Olympics Countdown: Five Irish athletes laying down markers for Paris

Only 465 days to go!

No one enjoys the big countdown more than the Olympics, and exactly one year and 100 days before the Paris Games begin, Ireland’s medal prospects took a considerable turn for the better over the weekend. Five, to be similarly exact.

Away from the main headlines perhaps, their achievements are nonetheless significant as the Olympics draw ever near. For most, it will be an Olympic debut, for one the shot at Olympic redemption. Only 465 days to go…

Rhys McClenaghan

Five years after winning a first European title, Rhys McClenaghan claimed a second gold medal in the pommel horse event at the 2023 edition of the event in Antalya, Turkey. Adding to his world title won last year, the 23-year-old is now on course to make amends for his Tokyo disappointment, where a couple of dismounts ended his medal hopes.

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No such fears in Antalya on Saturday: McClenaghan, who topped qualifying, was first out and put up a score of 14.666; though 0.3 off his qualifying score, the wait was on to see could anyone match him.

In the end no other gymnast could, the closest being Maxime Gentges from Belgium, who scored 14.566 for silver. Armenia’s Artur Davtyan picked up bronze with a score of 14.266. The Irishman’s difficulty score was one of the highest of the finalists.

Rhasidat Adeleke

Another record smashed, another barrier broken, and as if any sliver of doubt remained, Rhasidat Adeleke ran herself into the supreme end of world class sprinting on Saturday, smashing the magical 50-second barrier for 400 metres with another stunning performance in only her second outdoor race of the season.

Competing in Florida at the Tom Jones Memorial, Adeleke nailed second place behind Britton Wilson, the American collegiate record holder, who clocked 49.51 seconds, having already cracked the 50-second barrier indoors.

It’s the barrier that often decides the winning of medals on the world and Olympic stage and the 20-year-old from Dublin is unquestionably at that level now, Adeleke clocking a brilliant 49.90 seconds, effectively taking half a second off her own Irish record set indoors just over a month ago.

It also came less than 24 hours after she broke her own Irish 200m record, 22.34 sonds, everything about her progress in her third year at the University of Texas at Austin moving at record-breaking speed.

Daniel Wiffen

It’s a rare thing for any Irish athlete to break three Irish records in the one weekend, a rarer still in the range of events broken by Daniel Wiffen. The 21-year-old from Magheralin in Armagh rounded off his record feats with victory in the 800m Freestyle at the Stockholm Open Swim Meet in Sweden.

Wiffen posted a second world-leading time for 2023 and took two seconds off his own Irish senior record of 7:46.32, finishing in 7:44.45; he now leads the 2023 world rankings in the 800m and 1500m freestyle. In the process, the Tokyo Olympian beat Olympic bronze medallist in the event, Mykhaylo Romanchuk from Ukraine, into the silver medal position.

On Friday, Wiffen set a new Irish standard in the 400m Freestyle, lowering his own 2022 record from 3:46.22 to 3:43.32, the second fastest time in the world this year.

Saturday was the most impressive of the swims, Wiffin knocking over 15 seconds off his Irish 1500m Record of 14:51.79, to 14:34.91; the fastest time in the world this season, just outside the world record of 14:31.01. All building nicely towards the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan in July.

Thammy Nguyen

After winning Ireland’s first ever European Championships medal in senior weightlifting, Thammy Nguyen is also continuing something of a family tradition, her younger brother Nhat already Ireland’s number one in badminton, already a Tokyo Olympian to boot.

At the 2023 continental championships in Yerevan, Armenia, an Olympic qualifier, Nguyen (who gave up competing for nearly seven years to start a business and a family), in women’s 49kg division, became the first Irish female to lift twice her own body weight and with that take bronze in clean and jerk.

It also moves the mother-of-two into top-20 in the rankings for Paris 2024. Her parents moved the family from Vietnam to Ireland when she was seven, and after trying CrossFit as a teenager, she moved into weightlifting, before taking a break from 2016.

Ben Healy

The comparisons were inevitable once Ben Healy continued his superb season on Sunday, finishing second to world number one Tadej Pogacar in the Amstel Gold Race.

For Healy, the 22 year-old Irish rider who finished 38 seconds behind Pogacar, his runner-up spot matched joint-best Irish result ever in the race, equalling Stephen Roche’s runner-up slot from 1982 and bettered Seán Kelly’s third place two years earlier.

Pogacar made his move on the Keutenberg climb with 28.7km to go. Healy initially distanced before rejoining Tom Pidcock, then shedding the Briton with just over 13km remaining. A long one-day race such as the Olympics looks ideal for Healy.