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Irish Contingent Win Major League Rugby

Four Irish players have won Major League Rugby with their club, the Los Angeles Giltinis.

USA-capped Luke Carty, Irish Sevens ‘original’ Harry McNulty, his brother Sean McNulty and Sean O’Brien are all on the club’s books.

Carty, O’Brien and Sean McNulty all came off the bench for their team’s MLR Shield win in their club’s inaugural season in the league.

The LA Giltini’s cruised to a 31-17 victory against Rugby ATL at the LA Memorial Coliseum on Sunday night.

Former Connacht academy out-half Luke Carty has two caps for the United States national side after moving to LA, qualifying for the side through his grandmother.

The 23-year-old made his debut for the US against England and then started against his native Ireland last month, having only moved to the States earlier this year.

Sean O’Brien joined LA from the Leinster academy on a short-term contract in June and is a native of the US.

He played for the Ireland U20s last year and made his debut for the Leinster senior team earlier this year before moving stateside for more game-time.

Hooker Sean McNulty is a former Leinster academy player who played for Ireland up to the U20 level.

The 26-year-old is also US-qualified having spent much of his youth living in the States and first moved back over from Ireland to join the New England Free Jacks in 2019 before shifting to the Giltinis ahead of this season.

Older brother Harry was the only player out of the four not in the matchday 23 after he returned to America from the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Former Enniscorthy player Ross Deacon and former Leinster back Mark O’Keeffe were among the 23-man squad of the runners-up.

Deacon scored a late try to provide a consolation for the Atlanta side who were second-best on the day.

Olympic Equestrian Final: O’Connor jumps to top 15

Team Ireland had one sole representative left in the Eventing Individual Jumping Final. Austin O’Connor riding Colorado Blue came into the final in 18th place

O’Connor and his team took part in the Eventing Team final this morning in which the team finished eighth. To read more about it, click here.

Colorado Blue was the only Irish horse remaining after finishing 18th in qualification. The 2009 gelding and his rider replaced Cathal Daniels and Rioghan Rua early in the competition due to veterinary reasons.

Coming into this new event in the Equestrian Park in Tokyo, they had accumulated 42 fault points. They were not expected to challenge for the podium but could improve their score to finish in the top 15.

The new course in Tokyo had a 60 second time limit over the 375m sand track with tough fences to jump. Knocking a fence would cause a 4 point penalty and any second over 60 would lead to a 0.4 point penalty.

After finishing 18th, O’Connor would ride eight after USA’s Philip Dutton on a horse called Z.

Colorado Blue made a brilliant run only knocking one fence on a triple jump that stumped a lot of previous horses. The fault on 5B would lead to their only penalty in a great run.

Colorado Blue also became the first horse of the final to complete the course in 60 seconds. This put him and his rider in first place with a total score of 46.00.

The two managed to remain in first place after six more horses came and went. France’s Karem Florent Laghouag riding Triton Fontaine narrowly ousted the Irish from the top of the podium with a score of 45.20.

As the competition went on, the best well-rounded horses and their riders gave their attempts. O’ Connor slowly slipped down the rankings but had still left his impression on the tournament.

Germany’s Julia Krajewski riding Amande de B’Neville won gold with a score of 26.00. Team GB’s Tom McEwen on Toledode Kerser got silver while Australia’s Andrew Hoy on Vassily de Lassos got bronze.

The 45-year-old O’Connor from Mallow ended the Olympic final in 13th place, with the country being proud of him and his horses achievement.

Olympic Equestrian final: Irish team finish 8th, O’Connor through to final

Team Ireland reached the Olympic eventing team final, they were in eighth after the cross country. Now they had the jumping event with high hopes of a good finish

The Ireland team is made of four riders and horses; Sam Watson on Flamenco, Austin O’Connor on Colorado Blue, Sarah Ennis on Woodcourt Garrison and Cathal Daniels riding Rioghan Rua.

This Irish team came to the Equestrian Park in high spirits after posting a penalty score of 161.00 landing them in eighth. In the jumping category they planned to improve to outscore Italy and Germany ahead of them.

This competition looked to be a battle between Great Britain, Australia and France for the medals after the first day of riding.

The top 25 riders would also qualify for the Equestrian eventing individual final tonight at 12:45.

 

Sarah Ennis was up first for Ireland riding Woodcourt Garrison. The Howth woman received a disappointing total penalties score of 79.70 after four faults.

She performed perfectly over the first five fences and again rode well over a tough triple jump later on.

Next up an hour later was Carlow’s Sam Watson riding the Irish-bred Flamenco. He got 55.30 in penalty scores with the team positions remaining the same as the last round.

He was in 20th overall, after being frustrated in the cross country event but finished strong.

Last up for Ireland was Austin O’Connor riding the 2009 gelding Colorado Blue. He stood a chance of making the individual final after doing well in the cross country.

He ended his run with four faults with an individual total of 42.00. That put him as Ireland’s best competitor with a chance of the Eventing Jumping finals.

After 10 more riders, O’Connor finished in 18th, giving him another day of riding Colorado Blue at the Equestrian Park.

Team Ireland ended up finishing in eighth place sandwiched between Italy and China.

After Oliver Townsends last run, he guaranteed Team GB’s spot on the top of the podium. Australia took silver while France won bronze.

Olympic Diving: Dingley fails to reach semi-final

Team Ireland’s first diver Oliver Dingley took to Tokyo Aquatics Centre at 07:00 looking for qualification to for the semi-final

China’s Zongyuan Wang and Korea’s Haram Woo were the big favourites in this event but the Irish man only needed to finish top 18 to make in to the semi-final.

This was Dingley’s second appearance at the Games after he became Ireland’s first Olympic diver in 68 years while in Rio 2016.

Scoring works by seven judges scoring the dive, the highest two and lowest two scores are crossed out. The remaining three scores are added together and multiplied by the degree of difficulty for a final score.

Dingley came up in 18th in Round 1 of diving. Many of his other competitors seemed nervy going into the event with a few small mistakes making the scoring low.

The Dublinman started with his easiest dive, an inward two and a half somersault with only a difficulty of three. He received sevens across the board from the judges.

He knew he would have to go harder in the next round to bring his score into qualification place.

Dingley next tried a forward three and a half somersault with a difficulty of 3.1. He did not score well, not tucking correctly and over rotating.

He continued to up the difficulty in round 3 with a 3.4, forward two and a half somersault with two twists. Dingley was not happy again as he was over on entry, getting himself 5.5 from the judges.

At the halfway point in diving, Dingley sat in 26th place and would need to improve on his final three for a chance of progression.

His fourth dive did not please the Irish man either as he attempted an easier 3 difficulty but under rotated and did not score well again.

At this point Wang had breezed ahead of all the other competitors given himself more than 20 point lead. After round four, Dingley was in 27th.

Following two great dives, Dingley attempted a reverse 2 and half somersault. Although slightly over rotating, this was one of his better dives so far.

With his final dive he would need 40 more points than the men ahead of him to qualify  but Dingley still gave it his all.

In his final dive, he tried a back two and a half somersault with a one and a half twist. Although he performed the routine cleanly, it would not be enough to progress.

China’s Wang easily got first and is now favourite for gold. Dingley bowed out of the Olympics finishing in 25th with 335 points.

 

 

Olympic Athletics: Healy misses out on semi-finals

It has been a tough day on the track for Ireland as mixed relay star Phil Healy narrowly misses out in women’s 200m

In the early morning at 03:00 for Irish viewers, Healy stepped into Lane six. She came into the race ranked 41st in the world with the second fastest personal best in this event.

The favourite for this race was Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah. This was a fast heat that also had Team GB’s Beth Dobbin, Canada’s Crystal Emmanuel and Belgium’s Imke Vervaet.

Healy had already had a good warm-up for this competition as she was part of the historic 4x400m mixed relay team that reached the final on Saturday.

The five runners lined up to start and the gun fired, over the short 200m, the race was very close and very fast.

Unfortunately for Healy, after running a great race, she finished in fifth only just behind her competitors.

Canada’s Emmanuel came home first with Britain’s Dobbin in second. Jamaica’s Thompson-Herah took the race casually but managed to get a qualification place in third.

It is hard for Healy to be too disappointed as she ran a season best of 23.51. She finished less than half a second behind Emmanuel’s the first place time of 22.74.

In a race that she ran so well in, she was just unlucky that three other runners also ran season bests.

This race does not mean the end of Healy’s Olympic journey as she still has the women’s 400m heats tomorrow morning.

This is a race she will look forward to as her strongest event with a high chance of semi-final qualification.

Upcoming Athletics, Tuesday 3rd August

Men’s 1500m Round 1 (Heat 3) – 01:27 – Andrew Coscoran

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

Men’s 200m Round 1 (Heat 6) – 03:45 – Marcus Lawlor

Men’s 200m Round 1 (Heat 7) – 03:53 – Leon Reid

Team Ireland Women’s Fours Bronze Medalists Come Home

The Team Ireland Women’s Fours crew returned home to the country on Monday after their bronze medal win on Wednesday morning.

The quartet – Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Emily Hegarty and Fiona Murtagh – took bronze after a slow start to the final and doubled the amount of Irish female Olympic medalists as a result, becoming the first women to win an Olympic rowing medal for Team Ireland.

The four women are proud of their achievements in Tokyo and are humbled by the statistics that have sprouted from their bronze medal finish.

“You don’t even realise [what you’ve achieved] until after and I think it’s a really proud moment for us,” Keogh said.

“When we see those things written down it’s like a shock almost and we’re really proud of it.”

The crew are far more spaced out than the gold medalist double sculls duo of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy.

Murtagh and Keogh returned to Galway as the first Olympic medalists from the county while Lambe comes from Dublin and Hegarty hails from Skibbereen, like the men’s duo.

Murtagh stated that downtime is needed after an intensive few months for the four women.

The 25-year-old said: “Oh, I definitely want to take a bit of time off! It’s been a long preparation and we’ve all worked really hard, so we definitely deserve a break to spend time with family and friends. It’s been so long since we’ve seen anyone.”

Their intensive training in the build-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has seen them form a bubble with each other.

The quartet has rarely mixed outside of their own training group since their training began 13 months before their successful Olympic campaign due to Covid-19.

They are all excited to burst that bubble and see their loved ones after being focused on the Olympics for so long.

Outside Christmas, we probably haven’t seen our families except [for] the odd weekend here or there.

“There were times when we needed time away from the group, but we knew the smart thing was to keep the group as safe as possible and stay within the bubble.”

As Murtagh described it: “We have our own different journeys to go on.”

Team Ireland Olympic Champions Return Home With Gold

Team Ireland rowing gold medalists Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy returned to the country on Sunday morning after competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The pair won the Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls on Thursday morning, pulling past the Germans in the second half of the race after their main opposition got off to a strong start.

The win and gold medal rounded up a dominant Olympic campaign for the duo, who came first in all three of their races in the event.

Paul’s latest medal adds to the silver he won with brother Gary at Rio in 2016 as part of Team Ireland and several world championship gold medals.

Paul has not felt that the medal is too different from the others he has picked up throughout his career.

“We are always trying to be the best we can be,” he said.

“We’d be sitting down with Dominic [Casey] and planning out training, and we are constantly adjusting stuff. Then to go out and do the test gives a nice confirmation that you’ve done a good job and are on the right track.”

Casey coached the pair at the Games and added to the Skibbereen connection the rowers have.

The coach, who also oversaw the silver medal in Rio, is a member of the club O’Donovan and McCarthy both hail from – Skibbereen Rowing Club.

The duo feels that the hard work that is put in behind-the-scenes is what has helped them succeed, adding that there is no special quality that sets them apart from the rest.

The down-to-earth confidence that the pair have is also visible in Casey’s approach to the sport, with O’Donovan noting that their coach’s main concern after the gold medal race was “getting the boat to rig.”

McCarthy was one of many who watched his clubmates win the silver medal five years ago and is starting to come to terms with his rise to prominence since then.

“It definitely helped me to get to where I am today because that I saw that it was possible,” said McCarthy.

“It gave me a lot of motivation just to keep going with it. We were doing similar enough training, we had the same coach, so it was pretty clear that it was a winning formula.

“We don’t get many opportunities to race, most of what we do is training so you really need to enjoy the training, enjoy the journey.”

However, now is a time for the journey to be paused momentarily, to relax and recover from their long period of Olympic preparation.

The duo returned home to Skibbereen as world champions and have plans that don’t include rowing on their mind for now.

O’Donovan will return to his studies at UCC where he is taking a degree in medicine.

The two-time Olympic medalist said that he believes the mic of rowing and college can help his longevity.

“I’d be looking forward to getting back to college life. A couple of months at this stage to catch up with all of the lads again.

“Too much of the rowing…I just get too consumed in it. It’s good for me to take a break.”

Team Ireland Athletes Mageean and Healy Fail To Reach 1500m Semis

Team Ireland athletes Ciara Mageean and Sarah Healy failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Women’s 1500m event on Monday morning.

The pair experienced some tough competition and were unable to keep up with the leading packs.

Ciara Mageean finished tenth in her race and went across the finish line in the first heat with a time of 4:07.29.

Sarah Healy rounded off her Olympics with an 11th-placed finish courtesy of a time of 4:09.78 in the final heat.

Mageean started her heat strongly but faded away as the race went on and she failed to keep up with her fellow competitors on the last lap.

The 2016 European Championship bronze medalist had a problem that hindered her performance in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.

The UCD athlete tore her calf eight days previous to the race and did not run for most of the last week as a result, only returning to jogging on Saturday.

The 29-year-old ran a much more impressive 4:02.48 at the Herculis in Monaco at the beginning of July and that time will stand as an example of what could have been.

Sarah Healy crossed the line two seconds slower than Mageean did in heat three of the Women’s 1500m.

Healy started well like her Team Ireland counterpart but fell away much earlier as the quickest heat proved to be too quick for the Olympian.

The 20-year-old was out of contention before the final lap and missed out on making a semi-final in her first Olympic games.

The Team Ireland athlete put her disappointing Olympic debut down to her nerves and race tactics.

The athlete, who also runs for UCD, noted that she had never felt as nervous as she did for her heat and felt that it may have played a part.

The pair will head home after failing to qualify for the semi-finals but they will have high hopes for Paris 2024 in three years.

To find out who the other Irish athletes competing on Monday, August 2nd are, click here.

Galgorm win set to put Brendan Lawlor top of WR4GD Rankings

Brendan Lawlor is poised to move to the top of the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) for the first time after the Irishman claimed a second victory in back-to-back weeks at the ISPS HANDA World Disability Invitational.

The 22-year-old was the official host for the second tournament of the 2021 EDGA European Tour season – full title ISPS HANDA World Disability Invitational presented by Brendan Lawlor – and he lived up to his headliner billing with a dominant performance from start to finish.

Having carded a three under 67 at Massereene Golf Club on the opening day, the Irish golfer delighted the fans at Galgorm with another superb three under 67.

That earned him a six under total and a six-stroke victory over Italy’s Tomasso Perrino, who also finished runner-up to Lawlor at last week’s EDGA Cazoo Open.

“An unbelievable week”

“It was an unbelievable day again,” said Lawlor, who has Ellis-Van Creveld syndrome, a disability characterised by a shorter stature and shorter limbs. “It’s been an unbelievable week, the last two weeks have been incredible. The European Tour, ISPS HANDA, Modest! Golf – I have to thank them for giving us a chance to showcase the wonderful game.

“The scoring today and the scoring the last couple of days was amazing and it shows that these guys belong here and hopefully it’s going to be a regular occurrence from now on.

“I was a bit shaky, it wasn’t easy, I didn’t look at the leaderboard all day. I was just throwing in my scores and focussing on my own game. It was a bit of a nervous start and I made a few birdies in a row then. It was a blur of a round, I was so focused I don’t even remember which holes I birdied.

“It was a dream of mine from day one to go to World Number One, since this journey started three years ago. I climbed the rankings pretty quickly and we’ve changed a lot of lives in that time and I’ve changed my own life too. It’s a full time job now.

“The pinnacle would be to reach World Number One and hopefully now I can stay there as long as Tiger Woods did! This week is bringing so many people into the game and that’s what we’re trying to do. These guys will hopefully making a living soon and we’ll keep striving.

“It’s been a tough year and a half, the family have been amazing and I had my dad on the bag and the rest of my family out there – they have been amazing. I’m getting emotional, I don’t know what to say but it’s unreal.”

Dubai awaits

Lawlor had already qualified for the season-ending EDGA Dubai Finale courtesy of his EDG Cazoo Open win last week. There was consolation for runner-up Tomasso Perrino, as well as Felix Norrman and Mike Browne, as they will all join their Irish counterpart in Dubai in November.

The EDGA Dubai Finale will mark the fifth and final EDGA European Tour event of 2021, held alongside the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai – the final Rolex Series event of the year – at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Friday and Saturday (November 19-20).

Brilliant clear from Austin O’Connor & Colorado Blue sees Ireland move up to 8th place

The Irish Eventing team have risen five places to eighth overall following the Cross Country phase of the Olympic Eventing competition at Sea Forest Island in Tokyo.

Sam Watson and Tullabeg Flamenco

Carlow’s Sam Watson and Tullabeg Flamenco (ISH) were pathfinders for the Irish in the Cross Country. A fast round saw them pick up just two time penalties. Unfortunately, they also picked up 11 penalties when a slight rub broke a frangible pin at fence 14C. That put Watson on a total score 47.3 after Dressage and Cross Country and they now lie in 31st place individually.

Austin O’Connor & Colorado Blue go clear

Cork native Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue were second to go for the Sally Corscadden managed Irish team. They produced a stunning round to jump clear inside the time to stay on their Dressage score of 38.0.

O’Connor and Colorado Blue’s  brilliant round, one of just six clears inside the time, saw him shoot up the leaderboard and having been in 49th place after Dressage, they are now in 20th position.

“I am delighted with my horse’s performance, the horse was great,” admitted a delighted Austin O’Connor.

“He seems to have recovered really well. He is a class horse. We will all enjoy the next phase now. We will get the horse recovered and myself recovered and hopefully come out and finish on a good note.”

Sarah Ennis & Horseware Woodcourt Garrison

The last member of the Irish trio to take on the Cross Country course was Meath’s Sarah Ennis with Horseware Woodcourt Garrison (ISH). They picked up 20 penalties for a refusal at fence 16C and 17.6 time penalties for a total score after Dressage and Cross Country of 75.70 in 39th position.

That leaves Ireland on a team total of 161.0 heading into the final Show Jumping phase.

Britain remain in the gold medal position in the team competition after they added no penalties to their Dressage score of 78.30.  Australia are in silver with France currently in bronze.

Irish Sport Horse Ballaghmore Class leads

Britain’s Oliver Townend and The Irish Sport Horse Ballaghmor Class (ISH) are in the gold medal position on the individual standings with a score of 23.6.

The Olympic Eventing team and individual medals will be decided following the final Show Jumping phase which takes place on Bank Holiday Monday.

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