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Olympic Boxing: Aidan Walsh Beats Ill-Disciplined Mengue Ayissi

Team Ireland’s Aidan Walsh enjoyed a unanimous decision victory over Cameroonian Olympic boxer Albert Mengue Ayissi to progress to the Men’s Welterweight quarter-finals.

Mengue Ayissi was the aggressor in the fight with Walsh more than happy to sit back and enjoy a defensive, counter-attacking role.

The Cameroonian swung wild and dangerously throughout the fight, getting docked points twice in the three rounds for dangerous hits.

Four of the five judges working at the match scored the first round in favour of Aidan Walsh after a strong finish to the round displayed the differences in quality between the two fighters.

The 24-year-old from Belfast stuck to his gameplan and continued to cut a frustrated figure out of his opponent, who couldn’t get the better of Walsh.

The Olympic boxer’s sister, fellow Olympian Michaela, was audible throughout the fight, cheering her brother on as promised.

The Cameroonian’s first point-docking was given out in the second round for hits to the back of the head.

His constant counter-jabs picked away at Mengue Ayissi and earned the respect of the judges, who all scored the second round in favour of the Irishman.

Mengue Ayissi earned a second deduction at the start of the third round and it gave the boxer some urgency to secure a grand finish but it was too little, too late for the Olympian.

Walsh was even more conservative in the final round after the second deduction, knowing the fight was won if he stayed on his feet.

The judges awarded the Belfast boxer a unanimous decision win (30-25×3, 29-26, 28-27) over his opponent and gave the Team Ireland athlete a ticket to the Welterweight quarter-finals.

Walsh will face Mauritius’ Merven Clair in the quarter-final after the latter beat number-four seed Zeyad Ishiash from Jordan, with the fighters close to Olympic bronze.

The fight will take place in the early hours of Friday morning.

Ireland Reach 9th-Place Final After Win Over R.O.Korea

The Ireland Men’s Sevens team won their second game in a row on Tuesday morning and booked their place in the ninth-place final after a strong 29-0 win over the Republic of Korea in the semi-final.

The side was knocked out of contention for a medal after their victory over Kenya was not enough to take them through but did not let that trouble them.

The five-try performance was a great response to the disappointment of missing out on the quarters.

Mark Roche got the ball rolling with the first try for the boys in green, but not before Ian Fitzpatrick had to leave the field through injury.

Moments later, Conroy was in for his first score of the tournament after a frustrating pool stage for the Tullamore speedster.

Both conversions were missed and Anthony Eddy’s side went into the break with a solid 10-0 lead.

Korea started the second-brightly but could not make any of their possession pay.

Ireland soaked up their pressure and retaliated with three late tries to ensure their spot in the ninth-place final tomorrow morning.

Gavin Mullin notched two of the side’s final tries with Conroy doubling his personal tally in the game too.

Their tries were complemented by three conversions to cap off a strong display from the Olympians.

Ireland will now face Kenya for the second time in the tournament to determine ninth-place after the Shujaa beat Japan 21-7 in the second ninth-place semi-final on Tuesday morning.

The two teams will play for the title of best-of-the-rest at 1:30 am on Wednesday, July 28th.

Olympic Sailing: Big boost for Murphy’s chances

The Rio Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy took to the water for her third day of sailing in Fujisawa this morning

Ireland’s Murphy came into this race with her chances of grabbing another Olympic medal very low after the Rathfarnham sailor scored a 24th and discarded a 37th the last morning.

The weather had calmed drastically since the typhoon that hit Japan’s coast earlier in the day but was still very challenging.

The competitors faced 13 knot of of wind in 25 degree heat with 72 percent humidity but Murphy looked unfazed.

As the race five began, she went hard knowing she needed to pick up some positions in these two races if she wanted any chance of silverware in Tokyo.

The Irish sailor turned on her class finishing the fifth race scored all the way at ninth. This was a vast improvement of her previous days sailing.

The 31-year-old tried to maintain that position in the sixth race following shortly after. She dropped slightly into 10th but have still left herself in an alright place for the fourth day of racing.

She is currently ranked 20th overall but with four races to go, this could still change a bit. This morning was already a major improvement of her rank of 31st before today.

She will need to break into the top ten in rankings if she wants to be a part of the medal race.

Switzerland’s Maud Jayet won the sixth race with a quick, stellar performance. The 25-year-old is turning heads at her first Olympic Games and has made herself one of the favourites for the competition.

The Laser Radial women’s race seven in Fujisawa will take place at 04:15 on Thursday 29th July shortly followed by race eight.

The final day of sailing will take place on the morning of Friday 30th July.

 

Olympic Swimming: McSharry finishes 8th in final

Sligo swimmer Mona McSharry took to the block for the 100m women’s breaststroke final in the Tokyo Aquatics Centre early this morning

The 20-year-old McSharry had already made history by being the first Irish swimmer to make an Olympic final since Michelle Smith in 1996.

She came into the race as the slowest swimmer in the semi-finals but knew that she could knock at least another two tenths of a second from her time based on her national record and personal best.

The young swimmer was also to face the Olympic record holder, USA’s Lily King and the World record holder, South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker.

As McSharry had said herself after the semi-final, the medals are up for grabs and the winners would have to earn them in the final.

Women’s 100m Breaststroke – Tokyo Aquatic Centre – 27th August

At 03:17 McSharry lined up on the blocks beside the best of the best in world swimming, starting in lane eight.

The Sligo swimmer swam another consistent race but it was not enough to beat the world class line up. She managed a time of 1:06.94, only less than half a second slower than her qualifying time.

This final is where the USA athletes turned on their class with 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby grabbing a surprise gold medal in a time of 1:04.95.

She was followed by South African Schoenmaker for silver and USA’s King taking the bronze medal.

McSharry understandably left the pool with mixed emotions, hoping to have clocked in a faster time but also very proud to have been there.

As the third youngest women in the race with winner Jacoby and Russia’s Evgeniia Chikunova, the future is looking very bright for her.

The next Olympics in Paris is only three years away and McSharry has now left her mark on the swimming world showing that she means business with the rest of her career.

Her Olympics are still not over as she will now compete in the 200m breaststroke heats on Wednesday.

This is still a major achievement for someone who only took up swimming at the age of five because she fell into a lake in Austria, needing her father to rescue her, so her parents wanted her to be able to swim.

McSharry has made her country proud as one of Ireland’s best swimmers to date and we can only expect more from the 20-year-old Sligo star.

 

Olympic Triathlon: Bermuda win first ever gold, Hayes gets top 25

At 06:45 in the morning in Tokyo, after a 15 minute delay, the women’s triathlon commenced in typhoon weather

Caroline Hayes from Newcastlewest, Limerick was Ireland’s sole representative in the women’s triathlon this year. She wore no. 40 alongside 53 other athletes.

The race was forced to begin a quarter of an hour late due to an ongoing typhoon in Japan that hampered with other events as well. This weather led there to be very tough conditions of rain, wind but also 24 degree heat.

This race would consist of a 1500m swim split into two laps, a 40km cycle split into eight laps and a 10km run finishing in four laps.

Women’s Triathlon – Odaiba Marine Park – 27th July

The swim started and Team GB’s Jessica Learmonth took a early lead which she held onto throughout the water segment.

Ireland’s Caroline Hayes began slowly dropping into 43rd place but catching up two places by the end of the swim.

As they transitioned into cycling, the race split up into three packs and with the conditions, it would be very hard to catch up in between each pack.

After 20km of the cycling, Hayes had improved greatly, jumping up to 33rd place. The wet roads proved to be dangerous with a few falls and flat tires.

A top pack of cyclist was now led by the United States athlete Katie Zaferes. The 32-year-old was a whole 4:51 ahead of Hayes at the end of the cycling.

Moving into the final 10km run and Bermuda’s Flora Duffy found a new burst of energy. The small island country of less than 65,000 residents had never won a gold Olympic medal before, only one bronze in boxing in all their history.

The 33-year-old Duffy never slowed as she was pushed by her entire nation back home. She made it to the end in a total time of 1:55.36, well ahead of any other competitor.

In second place was Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor Brown and in a close third was USA’s Zaferes.

Hayes did Ireland proud by pushing up to 23rd in the final rankings, finishing six minutes 30 seconds behind Duffy. She showed a valiant display overtaking 20 competitors and not falling in a race that seven women failed to finish.

In the end, this will be a day that will live long in the memory of Bermuda and their hero Flora Duffy.

Ireland Beat Kenya But Fail To Reach Quarters

The Ireland Men’s Sevens team beat Kenya 12-7 on Tuesday morning but failed to progress to the quarter-finals after conceding a late try.

Ireland needed to win the match by at least a seven-point margin to leapfrog Canada as the second-best third-placed side.

Ireland flew out of the blocks from the start with their star player of the tournament, Terry Kennedy, setting the standard with an assist for Hugo Lennox in the first minute.

Billy Dardis missed the conversion but the side put pressure on Kenya further and Harry McNulty was able to capitalise on a mistake from the opposition, getting over the line for his second try of the Olympics.

Ireland continued to prey on the Kenyan nerves, turning the ball over and knocking it on throughout the half.

Jordan Conroy’s run of bad luck continued after finding it hard to make his presence known in the previous games.

His performance was not up to scratch in the final pool game with several knock-ons and a bizarre decision to pass when there was clear ahead of him.

However, there is more than one player involved in a team and the second-half was error-strewn for the Irish side as a whole.

Kenya did not look like troubling the Irish defensive line until late in the half when they started making large gains with every carry.

The Shujaa showed their courage in the final minute, finally getting the seven points their drive deserved but ending Ireland’s Olympic hopes in the process.

Ireland head coach Anthony Eddy and his squad can hold their heads high for representing Team Ireland and will only grow from participating in a tournament of this level.

The side will be in action at Tokyo Stadium at least once more before they leave Japan.

Ireland will play the Republic of Korea at 8:30 am for a place in the ninth-place final.

Team Ireland Swimmers Hyland & Walshe Fail To Get Past Heats

Team Ireland swimmers Brendan Hyland and Ellen Walshe failed to qualify for the semi-finals in the Men’s 200m Butterfly and Women’s 200m Individual Medley respectively.

Brendan Hyland finished third in Heat 2 of the Men’s 200m Butterfly with a time of 1:57.09 on Monday morning but it wasn’t enough for a spot in the next round.

Ellen Walshe swam her 200m Individual Medley heat in a time of 2:13.34 from Lane 1 and finished 19th overall.

Hyland delivered on the expectations of pundits with a strong start and finish cushioning a subpar third 50m stretch.

The prospect of Ben Higson started well, moving up to third within the first 100m, posting 50m splits of 26.12 and 55.7 to get into a top-three spot.

However, Hyland appeared to have expended a lot of energy to get into such a position and looked to be falling away over the next section of the race.

The National Centre swimmer fell to sixth with Estonian Kregor Zirk taking his spot but Hyland got back into gear on the final stretch.

The 26-year-old pushed hard in the final 20 metres to steal the third spot from Indian Sajan Prakash but it was not enough in his main event.

The Team Ireland swimmer’s time of 1:57.09 in the heat was outside the Irish record by half a second but the time was his fastest all season.

Walshe struggled throughout her event but the final 50m – freestyle – took her off the bottom of the heat’s chart and put her into a respectable final position.

Her 19th-place finish overall adds some positivity to the underwhelming heat and her Olympics has no come to an end.

The Olympian had previously won her Women’s 100m Butterfly Heat but did not qualify for the semi-finals due to her time.

Her eyes will now be set on Paris in 2024 while Hyland will take part in the Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay tomorrow.

Team Ireland Star Nhat Nguyen Off To Winning Start

Team Ireland Badminton player Nhat Nguyen beat Sri Lankan Niluka Karunaratne 2-0 in a strong display in Group F of the Men’s Singles event.

The 21-year-old never dropped his lead and was 10 points ahead at one point in the game.

Nguyen started strong with his energy clearly shining through his bright start but his opponent pegged him back within reach every time the Team Ireland Olympian tried to run away with it.

A tight first set offered a test for the Dubliner but Nguyen maintained the numerical advantage throughout.

Karunaratne was determined and gave the Vietnamese-born Irishman a big challenge but the 21-year-old was able to pull away in the final third and set up five potential game points to give himself some breathing room.

He only needed two of those, taking the set courtesy of a mistake from the Sri Lankan.

There were some magnificent rallies throughout the game, most notably two rallies at the beginning of the second set, with varying results.

However, Karunaratne could not sustain the pressure he put on Nguyen in spells.

Nguyen, a first-time Olympian, looked impressive against the experienced Karunaratne, who never took the lead throughout the game.

Karunaratne struggled after dipping the first set to the Irish star and the competitive nature of the game slipped away as Nguyen imposed his dominance in the tie.

The combined fourteen possible game points, nine of those match points, is a clear example of the dominant affair the match turned out to be.

Nguyen dropped four of those points with three match points dropped but held on to win in two sets.

The 2-0 win secured a first Olympic victory for the Badminton prospect in his first Olympic match.

Nguyen will now face Chinese Taipei’s Tzu-Wei Wang with a win against the Asian enough to confirm a spot in the last 16 for the young prospect.

Kerry storm past Cork to claim Munster title

Kerry has put all questions to bed after last years shock loss to Cork – storming past the Rebels to claim the Munster title.

Claiming their 82nd Munster championship title, the Kingdom demolished rivals Cork 4-22 (34) to 1-09 (12) at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.

Pulling out a statement to the rest of the teams left in the championship with a 22-point win – reaching another All-Ireland semi-final.

The opening five minutes were madness – Cork had a three-point lead with scores from Michael Hurley (2) and Daniel Dineen giving his side the opening spoils.

At the other end of the pitch, Kerry broke with pace, with David Clifford and Sean O’Shea missing guilt edged chances – although Michael Martin made some crucial saves to keep the Kingdom at bay.

By the 16th minute, the scoreline read 0-03 to 0-05 to Cork, with Kerry looking sloppy in their play, often giving the ball away from overly eager hand passing – mainly due to Cork’s rough tackling.

Cork’s only goal of the game came after Kerry captain Paul Murphy was dispossessed, leading the Rebels to quickly counter-attack with Ian Maguire handing it off to Brian Hurley who cut inside to finish past Shane Ryan.

The goal gave Cork the boost of confidence they so badly needed – ahead at the water break by 1-05 to 0-04.

The break itself did no favours for Cork, and seemingly gave Kerry a much-needed break and mental rest to regroup.

Coming out with six unanswered points to get a foothold in the game.

Luke Connolly kicked Cork’s first score in 12 minutes after Kerry’s assault, with the score now 0-10 to 1-06, defender Brian O’ Beaglaoich ran through the right-hand side of the Cork defence and slotted the ball home for Kerry’s first goal – and his second-ever championship goal.

At the start of the second half, Kerry was leading 1-12 to 1-07.

Sean O’Shea ran brilliantly through the middle of the park to lay it off to Paul Geaney, who finished calmly to give Kerry a further 8-point lead.

Paudie Clifford laid it off for Sean O’Shea for Kerry’s third goal of the game to make it 3-14 to 1-07.

Geaney got his second goal of the game after some quick passes around the Cork box saw a scuffle before the Dingle man tapped the ball into the net from close range.

Thankfully for Cork, the game ended soon after that, only scoring 0-02 points in the second half, losing Ruairi Deane to a red card – sustaining their biggest ever losing margin to Kerry in championship history.

Now, Kerry will turn to either Tyrone or Monaghan, with an All-Ireland semi-final in three weeks time – capturing the 82nd Munster title will give them unbridled confidence going forward.

Kerry Scores

Kerry: Shane Ryan, Brian Ó Beaglaoich (1-00), Jason Foley, Tom O’Sullivan (0-02), Paul Murphy, Mike Breen (0-01), Gavin White, David Moran (0-01), Diarmuid O’Connor, Stephen O’Brien (0-01), Sean O’Shea (1-06, 3fs), Jack Barry (0-02), David Clifford (0-01,1f), Paul Geaney (2-01), Paudie Clifford (0-03).

Subs: Killian Spillane (0-02) for D O’Connor (inj, 18), Tommy Walsh (0-01) for O’Brien (blood, 45), Graham O’Sullivan for O Beaglaoich (blood, 53), Adrian Spillane for J Barry (56), S O’Brien for T Walsh (blood reverse, 57), T Walsh for P Geaney (57), O Beaglaoich for G O’Sullivan (blood reverse, 59), Gavin Crowley for T O’Sullivan (64), Tadhg Morley (0-01) for G White (66).

Cork Scores

Cork: Micheal Martin, Kevin O’Donovan, Sean Meehan, Kevin Flahive, Cian Kelly, Sean Powter, Mattie Taylor, Ian Maguire (0-01), Brian Hartnett (0-01), John O’Rourke, Ruairi Deane, Michael Hurley (0-02), Luke Connolly (0-01), Brian Hurley (1-03, 1f), Daniel Dineen (0-01, 1m).

Subs: Mark White for M Martin (ht), Mark Collins for L Connolly (41), Colm O’Callaghan for D Dineen (43), Kevin O’Driscoll for M Hurley (47), Kevin Crowley for O’Donovan (50).

 

 

13-year-old Olympic gold medallist in skateboarding

This morning was the climax of the inaugural women’s Olympic Games skateboarding finals at Ariake Park

The entire competition took place over a six hour period from 00:30 last night into the morning at Tokyo 2020.

Skateboarding consists of street and park events. Skateboarders must perform tricks on an assortment of obstacles like ledges, stairs and handrails to earn a score from the judges, the best combined score wins.

The medals were won a host of young women with 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya, 13-year-old Rayssa Leal and 16-year-old Funa Nakayama.

Although the competition was dominated by younsters, there was also 34-year-old American Alexis Sablone and 20-year-old Roos Zwetsloot in the final.

Nishiya is the youngest person to win at Tokyo 2020 but, at the age of 13 years 330 days, she still is not the youngest person to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

Who is the youngest Olympic gold medallist?

In 1936, USA diver, Marjorie Gestring won the gold medal in Germany. She was 13 years 268 days old at the time.

She competed in the 3 meter springboard in diving in Berlin. This was the same year that Jesse Owens won four gold medals in track and field in front of Adolf Hitler.

Due to the starting of World War II, Gestring never had a chance to compete at another Olympic Games. Even though she was only 25 in 1948.

Interestingly, if Brazilian skateboarder Rayssa Leal had managed to snatch gold in the skateboarding this morning then she would have taken the title for youngest Olympic gold medallist.

The Brazilian is only 13 year 203 days but she left today with a silver medal.

There is no doubt that the future of women’s skateboarding bright bright with these young women at the helm.

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