It was a mixed day for the Irish sailors in Qingdao today. Star class sailors Peter O'Leary and Stephen Milne opened their Olympic campaign in Qingdao with an excellent sixth place finish in their first race. Helmsman O'Leary, who hails from Cork, and his Bangor crew-mate Milne coped well with the difficult conditions to finish a minute and 25 seconds behind race winners Sweden.
Tim Goodbody's finished 15th in race eight, to keep himself 21st overall in the Finn class.
With races nine and ten in the Finn Class cancelled due to worsening weather conditions, Goodbody's first Olympics is prematurely over. His overall finish of 21st means he will not compete in the ten-boat medal race.
With races nine and ten in the Finn Class cancelled due to worsening weather conditions, Goodbody's first Olympics is prematurely over. His overall finish of 21st means he will not compete in the ten-boat medal race.
The 470 class duo of Gerald Owens and Philip Lawton have slipped down the field to 14th overall, after a 21st place finish in race 7 and have damaged their chances of making the final medal race.
Meanwhile, Ciara Peelo secured her best finish of the Olympic regatta to date when claiming seventh spot in race 4 of the Laser Radial class. She is now 15th overall and within range to challenge for a place in the ten-boat medal race with six races remaining.
In Rowing, Men’s Lightweight Four just missed out on a place in the final, finishing a disappointing fourth position finishing behind Denmark, France and Great Britain. Ireland started well but once they fell into fourth place they were unable to make up the ground as they wilted in the final quarter of the race.
The Irish heavyweight coxless four have rounded off their Olympics with a fourth place finish in the 'B' final.
Ireland's David O'Loughlin posted a time of 4m26a102ms in the Men's Individual Pursuit. This left him 11th in the overall standings and out of the eight qualification places. O'Loughlin was drawn with the legendary Bradley McGee in his heat and came out of the blocks with incredible intensity and speed. David kept up this speed and was looking good for a top eight finish. However, coming towards the close of the race O'Loughlin lost pace and blew up somewhat. After 3km he posted a time of 3m18s3ms and finished the race on 4m26s102ms. This was a disappointing ride for O'Loughlin, who admitted that he felt like he was capable of a better time and he should have been in contention for a medal. O'Loughlin has only been track cycling for less than a year and he says that he will be still around for at least four more years and that he will only get better.
In Show Jumping, Denis Lynch incurred just one time fault in his opening Olympic round at Sha Tin, Hong Kong this afternoon, and will now go through to the next individual qualifier on Sunday. Lynch currently holds joint 13th position in the first qualifier, but the faults incurred today are the vital element, for they are converted into points to be carried forward to the next qualifier on Sunday.
In the first day of Athletics, Ireland had three athletes in action. Alistair Cragg decided to run the 1500 metres heats to get a taste of the stadium and the conditions. He finished 8th in his heat. Cragg started the race at the tail of the pack but just inside 300m moved up on the outside to third. Cragg stayed on the outside for the duration of the race to stay out of trouble. After 1,200m Cragg gave a little kick but was soon swallowed by the pack and pushed back to the tail of the group and due to his lack of a kick needed for the 1500, Alistair was unable to finish strongly. His main event, the 5000 metres begins on Wednesday.
Roisin McGettigan has finished second in the Women's 3000m Steeplechase round 1 - heat 2, in the process qualifying for final. Roisin looked in fine condition and a place in the final was never in doubt. In heat 1, Fionnuala Britton finished tenth in a time of 9:43.57. Despite not making the qualification places of the top four, this was a fine display from the debut Olympian.
McGettigan will now run in the final at 2.30pm Irish time this Sunday and will hope for a good result.
In Show Jumping, Denis Lynch incurred just one time fault in his opening Olympic round at Sha Tin, Hong Kong this afternoon, and will now go through to the next individual qualifier on Sunday. Lynch currently holds joint 13th position in the first qualifier, but the faults incurred today are the vital element, for they are converted into points to be carried forward to the next qualifier on Sunday.
In the first day of Athletics, Ireland had three athletes in action. Alistair Cragg decided to run the 1500 metres heats to get a taste of the stadium and the conditions. He finished 8th in his heat. Cragg started the race at the tail of the pack but just inside 300m moved up on the outside to third. Cragg stayed on the outside for the duration of the race to stay out of trouble. After 1,200m Cragg gave a little kick but was soon swallowed by the pack and pushed back to the tail of the group and due to his lack of a kick needed for the 1500, Alistair was unable to finish strongly. His main event, the 5000 metres begins on Wednesday.
Roisin McGettigan has finished second in the Women's 3000m Steeplechase round 1 - heat 2, in the process qualifying for final. Roisin looked in fine condition and a place in the final was never in doubt. In heat 1, Fionnuala Britton finished tenth in a time of 9:43.57. Despite not making the qualification places of the top four, this was a fine display from the debut Olympian.
McGettigan will now run in the final at 2.30pm Irish time this Sunday and will hope for a good result.
In Boxing, John Joe Nevin's Olympic dream is over after he was defeated 9-2 by Mongolia's Badan-UugarEnkhbat in the Bantamweight Division. Enkhbat, a silver medalist at this year's World Championships in Chicago, is ranked as number two in the world and he showed all his class as he picked off Nevin at will, but Nevin kept on going though and did not embarrass himself at all.Nevin has only just turned 19 and his sights are firmly set on London 2012, he will only be 23 then and claims that he shouldn't even be competing this time round and that he is four years ahead of schedule.
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