duineeile

Israel Olatunde breaks Irish 100m National Record
 

 
 
Israel Olatunde set a new Irish NR in the 100m at the NEB Open meeting in London this afternoon. His time of 10.12 secs (+1.7 m/s) carved 0.05 secs off his current Irish record which he set at the European Championships in Munich in 2022.
 
Great start to the LA 2028 Olympic cycle by Olatunde . As a reminder, the automatic qualification standard for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo is 10.00 secs so he still has a little bit to go to reach that but this is an encouraging result in what has been a difficult 2 years for Israel.
 
 

Drink this in lads…. may never see this again…
 

Outstanding from Harrington, boxing her way to gold with a smile on her face. Delighted for Zaur as well.
 
Four gold medals, in four different sports, in one Olympics. Ireland's greatest ever sporting achievement.
 
We are TWELFTH in the medal table tonight.

Clear round too for Daniel Coyle! 

I remember at the start of the last Olympics in Tokyo he called it that we'd win 4 gold medals in rowing 😂😂

Not the scoring I have an issue with as such as it was a very close fight and O'Rourke wasnt on her game at all, its the 5 warnings in final round without a point deduction, especially as the Pole's tactics were to spoil the fight and make it as scrappy as possible. Not too many next ones left in the boxing at this rate.
 
Hopefully Marley can pull off a win in the quarter final, and make up for O'Rourke's loss as she would have been one of our favourites across all sports for a medal.

Jenny Lehane is going to Paris after a 5-0 quarter final win over Hanna Lakotar 🇭🇺, congratulations to her! So hard on boxers losing at this final stage, poor Lakotar looked devastated. Fingers crossed more Irish quotas will be added, Grainne Walsh up next

Thanks for sending on the link, was a good fight and a contrast of very different styles, Zakhariev very go forward and aggressive and Walsh the typical counter-puncher. Round 1 was very clearly for Zakhariev and I think Round 3 was clearly to Walsh, Round 2 was quite close I thought and could have went either way, with such a subjective scoring system it may come down to some judges having an inherent preference for certain styles of fighting. It was a close fight that could have went either way but in my opinion certainly not a robbery. Of course its hard for any of us to watch these fights in a truly non-biased way, myself included, as we definitely see more of our own fighters shots landing than the other way round, but I tried to watch as objectively as possible. Very disappointing for Zakhariev and the Ukraine team of course, there's so much at stake at these qualifiers, can make or break careers.

Strong results in the rowing semis in Lucerne, with women's Pair and women's double sculls winning their semis, mens pair and womens lightweight double making their finals. O'Donovan/McCarthy worryingly beaten by the Swiss, as I've suspected since the Swiss cake on the scene last year, the Irish lads will have a real fight on their hands to retain gold in Paris. Start of their season slightly disrupted by missing Europeans and World Cup I (O'Donovan competed in the heavyweight single) so hopefully they can find their inner Corkness and power on as the season goes on, a chance to turn the tables in the final tomorrow.
 
At the boxing Olympic qualifier, wins for Sean Mari (51kg) on a split against 🇵🇰  and light-heavy Kelyn Cassidy against 🇩🇪, both progress to round of 32, still a long road to qualification and only 3 spots up for grabs in Cassidy's division.
 
At the swimming trials, Shane Ryan hit the OCT for the 100m freestyle this morning, needs to find another 0.21 to get the Olympic Selection Tine. Danielle Hill first Irish woman under 25 seconds for 50m freestyle in 24.95, 0.25 off OST, hopefully one or both can hit those times later.