday, the remarkable Fionnuala McCormack, a month short of her 40th birthday, will become the first Irish woman to compete in five successive Olympic Games when she runs in the marathon.
McCormack’s four previous Olympic appearances have come in four different events: the 3,000m steeplechase in Beijing 2008, the 5,000m and 10,000m in London 2012, then the marathon in Rio 2016 and the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Her best marathon placing was in Rio when she finished 20th.
The battle for medals is expected to be a Kenya vs Ethiopia affair, although the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, who ran the second fastest female marathon of all time, will be a contender if she can recover from having already taken on the 5,000m and 10,000m.
And last up for Ireland will be cyclist Lara Gillespie who takes on the Omnium, a multirace event that is made up of the scratch, tempo, elimination and points races.
Worth a watch
Saturday: Or Super Saturday, as it should be known, with close to 40 gold medals up for grabs. The day starts with the men’s marathon, at 7am, and later there are a flurry of finals in athletics, including — deep breath — the men’s high jump, 800m, 5000m and 4x400m relay, and the women’s javelin, 100m hurdles, 1500m and 4x400m relay.
The United States’ dream team are going for their fifth successive men’s Olympic title when they take on France, who might receive a reasonable amount of support from the crowd in the Bercy Arena (8.30pm). And in football, the US take on Brazil in the women’s final at the Parc des Princes (4.0).
Sunday: You have to feel for those athletes competing on the final day of the Games, it can’t have been easy getting a wink of sleep in the Olympic Village when everyone else was unwinding after completing their schedules. That unfortunate group includes marathon, basketball, modern pentathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, water polo, wrestling, handball and cycling people.
Hopefully, they’ll have time to freshen up and make it to the Stade de France for the closing ceremony (8pm) which will feature the parade of athletes, Tom Cruise (allegedly) abseiling down the stadium, lots of speeches, music from Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg, among others, and the handing over of the Olympic torch to Los Angeles city mayor Karen Bass. And that’s be that for Paris 2024.
Irish in action
Saturday
From 8am: Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow (Golf - final round)
8.14pm: Women’s 4 x 400m relay (Athletics - final)
Sunday
From 7am: Fionnuala McCormack (Athletics - marathon)
From 10am: Lara Gillespie (Cycling - Omnium)
