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Team Ireland Sprinter Leon Reid Bows Out At Semi-Finals

Team Ireland sprinter Leon Reid has finished his Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign after a seventh-place run in the semi-finals of the Men’s 200m event on Tuesday afternoon.

Reid was in a heat with Canadian speedster and Men’s 100m bronze medalist Andre De Grasse as well as Team USA’s Kenneth Bednarek and Eswatini native Sibusiso Matsenjwa, who got a second chance in the heats after a false start.

The Team Ireland athlete crossed the line in a time of 20.54 – just outside of the season-best he set in the heats on Tuesday morning.

Speaking to RTÉ after the race, Reid spoke of his disappointment at not being able to reach the final.

“It wasn’t enough,” the English-born Irish sprinter said. “I felt good but, I don’t know, that must be where I am right now.”

His almost-identical time to his run in the final heat was not enough to qualify for a place in the Men’s 200m final.

De Grasse on the heat with a time of 19.73 with Bednarek crossing the line in second after 19.83 seconds.

Jereem Richards rounded out the top three in the heat with a time of 20.10 – almost half a second faster than Reid.

The Menapians athlete backed up the season-best that he had set earlier on Tuesday but lamented that he wanted to go faster.

“I just wanted to go a little bit quicker, even if it was 20.4, it’s quite frustrating to be honest.”

He started the race strong once again but fell away after the bend in a race where the cream rose to the top.

“I didn’t have that kick and rhythm that I usually have [off the bend], so I just couldn’t turn over and go again.”

Reid will return home following his exit from the only event he had qualified and he will now focus on what lies ahead and the next Olympics, Paris 2024.

South Africa Side For Third Lions Test Announced

South Africa has announced the side that will face the Lions in the third and final test of the series this weekend.

The squad includes two changes to personnel and a positional switch in his starting XV for the final test.

2019 World Rugby Player of the Year Pieter-Steph Du Toit and scrum-half Faf De Klerk are both out of the series decider through injury.

Franco Mostert moves to flanker to cover for Du Toit while Montpellier scrum-half Cobus Reinack comes into the side in place of De Klerk, who has been ruled out due to a muscle strain in his leg.

Lock Lood de Jager is drafted into the starting XV to take Mostert’s original position.

Inside centre Damian de Allende will become the third Springbok in the Castle Lager Lions Series to reach the career milestone of 50 Test caps when he starts in Saturday’s decider in Cape Town.

De Allende will be paired with Lukhanyo Am and the duo in midfield.

Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe will play on the wings once again with Willie Le Roux offering support for them at full-back.

Jasper Wiese wears the number eight shirt for the second week running in the series and South Africa captain Siya Kolisi and Mostert will combine with him to form the back row.

De Jager will be joined by Eben Etzebeth in the second row while the front row will consist of Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi and Frans Malherbe.

Head coach Jacques Nienaber opted to name three backs on the bench, with fly-half Morné Steyn joining Herschel Jantjies and Damian Willemse in the matchday 23.

It is the second time in the series that the coach has gone for a 5:3 split on the bench.

Springbok Squad v British & Irish Lions Third Test
15 – Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz) – 64 caps
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Toulouse) – 16 caps
13 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 17 caps
12 – Damian de Allende (Munster) – 49 caps
11 – Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks) – 16 caps
10 – Handré Pollard (vice-captain, Montpellier) – 51 caps
9 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 15 caps
8 – Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) – 2 caps
7 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 42 caps
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Cell C Sharks) – 53 caps
5 – Lood de Jager (Sale Sharks) – 47 caps
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Toulon) – 88 caps
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 41 caps
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (DHL Stormers) – 39 caps
1 – Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers) – 50 caps

Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 36 caps
17 – Trevor Nyakane (Vodacom Bulls) – 45 caps
18 – Vincent Koch (Saracens) – 22 caps
19 – Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls) – 4 caps
20 – Kwagga Smith (Yamaha Júbilo) – 9 caps
21 – Herschel Jantjies (DHL Stormers) – 13 caps
22 – Morné Steyn (Vodacom Bulls) – 66 caps
23 – Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 9 caps

Bundee Aki Set For Lions Test Debut As Squad Announced

The British and Irish Lions squad for the third and final test against South Africa has been announced with six changes to the side that lost 27-9.

Connacht centre Bundee Aki is handed a Lions test debut at inside centre with Henshaw occupying the number 13 shirt.

Munster scrum-half is dropped to the bench as Scotland’s Ali Price comes back into the team.

Wyn Jones returns to the starting XV after recovering from injury and makes his test debut for the side.

His Wales teammate Ken Owens also joins him in the side at hooker, coming in for England’s Luke Cowan-Dickie.

Liam Williams steps in for full-back Stuart Hogg and is joined in the back three by Wales winger Josh Adams, who earns his Lions test debut in place of Anthony Watson, and Duhan Van Der Merwe.

Dan Biggar stays at fly-half and will play alongside the aforementioned Ali Price.

The back five of the pack is unchanged with Jack Conan, Tom Curry, Courtney Lawes, Alun Wyn Jones and Maro Itoje all keeping their spots in the side.

Jones will earn his 12th consecutive test start for the British and Irish Lions and the player moves up to joint-third on the all-time appearances list, joining Irishman Mike Gibson and Welsh prop Graham Price.

Tadhg Furlong will make his sixth successive test start for the Lions at tighthead to round out the front row.

Adam Beard, Finn Russell and Sam Simmonds will feature in the matchday 23 for a Lions test for the first time.

Owen Farrell is out of a Lions test 23 for the first time since 2013 and Tadhg Beirne also misses out on a spot in the squad.

British and Irish Lions Squad v South Africa – Third Test

L Williams (Wales); J Adams (Wales), R Henshaw (Ireland), B Aki (Ireland), D van der Merwe (Scotland); D Biggar (Wales), A Price (Scotland); W Jones (Wales), K Owens (Wales), T Furlong (Ireland); M Itoje (England), A W Jones – captain (Wales); C Lawes (England), T Curry (England), J Conan (Ireland).

Replacements: L Cowan-Dickie (England), M Vunipola (England), K Sinckler (England) – subject to the outcome of his disciplinary hearing, A Beard (Wales), S Simmonds (England), C Murray (Ireland), F Russell (Scotland), E Daly (England).

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Inter reject Chelsea’s £85m plus player offer

Inter Milan have rejected Chelsea’s offer of £85 million-plus Marcos Alonso for striker Romelu Lukaku.

The Belgium striker has jumped back on top of Chelsea’s wanted list of strikers after talks for Erling Haaland has reached a dead-end.

It has been reported by many outlets that Chelsea have already had two ”secret” bids turned down for Lukaku.

Inter’s board turned down the player plus cash deal as they see Lukaku as ”untouchable”.

Thomas Tuchel is keen to sign a world-class striker after Timo Werner failed to deliver in front of the goal so far.

Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland has been touted as Chelsea’s main priority this summer.

However, with Dortmund in no rush to sell and with a £150 million price tag, the deal for Lukaku is seen as a more realistic target.

The Italian side has already sold Achraf Hakimi to PSG to receive funds after financial difficulty held the club to ransom after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chelsea, who have put Tammy Abraham up for sale, and have recently sold Oliver Giroud to AC Milan, are in much need of a clinical striker.

Other options such as Robert Lewandowski and Tottenham’s Harry Kane has been touted as potential signings.

The latter being unlikely, with Daniel Levy’s stance on selling to rivals.

Lukaku left Chelsea back in 2014, after being sold to Everton, and was on the verge of re-signing with the London side in 2017 before Manchester United came in last minute with a deal.

After the departure of manager Antonio Conte, Inter announced Simone Inzaghi as their new coach.

He (Lukaku) has held productive talks with Inzaghi and remains happy at Inter.

Despite the interest from his former club, Lukaku has not pushed for a move, and will likely wait to see if Chelsea does match Inter’s demands before the deadline shuts on the 31st of August.

 

Olympic Athletics: Coscoran qualifies for semi, Healy loses out by 0.07 sec

Team Ireland were back in action again in the Olympic Stadium this morning. The Irish events started with Andrew Coscoran in the 1500m and Phil Healy in the 400m

Men’s 1500m Round 1 (Heat 1) – 01:27 – Andrew Coscoran

At just before 09:30 in a wet, rainy Tokyo, Coscoran lined up to take part in a fast competitive 1500m heat.

The Irishman came into this race ranked 40th in the world for this event. He had high hopes of qualifying for the semi-final but faced a star studded line-up.

He would need to challenge with the world number two, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and number four, Kenya’s Ronald Musagala. The top six finishers would qualify automatically and the next six fastest from the three heats.

 

Coscoran started his race fast and sat in seventh after the first lap, tucking into the inside lane. He is considered to run courageously with all his heart.

With 800m left he was in the middle of the pack. The 25-year-old has a very strong finish and as he heard to bell for the final lap, he produced a quick turn of pace.

In the final 100m he managed to overtake three more athletes and he finished the race in eighth. Although he was outside the outside automatic qualification but scored a very good time.

Team GB’s Jake Heyward finished the race in first while Ethiopa’s Teddese Lemi narrowly getting second.

Even though he was two seconds off his season best, the conditions proved tricky with three athletes not finishing the race.

Coscoran will now run in the semi-final on the morning of Wednesday, 5th August.

Women’s 400m Round 1 (Heat 5) – 02:17 – Phil Healy

Less than an hour later and Phil Healy was at the starting line of her third event of the Olympics. She previously ran in the 4x400m mixed relay final and got a personal best in the 200m heats.

The track had dried up slightly as she prepared herself for what is one of her strongest events. She was ranked at 41st in the world before the start which put her as the fourth favourite.

The world number three, Jamaica’s Stephenie Ann McPherson was also in lane two.

Only the top three fastest in each race plus the six fastest of the six heats would qualify for the semi-finals tomorrow.

 

Healy started the race strong but started to look tired, this would be understandable as it was her fourth race of the week.

In the final 150m she pulled an amazing amount of energy out of nowhere to push into fourth place in a time of 51.98 seconds.

With one heat left to go the West Cork woman was in a the qualification places but it would come down to the wire. In the most dramatic fashion, Cyrus’ Eleni Artymata beat out Healy by seven one hundredths of a second in the final heat to take her place.

This is the second time in as many days that Healy has missed out on a semi-final by less than half a second but she remained in high spirits.

This is the end of her Olympic journey but she has made Irish history at this Games as well as her country proud.

Team Ireland Boxer Harrington Guaranteed Medal After QF Win

Team Ireland boxer Kellie Harrington has guaranteed herself a medal after a dominant victory over Algerian Imane Khalif in the Women’s Lightweight division (57-60 KG) on Tuesday morning.

The Irish boxer sealed a dominant 5-0 victory on the judges’ scorecards to ensure the fourth medal for Team Ireland at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The Olympics’ top seed had a unanimous victory on four of the scorecards (30-27×4) with only one giving her a mark below the maximum (29-28).

The 31-year-old built on her impressive Olympic debut against Italy’s Rebecca Nicoli with another strong performance in the quarter-finals.

The amateur world champion started strongly with a commanding first-round that saw the Dubliner take an early lead on the scorecards with four of the five judges giving her the round.

Harrington made the lead an unassailable one, excluding a spectacular third round from Khalif, after a dominant second-round left all the judges without doubt.

Her speed proved too much for her Algerian opponent and her movement was on another level compared to Khalif.

A trip over her own shoelaces threatened to halt her momentum but the Portland Row native maintained her advantage.

A less dominant third round still saw the Irish woman take a 5-0 win on the scorecards to finish the fight.

Harrington was confident of her success directly after the fight, telling her corner that “[she had] a feeling” that her performance would guarantee her at least a bronze after just two Olympic boxing matches.

Harrington will now face Thai boxer Sudaporn Seesondee in the semi-final after her progression to the next round.

The fight will be a rematch of the 2018 AIBA World Boxing Women’s Lightweight title fight in New Delhi.

Harrington edged Seesondee in the title fight to take home gold with a 3-2 points win after amassing three five-nil wins on the way to the final.

Team Ireland Star Leon Reid Progresses To Semis With Season Best

Team Ireland track star Leon Reid has progressed to the semi-finals of the Men’s 200M event after his successful run in the heat on Tuesday morning.

Reid came fifth in heat seven but squeezed through to the next stage of the event with a season-best time of 20.53.

The 27-year-old beat his previous season-best by 0.26 with a strong run to ensure that his Olympics does not end after one race.

His 20.79 run to take home gold at the National Championships in June was beaten soundly at the Olympic Stadium.

The Menapians Athletics Club member beat out Ukraine’s Serhiy Smelyk by the fine margins after the pair finished their heats with the exact same recorded time.

A strong run from start to finish with an exceptional final burst sealed the result for Reid in what was the fastest heat out of all seven scheduled.

Fellow Team Ireland athlete Marcus Lawler was also in action on Tuesday morning, competing in the same event as Reid.

Lawler ran in the heat before Reid and finished the 200 metres in a time of 20.73 but it was not enough to progress after he crossed the line outside of the automatic qualification spots in sixth.

However, the 26-year-old ran a new season-best, beating the previous time of 20.99 that he set when he took bronze in the Men’s 200M at the National Championships, two places behind Reid.

The Clonliffe Harries athlete will return home after just one race but will have a new best time this season to bring home with him.

The athlete’s focus will now turn to Paris 2024.

The Men’s 200M semi-finals will take place on Monday afternoon with the first of three starting at 12:50.

Leon Reid will compete in the third semi-final which is scheduled to begin at 13:05.

To see the list of remaining Irish athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, click here.

‘Dublin Bench One Area Of Weakness’ – Eamonn Fitzmaurice

Former Kerry manager and pundit on The Sunday Game Eamonn Fitzmaurice has labelled the current Dublin bench as their biggest weakness following their Leinster Senior Football Championship win over Kildare.

The All-Ireland winning manager cited the lack of impact the Dublin bench had on the game – Ryan Basquel was the only point scorer off the bench.

He compared the Dublin benches from previous Delaney Cup successes over Kildare and Laois in 2017 and 2018 with the one at the county’s disposal on Sunday.

The past benches featured the likes of Jack McCaffrey, Kevin McManamon and Paul Flynn.

Their bench in the 2017 final against Kildare was worth seven points to Dublin on the day, six greater than the bench on Sunday amassed.

Fitzmaurice noted that the bench is “possibly one area that [Dublin] aren’t as strong as they were”.

The bench has been a huge asset to Dublin’s football team in recent years with their replacements having been able to enter the match after 50 minutes and play to the same level and intensity the starters had.

McManamon was the most recognisable figure that Dublin would look to when they needed a change and the St Judes forward is the catalyst for several important moments throughout the team’s recent history.

He is still part of the Dublin panel but is currently in Tokyo as the sports psychologist is part of Team Ireland’s boxing camp.

Fitzmaurice praised Dublin’s high work rate under Dessie Farrell and used examples from Sunday’s game to showcase that.

The Sunday Game pundit analysed their performance and labelled the intensity they showed as the county’s “cornerstone”.

Dublin, although troubled in attack for periods of the final, put up a dogged display, retaining the ball all over the pitch throughout the game.

Fitzmaurice applauded the Dublin forwards for tracking back and helping out their defence whenever Kildare had possession.

Their inability to roll over for their opposition is something that Fitzmaurice believes is proof that the side is still among the top teams in the country.

“I think their work rate and the way they are tackling shows they’re not ready to give it up just yet.”

Dublin Football Manager Dessie Farrell On Leinster Final Win v Kildare

Dublin Gaelic football manager Dessie Farrell spoke about Dublin’s performance in their Leinster Senior Football Championship final win over Kildare on Sunday.

Dublin beat Kildare by 0-20 to 1-9 in Croke Park to retain the Delaney Cup and win their 60th Leinster title overall.

Dessie Farrell’s side was not perfect on Sunday but a strong third quarter put the game beyond any doubt after a close third half.

The eight-point win margin was the county’s lowest in a Leinster final since 2013 when Jim Gavin’s Dublin beat Meath by seven points (2-14 to 0-15) on their way to a first All-Ireland out of six under the 10-year Dublin veteran.

Dessie Farrell gave his thoughts on the Delaney Cup win over Kildare in a post-game interview with DubsTV.

The inter-county manager lamented his side’s shot selection in the first half after they squandered several chances.

The side looked as if they wanted to walk the ball through the Kildare defence and it was detrimental to their impact in the opening half.

Their strong third quarter saw the side revert to taking high-possibility chances when presented with them.

“Having discussed it at half-time, the players themselves saw that as a challenge,” Farrell said.

Kildare played the game defensively with some extra players dropping back to stifle the Dubs’ impact in attack.

Their set-up led to Dublin often moving the ball from side to side in an attempt to open up spaces for their forwards to take advantage of.

Ciarán Kilkenny led the Dubs’ third-quarter charge with two points, with Niall Scully also grabbing two in a period that was worthy of the Leinster title.

Dublin’s focus now turns to their All-Ireland semi-final showdown with Connacht champions Mayo, in a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final.

“[Mayo] were very, very impressive in that second-half performance against Galway in the Connacht final. Very little separates the teams over the year’s so I think everyone can expect a massive tussle.”

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