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Olympic Marathon: McCormack runs season best in final

Team Ireland had two athlete’s competing in the draining women’s Olympic marathon in Tokyo final last night

Wicklow’s Fionnuala McCormack was at her fourth Olympic Games while Cork woman Aoife Cooke was making her debut at the competition.

For this event, a group of around 90 women would have to run 42.195km in Tokyo’s 27 degree morning heat.

The race commenced at 06:00 Japan time and from the beginning the three main Kenyan runners took to the front to control the pack. This was a race expected to be dominated by the Kenyan, Ethiopian and Japanese athletes.

After 10km, McCormack was still part of the main pack. The officials had her marked as 38th place but only a single second behind the leaders. Cooke was part of the large secondary pack of runner but still within seconds of the top.

Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir held the lead a quarter the way through the race and held onto that title throughout in a powerful display.

It took until the fuelling station at 13.5km when the main pack started to split up. McCormack dropped in the chasing pack while about 15 athletes stayed on top.

After 20km the Wicklow woman was now in 27th, 27 seconds behind first. Cooke was in 80th place just over a minute and a half within the leader.

Cooke would unfortunately not make it to the halfway mark and would drop out. The tough heat proved very difficult for many of the European athletes as 15 athletes failed to make it to the finish line.

This was a valiant effort by Cooke in her first Olympics at the age of 34 having only taken up competitive running again in 2015.

After 30km, McCormack had boosted her standings to 25th on the slightly downhill part of the course. She was now 2:02 behind the Kenyan in first.

 

The final stretch of the race was tight but Jepchirchir would take gold in a time of 2:27:20. The world record holder, Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei would come in second while Molly Seidel of USA would impressively take bronze.

Fionnuala McCormack made it to the finish line in 2:34:09, running a season best for herself in the process. This is even more inspiring when you understand that she became a mother in 2018 and managed to get herself back up to such a high standard.

Can The Lions Win The Series? – Preview, Lineup, Odds, TV Coverage

The 2021 British and Irish Lions will play their third and final test against South Africa on Saturday with it all to play for.

Warren Gatland’s side displayed an impressive second half in the first test to take the lead in the series but the Springboks showcased why they are reigning world champions with a dominant victory in the second test.

Jacques Nienaber’s world-class defensive coaching kept the Lions at bay and frustrated the touring side that was looking to close out the series early.

Both teams need to win this weekend to win the series, and with the gameplan of the Springboks persevering and the momentum firmly swung in their favour, the Lions will have to put up a fantastic team performance to earn the bragging rights.

Gatland has rolled the dice with his changes, one of them seeing the Pro12-winning ex-Connacht centre partnership of Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw play together for the Lions.

Henshaw’s positional flexibility and Aki’s strength could be important factors in a prospective Lions victory.

However, neither are Brian O’Driscoll and the Cape Town showdown may be won via other ways of play.

The Boks’ scrum is the best in the world and the lineout is among the top in its category too.

Whether it be dispersing quickly when out of possession or looking for holes in the South African line with the ball, the set-piece battles will be as important as the first two tests.

Finding even the tiniest of holes in the way these technical aspects of the South African game are set up could prove fatal as the pace of Josh Adams can expose these to great effect.

The Lions will have to improve their aerial abilities too as the Boks have shown that they love to kick in this series.

Henshaw’s ever-presence in the squad throughout the test series is down to several reasons, one of them being his composure under a high ball.

If some more aerial duels went his way and if the backfield can win theirs, the Lions can be a much calmer side in possession.

The Boks are favoured heading into this test but if the Lions play their cards right, they could upset the odds.

Whatever they do, they will want to avoid more heartbreak at the hands of Morné Steyn and the Springboks.

Lineups

British and Irish Lions: 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), A Beard (Wales), S Simmonds (England), C Murray (Ireland), F Russell (Scotland), E Daly (England).

South Africa: Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz), Cheslin Kolbe (Toulouse), Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks), Damian de Allende (Munster), Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks), Handré Pollard (vice-captain, Montpellier), Cobus Reinach (Montpellier); Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers), Franco Mostert (Honda Heat), Siya Kolisi (captain, Cell C Sharks), Lood de Jager (Sale Sharks), Eben Etzebeth (Toulon), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers), Bongi Mbonambi (DHL Stormers), Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers)

Replacements:
Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears), Trevor Nyakane (Vodacom Bulls), Vincent Koch (Saracens), Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls), Kwagga Smith (Yamaha Júbilo), Herschel Jantjies (DHL Stormers), Morné Steyn (Vodacom Bulls), Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers).

Odds

South Africa 11/10

Draw 22/1

British and Irish Lions 8/5

Where To Watch

The game will be shown live on Sky Sports with kick-off scheduled for 5 pm. Coverage will start on Sky Sports Action at 3:30 pm with Sky Sports Main Event showing it from 4 pm onwards.

 

Olympic Equestrian: Ireland drop out after Sweetnam falls from horse

It has been a very tough few hours for Irish Olympic athletes and fans throughout equestrian, cycling and modern pentathlon events this morning

The line between success and failure in elite sport is thin and today Ireland had no luck.

After impressive displays in the jumping individual round, Team Ireland were confident of scoring high to reach the final tomorrow.

Team Ireland would be made up of Darragh Kenny, Bertram Allen and replacement Shane Sweetnam for the qualifiers.

The team would be without their highest scorer so far, Cian O’Connor on Kilkenny after the horse sustained a nose bleed in the individual event.

To read more about the thrilling individual event, see Olympic Equestrian Final: O’Connor misses final jump-off by 1 point.

Of the 19 teams in the qualifiers, only the top 10 would progress to the final tomorrow morning.

Equestrian – Jumping Team Qualifier

Shane Sweetnam riding Alejandro was to be Ireland’s first rider in ninth position. He made a strong start showing good speed with his horse clearing the fences well.

The horse knocked a fence during a triple jump on five but tried to recover. At the sixth fence, everything began to go wrong.

Sweetnam and his horse knocked the sixth fence badly and in doing so, a shoe came off the horse. It is possible for a horse to complete the course without a shoe but Alejandro seemed uncomfortable and was now lacking confidence.

On the next fence, the horse jumped too high and landed back down on top of the poles. This caused his legs to buckle and he fell to his knees, knocking his rider off.

Luckily due to the safety measures in place, neither Sweetnam or Alejandro were injured by the fall but their routine was over.

The 40-year-old Sweetnam was clearly disappointed by what had happen. He knew that it left Ireland’s chances of qualification to the next round in tatters.

The new rules have it that any rider that is eliminated in a routine is awarded four more points than the worst score finishing score of the event.

Kenny and Allen would have needed perfect runs to have a chance of making the finals. After already competing twice in the individual event, the riders decided, in the interest of wellbeing for them and their horses, to retire from the competition.

This puts a damp mood on what has been a very decent Olympics for Ireland’s equestrian team.

Fans and athlete’s alike will now look to the marathons, the men’s modern pentathlon, Stephanie Meadow’s in golf and Kellie Harrington in boxing for our last chances at silverware in Tokyo.

Modern Pentathlon: Coyle finishes third Olympics in 24th

Ireland’s Natalya Coyle was very unfortunate in the show jumping round, dropping 14 places due to the horse given to her acting up and refusing jumps

All the points accumulated by the athletes are now counted up. For each point you are behind the leader, that is a one second delay at the start of the Laser run race.

To catch up on how Natalya Coyle has done in the modern pentathlon so far, see Modern Pentathlon: Coyle’s run ruined by horse

This event is a fast 3.2km race with four shooting stops where athletes have to hit five targets. As soon as the athlete hits the target, they can get back to running.

The winner of the race would win gold as this was the decider of the whole days work.

Women’s Pentathlon: Laser Run

Natalya Coyle started the race in 19th place with a 64 second delay on leader Russia’s Batashova. With a mountain to climb, by the second shooting drill, the Irish woman had caught up by two seconds.

The battle for top five was hotly contested over the first 1500m until Team GB’s Kate French broke out in front. She bossed the second half of the course, completing the race 15 seconds before anyone else to take gold.

The real comeback story of the race was Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite who started in 13th place, 52 seconds behind first but managed to blitz the field and finish in second.

Hungary’s Sarolta Kovacs got a well-earned bronze medal finishing 16 seconds off French.

Coyle made it to the finishing line after 14:12 seconds in 24th place. A heart-breaking end to her third Games after being in such a good position going into the third event.

This event has proven to be one of the most tense and physically exhausting events of the Olympics. Each of the 36 athletes completed four events in five different sports in the space of five hours.

With three Olympics done, Natalya Coyle is still only 30 years old. There is only a three year wait until we see her back in the modern pentathlon finals again.

 

Team Ireland Track Cyclists Fail To Finish Women’s Madison

Team Ireland track cyclists Emily Kay and Shannon McCurley did not have the race they hoped for after they did not finish in the first-ever women’s Olympic madison on Friday morning.

Shannon McCurley’s early crash brought an end to any hopes that Team Ireland had for the 30-kilometre race held at the Izu Velodrome in Tokyo.

The crash, one of several in the race, involved the European Championships silver medalist and Italian Elisa Balsamo who collided with each other just minutes into the race.

Team Ireland lost two laps as a result with their cyclists focused on clawing back at the gap that had opened up.

However, it became too much for them to counteract and the team withdrew from the race without scoring any points in the sprints.

Team Ireland had to settle for a share of 13th place in the final standings as a result of this.

Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald took gold for Great Britain in the race after a dominant display in the sprints.

Kenny’s fifth Olympic gold in three Olympic games makes her the most successful female cyclist in Olympic history.

The track cyclist moves clear of Charlotte Dujardin as the British female with the most gold medals.

She joins Bradley Wiggins and rower Steve Redgrave in joint-second on the country’s all-time list, only one gold medal behind her husband Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy.

Kenny and Archibald won 10 of the 12 sprints to finish on 78 points with Denmark taking silver on 35 points and the Russian Olympic Committee in bronze on 26 points.

The British duo asserted their dominance on their competitors from the start with a run of three straight sprint wins to kick off proceedings.

The reigning world champions, the Netherlands, failed to mount a serious challenge against Team GB as the side ran away with the gold medal victory.

Next up on the track cycling schedule is the Men’s Madison at 8:55 am on Saturday, August 7th in which Team Ireland cyclists Mark Downey and Felix English will compete.

Modern Pentathlon: Coyle’s run ruined by horse

The Modern pentathlon began its tough gruelling scoring process with swimming, bonus fencing and horse racing

Team Ireland’s Natalya Coyle had put herself in a great position after finishing third the fencing ranking round yesterday. To read more about that challenging 35-bout event, see Team Ireland Pentathlete Natalya Coyle Off To Good Start.

For the modern pentathlon, Tokyo had created a large stadium that could contain all the events. Although there was no crowd but the other athletes and coaches create a small but noisy atmosphere in the place.

This event has a points base system where athlete’s are scored on their attempts in multiple fencing bouts, their times in a swimming race and their points and times in a horse show jumping round.

These scores will decide where the athletes start for the final laser run race.

Women’s Modern Pentathlon

Swimming 200m Freestyle

First up at 06:30 this morning was the 200m swimming heats. This was one of Natalya Coyle’s weaker events but she herself in good standing from the fencing yesterday.

Coyle was swimming in lane five of heat four. Unlike previous years, this competition took place in a 25m pool so the times were slightly faster and new Olympic records were set each heat.

Coyle swam a good race always remaining in the middle of the pack, she showed no sign of slowing and finished in 2:13.88. This earned her 283 points which had her in thirteenth place after the swim.

Russia’s Gulnaz Gubaydullina was the fastest swimmer overall in a time of 2:07.31 and received 296 points.

Fencing Bonus Round

This event took place only 45 minutes after the swimming had finished, giving the athletes little time to prepare. The fencing round is done in a winner stays on style where the lowest ranked from the previous days fencing would start.

After finishing third yesterday, Coyle would face the winners of bout 32 which was Russia’s Uliana Batashova. The Irish woman took to the piste and got the touch to earn her an extra bonus point.

She went more attacking in her next bout against South Korea’s Sehee Kim. Unfortunately the second best fencer picked her off with less than five seconds to go.

Coyle still finished the fencing round with 239 points to add to her total.

Riding Show Jumping

The last round of preliminary events took place a half an hour later. In the show jumping round, athlete’s are given a horse at random with only a few minutes to get to know them.

Coyle drew horse Constantin who previously gave a Uzbekistani competitor trouble. The Irish woman rode very well but had the same problem with the horse on the last few jumps.

After the horse refused three jumps, knocked a fence and went over the allowed 80 seconds, Coyle received 234 points.

To emphasis how this event is the ‘luck of the draw’, the gold medal favourite was forced to retire by her horse, getting 0 points and moved back to 31st place overall.

After the mornings events, Coyle finished in 19th place and will go on to the Laser Run later today.

Tune in to RTE 2 to watch the Women’s Laser Run final at 11:30 this morning. Could Natalya Coyle go one step further than her sixth place finish in Rio?

La Rochelle Appoint Donnacha Ryan As Forwards Coach

La Rochelle has appointed former Ireland international Donnacha Ryan as a forwards coach for the upcoming season.

Ryan will be reunited with former Munster and Ireland teammate and La Rochelle Director of Rugby Ronan O’Gara.

The pair were part of the famous Heineken Cup winning Munster side of 2008 and the 2011 and 2015 World Cup sides at national level.

Ryan boasts two Magners Cup titles and the aforementioned Heineken Cup as career honours at club level and will look to add to that as a coach.

The 37-year-old retired from professional rugby at the end of last season after four seasons with Racing 92 in Paris.

Ryan never won a trophy while in Paris but came close on numerous occasions, including being part of two Champions Cup runners-up sides and missing out on the Top 14 in the late stages, most recently against O’Gara’s La Rochelle.

This will be the Tipperary native’s first foray into the coaching world as he looks to cut his teeth with the club’s forwards.

The retired rugby player will work alongside Romain Carmignani in the role, who was promoted to the first-team coaching role from the academy.

Last season’s runners-up La Rochelle opens their new Top 14 campaign on 4 September with a mouthwatering meeting against Toulouse — a repeat of last season’s final.

O’Gara will also be hoping to go one better in the Heineken Champions Cup this time around, with last year’s beaten finalists drawn in Pool A where they will take on Bath and Glasgow Warriors.

Olympic Golf: Meadows Chases Medal While Maguire Stagnates

Team Ireland golfers Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire played their third round of golf at the Olympic golf tournament this morning.

Stephanie Meadow finished on a high after a rough start to go three-under-par for the day and seven-under across 54 holes.

Leona Maguire posted two 35’s across both sets of nine holes to finish the day on five-under.

Meadow expanded upon her round two form with a strong finish enough to maintain her chase of the medal positions.

The Northern Irish golfer struggled initially with a bogey on the second hole and did not correct it until hole 6.

A second birdie on hole 8 looked to set Meadow on her way but another bogey left her waiting until the back nine to mount her charge up the leaderboard.

A birdie on the 13th hole was left unaccompanied by anything but par until the final two holes where the Team Ireland golfer added two more to finish strongly and sit joint-10th.

Maguire finished on a lesser total for the day but her round was packed with action as she fluctuated throughout the 18 holes.

The Cavan native came out of the blocks like a bull in a china shop with two birdies in the first two holes.

Two further birdies on holes seven and eight moved her to four-under across the tournament and the golfer looked set to build on that.

However, a disastrous ninth hole killed her momentum after a shot went into the trees and she struggled to recover from it.

Maguire ended up posting a triple-bogey on the par-4 hole after the fiasco which brought her back down to Earth.

She never recovered from it until it was too late – a birdie on the penultimate hole to move under par – bringing an end to what should have been a fantastic day for the Team Ireland golfer.

Maguire’s final round will begin at 11:18 pm on Friday night at the same time as Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela and Sanna Nuutinen of Finland.

 

Bradley hopeful for Rovers chances in European tie

Shamrock Rovers will face Albania’s KF Tueta Durres tonight at 20:00 in Tallaght in the Europa Conference League Round 3 Qualification

Rovers come into the game in good form going unbeaten in their last six home games. They have gotten three wins in a row in the league.

They were placed in the Europa Conference League after beating Slovan Bratislava but losing on aggregate in the Champions League qualifiers. 1,500 home tickets have been sold for the game, with the fans bringing some well-needed atmosphere to the tie.

Neil Farrugia will be the only player missing for Rovers as Graham Burke was passed fit to play the game.

Manager Stephen Bradley is optimistic of Rovers chances in the game, especially with the good form they are in.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Bradley said:

“The players are playing with a lot of confidence, and we’ll obviously look to take that into Thursday night. Again, we understand at this level of Europe it’s a very difficult game, that’s what we expect but we couldn’t be facing into it at a better time.

“We’re in really good form and it’s a game that we’re really looking forward to. It excites us, and we’ve got to try and make Thursday another special European night in Tallaght.”

Although they have high hopes, Bradley is making sure the squad knows that they will face tough opposition tonight.

“We’ve learned that they’re a very dangerous team going forward. We’ve watched a lot of their games; the players have seen a lot of them now and we know that they’re dangerous,” added the manager.

“So, we know a lot about them, we know it’s going to be difficult tie but it’s one we’re really looking forward to and we’re ready for.

” They’re a different type of player and tactically very clever in the attacking part of the pitch but similar to what we’ve faced. Some really technical players and when you play at this level in Europe, that’s what you face. ”

The bookies had made Rovers heavy favourites for the European game. Hopefully this will be one victory of many for Irish teams tonight.

Dundalk also face Vitesse away at 18:00.

Team Ireland Pentathlete Natalya Coyle Off To Good Start

Three-time Team Ireland Olympian Natalya Coyle got her Tokyo Olympic Games campaign underway today with an impressive opener in the Women’s Individual Fencing Round.

Coyle goes into day two lying in joint third position on the overall leaderboard with a total of 238 points.

Over the course of 17 rounds, the athletes competed in one-minute bouts against each other, with the total victories and defeats resulting in points that are accumulated and contribute to the overall total – Coyle’s final points reflect a total of 23 victories/12 defeats.

The Meath athlete took to the piste in confident style, immediately moving towards the top of the leaderboard, maintaining her place in consistent fashion throughout the bouts, with a really strong showing in the first half of the competition.

Keeping her composure over the course of the session, Coyle said that she enjoyed her competition opener.

“It was really good,” Coyle said. “I don’t even know the results yet, I don’t think I’ll look, because Pentathlon is one out of five. I know it started off really well, and I just feel really happy. I’m really glad to have done all the training and my coaches justice, so I’m really happy with that anyway.”

Coyle started strong and kept the pressure on throughout the round.

For the first time the fencing event was held on a different day to the remaining swim, horse ride, and laser run, something she took advantage of: “I was very pumped the whole way through there.

“Normally I try to conserve some energy, but we have more time, so I was pretty excited for each hit. It’s a long time where there’s a lot of mental energy expended. I think it’s three hours, but it flies by, I can’t believe it’s over.”

Fencing is a discipline that Coyle has done specific work on over the past few years, and that work was evident with today’s performance.

“I was really lucky in the Team Ireland holding camp in Fukuroi that I could bring some good fencers, and I think it showed out there in the piste today, it definitely helped.

“It’s the Olympics, the pinnacle of every sport, so you’re pretty much up for every fight.

“I think the big thing is to not ride every loss and normally say don’t ride the highs, but I think I rode them pretty well in the arena. Normally I try to stay calm in between rounds and just let it out on the piste.”

Tomorrow, Coyle will contest the 200m Freestyle Swimming, Fencing Bonus Round, Show Jumping and the Laser Run, and the athlete with the highest number of points at the end of all disciplines is deemed the winner.

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