Athletics
Rhasidat Adeleke advanced to the final of the women’s 400m in the Stade de France, becoming the first Irish woman sprinter to qualify for an Olympic final. Adeleke, who was racing in the first of three semi-finals tonight, clocked a time of 49.95 seconds to finish second behind Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain in a season’s best of 49.08.
In a dramatic morning session, Sarah Lavin and Mark English impressed by securing semi-final qualification.
Racing in the fourth of five heats in the women’s 100m hurdles, Lavin finished second in 12.73 seconds to secure automatic qualification for the semi-finals which take place on Friday morning.
English used all of his experience to execute his race to perfection to finish second in his heat of the men’s 800m to advance. The Donegal man from Finn Valley AC pulled away from the chasers in the closing 50 metres to cross the line right alongside home favourite Gabriel Tual of France in 1:45.15.
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There was disappointment for both Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy in the repechage round of the women’s 1500m, as both finished fourth to miss the semi-finals by one spot.
Brian Fay placed 13th in his heat of the men’s 5000m in a time of 13:55.35 and misses out on the final.
Taekwondo
Ireland’s Jack Woolley got a deserved second bite of the cherry when the man who defied his seeding (10th) and beat him 2-0 in the first round – Azerbaijan’s Gashim Magomedov – went all the way to the -58kg final.
Anyone beaten by the Azeri beforehand then got a second chance through the repechage system, which pitted Woolley against Spain’s number two seed; Adrian Vincente Yunta, just one fight away from one of the two bronze medal bouts.
The 25-year-old Tallaght star (ranked seventh) was narrowly beaten 2-0 (9-10, 2-2).
Golf
Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow endured a difficult start to the women’s tournament at Le Golf National on Wednesday. The pair, who are appearing at their third Olympics, both carded six-over-par opening rounds of 78.
Five bogeys on the front nine made for a challenging day for Co Antrim’s Meadows, who endured two more on the back nine, before finishing on a more positive note with a birdie on the final hole.
Leona Maguire endured the worst kind of start with a double bogey on the first hole, and another couple on holes seven and eight, with an eight on the par-five ninth costing her dearly.
Despite another couple of bogeys after the turn Maguire rallied well to pick up three birdies on the back nine to finish the day on 78.
Hometown hero Celine Boutier of France holds the lead on seven under, three shots ahead of South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai, with Mexico’s Gaby Lopez two further back.
Maguire is back on the course at 9.22am Irish time on Thursday, while Meadow gets her second round under way at 9.55am Irish time.
Sailing
In sailing the rescheduled men’s dinghy medal race featuring Finn Lynch was postponed again on Wednesday morning, owing to light winds in Marseille. After a couple of hours delay it got under way with Ireland’s Finn Lynch leading the 10-boat field at the halfway mark, before the wind intervened again, and the race was abandoned on the way to the third mark, as it had dropped below the required five knots for fair conditions.
In the eventual decider an hour later, which was moved further offshore in search of a better breeze, two time Olympian Lynch placed eighth in the race to remain unchanged in 10th of 43 nations on the final standings.
