There was disappointment for boxer, Kurt Walker, who lost out in his quarter-final bout with USA’s Duke Ragan by the finest of margins, a 3-2 split decision after a pulsating contest.

Regan took the better of the opening round, dictating the pace throughout, but Walker regrouped well in the break and came back strong in the second to level proceedings going into the final round. An extremely closely-contested final round saw the two boxers evenly matched throughout, but Regan just pipped it in the end on a 3-2 split decision.

Bronze medal for Walsh

Walker’s boxing team mate Aidan Walsh withdrew from his semi-final of the Men’s Welterweight competition due to ankle injury sustained during his quarter-final bout.

He will still take home his bronze medal which he won in the quarter-final bout, becoming the sixteenth boxer to bring home a medal from the Olympic Games. The tally of Olympic boxing medals now stands at 17, more than 50% of the overall medals won by Team Ireland at Olympic Games.

Athletics

In athletics, there were fantastic performances from Eilish Flanagan and Michelle Finn in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase heats, with Flanagan producing the run of a lifetime to shave an incredible six seconds off her Personal Best time, while Finn produced her fastest time at a major championships.

Flanagan produced the performance of a lifetime to run 9.34.86 to finish 12^th in her heat.

Speaking after her new lifetime best, Flanagan said:

“It really excites me for that to be my first performance on the world stage. It makes me believe a bit more that I belong there, so I’m looking forward to the next opportunity on a stage like that.”

Finn, going in the fastest of the heats, had to deal with a strung-out field, but put in an impressive last 800m to record her fastest time at a major championships – 9:36.

Thomas Barr ran the second fastest time of his career in the Semi-Finals of the Men’s 400m Hurdle, but failed to qualify for the final.

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His time of 48.26 seconds placed the Waterford athlete in 9th place overall. Unfortunately, he failed to qualify for the final at this his second Olympic Games.

Despite a strong run from Barr, it was always set to be a huge challenge in a high calibre semi-final. The race included the world record holder (Karsten Warholm), the third-fastest man in history (Rai Benjamin), and the man who beat him to bronze in Rio (Yasmani Copello).

With just two automatic places available, Warholm and Benjamin were always favoured, being the only sub-47 second men in the field, proving their class from gun to tape.

Barr started much more aggressively than in his heat, aware of the challengers in the lanes either side of him and tried hard to hang on to those fast starters. He was very well positioned at the halfway mark, which was encouraging for the notoriously fast finisher, but hitting hurdle seven stripped the Irish hurdler of his momentum.

A courageous fight back over the final 120m saw him post a time only bettered by his fourth-place performance in Rio, and he finished 9^th overall in these Games –  just one spot away from a second consecutive final.

Barr disappointed despite fast time

A disappointed Barr spoke of the effect that the clipped hurdle had on his race, stating:

“I was coming over the hurdle smooth, much faster than I usually do over hurdle seven, but I didn’t bring my trail leg through as quickly as I’m used to, and I just clipped it. It was an inch, and yeah, it completely knocked my momentum. I didn’t feel lactic in my legs, so I was able to recover, but it probably did cost me a place in the final.

“I went into that in PB [Personal Best] shape,” he added. “It’s such a shame, because that’s the second fastest time I’ve ever run, and it’d probably have been a 47-something.”

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4 x 400m Relay Round 1 – Sophie Becker, Cillin Greene, Phil Greene, Christopher O’Donnell

The Irish lined up in lane four with decent starting time, the fourth best in the race. The main teams to look out for were the Dominican Republic, Nigeria and the world’s fastest, Team USA.

Greene lined up first for Ireland and ran a very decent race, running a personal best for himself, with the team completing the handover first.

Healy went second for Ireland starting at the top which she held for 200m until the lanes merged. By the next baton handover the top four teams were basically level.

Becker ran next, in which the Nigerian team attempted a different strategy. They used their second male athlete next to give their female a major head start going into the last 400m. Ireland finish the lap in fifth.

O’Donnell was in charge of Ireland’s final run in which he brought blistering pace, overtaking Nigeria with 50m left and holding off an ascending Germany.

Ireland finished the race in fourth, just outside the automatic qualification places, USA first, Dominican Republic second and Belgium third.

But, this is where the race got even more hectic.

Firstly, the world record holding United States team was disqualified. One of their athletes was judged to have started their run outside of the designated area for collecting the baton. This is known as rule TR 24.19, now Ireland sat in third.

#Athletics

The USA have been disqualified, moving Ireland's 4x400m mixed relay team into an Automatic Qualifying position…

For the OLYMPIC FINAL!!!

#TeamIreland #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/RQ97jjHabu

— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) July 30, 2021

Five minutes later and the Dominican Republic were also disqualified. In a more technical rule called TR 24.20, their final runner was seen to illegally change their position in the baton changeover area.

Ireland would have been fast enough to qualify for the final anyway with a time of 3:12.88 but now with these disqualifications, they were second in their heat.

They will now join Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Jamaica, Great Britain, Germany and Spain in the final.

The other heat was very fast so they do enter the final as the sixth fastest team. It was a very impressive feat to make the first ever Olympic 4x400m mixed final but hopefully they can find even more energy to leave a mark on the final.

Wow! Two DQs in the mixed 4x400m relay, that opens up the final now. Fair play to the team… maybe Tom Barr for the final, the team did great regardless. #TrackandField #Olympics2020 pic.twitter.com/JZyjspgM8p

— David Somerville (@David_Somervile) July 30, 2021

Other Athletic Results for Day One

Women’s 800m heats

Nadia Power – Heat 2 – 2:03.74 – 7th

Louise Shanahan – Heat 3 – 2:03.57 – 7th

Siofra Cleirigh Buttner – Heat 4 – 2:04.62 – 7th

Men’s 400m Hurdles heats

Thomas Barr – Heat 3 – 49.02 – 2nd (Qualified)

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An impressive finish brought the Irishman up to fourth in heat three and granted him a time of 49.02, behind only Norway’s Karsten Warholm – the athlete expected to win the heat.

The top four spots granted athletes automatic qualification into the semi-finals with Barr among them and guaranteed a decent starting spot in the race.

The Rio Olympics fourth placer qualified 11th-fastest in the heats on what is seen as a quick track but his second-place finish is the one that matters as they grant starting positions based on the latter.

The Irishman’s time bodes well for him as he looks set to fall into the pattern of progression throughout each round at previous championships.

His times from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Berlin 2018 showcase increased speed after every race.

The 29-year-old began Rio 2016 with a time of 48.93 and shaved almost a second of it by the time he crossed the line in the final race to take fourth – he ran a personal best of 47.97.

Berlin 2018 also followed a similar pattern, with his semi-final time being identical to his time in Rio – 48.39.

Earlier, three other Team Ireland athletes took the track – Nadia Power, Louise Shanahan and Siofra Cleirigh-Butler all finished seventh in their heats in their respective events.

Power ran the Women’s 800m in heat two in a time of 2:03.04 with Shanahan getting over the line half a second slower in the succeeding heat.

Cleirigh-Butler was a second behind the pair after her run in heat four, crossing the line after 2:04.62.

All the athletes ran in very humid conditions at the new Olympic Stadium, built on the same site as the old 1964 Olympic Stadium.

The Men’s 400m Hurdles semi-finals will take place on Sunday, August 1st with the first of three starting at the later time of 1:05 pm.

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Obviously, ambitions are high that the country will do better than this in Tokyo in 2021. To help this become a reality, Ireland has even sought inspiration from New Zealand, a country with a similar population but which has won almost as many medals in the last 20 years – 51 – as we have in the past 96.

While we may be some way off becoming a sporting powerhouse like New Zealand, there are some very good prospects across a number of disciplines, including these three.

Thomas Barr – Athletics

The Waterford 400m runner is arguably Ireland’s only true world-class athlete at the moment and at 28 this could be his final Olympics. So he’ll be hoping to improve on his fourth-place finish at Rio in 2016. With athletics being one of the most popular of the Olympic events at sports betting sites such as Mr Green Betting, you can be sure that many will be taking advantage of this simple and convenient way to back him. With a range of different wagers available, including spread betting and flexi-betting as well as a wide number of markets available, the site will also be anticipating a great deal of betting action across all 33 Olympic sports.

Mona McSharry – Swimming

Ever since the very appropriately-named Jon Rudd was appointed as High Performance Director of Ireland’s swimming team, there has been distinct upturn in its fortunes. One of the brightest of the rising stars is the 20-year-old Mona McSharry. In 2017 she became the junior world champion in the 400m breast-stroke at the finals in Indianapolis. Since then she’s tasted victory of another kind having been a winner, along with brother Mouric and parents Aiden and Viola, in the seventh series of the RTE reality show Ireland’s Fittest Family.

Bertram Allen – Equestrian

Equestrian is one sport in which Ireland can certainly consider itself to have under-achieved on the Olympic stage. But just as Jon Rudd has transformed the fortunes of the swimming team, the appointment of Roderigo Pessoa as chef d’équipe for the show jumpers is already having the same effect. A key member of the team will be Bertram Allen – the youngest-ever winner of a prestigious Longines Grand Prix back when he was just 23. Three years later he surely stands a chance of being in the medals both as an individual and as a team member in Tokyo 2021.

There are many others to look out for across other sports with one of the brightest prospects being the young gymnast Rhys McClenaghan who many see as a future world beater. So here’s looking forward to the games, and hearing Amhrán na bhFiann being played at more medal ceremonies than ever before.

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