Swimming
Daniel Wiffen made more history on the final night of Olympic action in the pool as the Ireland star claimed bronze in the men’s 1500 metres final. In following up his gold in the 800m with another podium place, Wiffen became the first Irish male to win multiple medals at the same Olympics – and the first person since Michelle Smith 28 years ago.
“I’m happy but a bit disappointed at the same time,” Wiffen said. “I can’t be more pleased to be Olympic champion, but the bronze medal, I know you have to be pleased with any medal but when you hit gold the first time you’re racing you don’t want less than that. But I’m happy. We’ve never had a medal at the Olympics before for men so to come away with two, I’m very happy.”
Golf
Rory McIlroy narrowly missed out on a podium finish at the men’s golf singles after a costly double-bogey on the 15th hole ended his charge for a medal at Le Golf National. McIlroy signed for a final round 66 to finish on 15-under-par, four shots behind new Olympic champion Scottie Scheffler of America.
Canoeing
Liam Jegou was up first for Ireland in the slalom races and with a tactical run, nearly made it into the top two places needed for qualification into the quarter-finals. Noel Hendrick was up next, going head-to-head with Germany, Australia and China. Going fast off the ramp, he was sitting in second position coming into the first upstream but hit the slower water and it dropped him back into fourth place. Coming to the line he moved into third place, but it wasn’t enough to get him into the top two positions. Olympic debutant Madison Corcoran finished fourth in her heat, also ending her involvement at these Games.
Sailing
Low winds again in Marseilles led to a delay in proceedings getting under way. When racing did begon Finn Lynch finished race 7 in 13th, with an even better performance in race 8 with an 11th, crucially moving the Carlow man into 10th place overall, and with a chance of making the medal race on Monday. Eve McMahonhad her best finish of the week so far in race 7 with a brilliant 6th place, and in race 8 came home 14th, seeing the Olympic debutant, and one of the youngest in the field move to 15th overall.
Athletics
Nicola Tuthill delivered a strong performance in the Women’s Hammer Throw but ultimately failed to make the final of the event on day nine of the Olympic Games in Paris. The 20-year-old from Cork, who represents UCD where she is currently studying, equalled the second-best throw of her career, throwing 69.90m in the final round of her qualification group.
