Two Irish teams and a lot of individuals in action for Ireland in the early hours of day 3 at the Tokyo Olympics.
Here’s how they got on a mostly disappointing night.
Swimming
Mona McSharry delivered on her potential with a brilliant swim to 4th place in the second semi final. That was enough for her to qualify in 8th place and become only the second Irish swimmer to make an Olympic final.
The final is at 3:17 tomorrow morning.
Mona McSharry is into the final of the 100m breaststroke - and here's how she did it https://t.co/WFDXLLAsrL #Tokyo2020 #RTESport #Olympics https://t.co/SWtkyXW2VO
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 26, 2021
Boxing
Michaela Walsh lost a thriller to Italy’s Irma Testa.
Walsh started brightly with 3 judges giving her the opening round but the Italian came back strong and won on 5 judges’ scorecards in the end. It must have been close though.
Brendan Irvine is also out after losing to his opponent from the Philippines. Paalam came out flying in the first round and Irvine struggled to get a foothold. He improved as the fight wore on with one judge giving him the nod in a 1-4 split decision.
Rugby 7s
Ireland put up a spirited to display against one of the big medal favourites South Africa with Gavin Mullin getting the honour of scoring our first ever Olympic try.
Terry Kennedy scored in the second half to bring us within 7 points but South Africa eased away at the end winning 33-14. Next up is the USA later this morning.
Hockey
As expected the world champion Netherlands dominated throughout but only had a single goal to show until midway through the 4th quarter thanks to the sterling efforts of Ayeisha McFerran.
The Dutch added 3 late on as the Irish defence tired to give the score line a more representative look. Ireland face Germany on Wednesday.
Canoeing
Similarly to his opening run, Liam Jegou missed a gate in his semi final run and exited the competition in 15th place with only top 10 progressing.
Sailing
A poor day for Annalise Murphy in the laser radial with finsishes in 24th and 37th. That leaves her ranked in 32nd overall and realistically out of contention already.
Triathlon
Russell White finished 48th in the gruelling Tokyo heat. He was caught behind after the opening swim and never really threatened to move up the field.
Still to come today
The Rugby 7s team face the USA who beat Kenya 19-14 in their opener. Kick off is 10:30. Brendan Hyland makes his Olympic debut in the 200m butterfly in swimming at 11:20. He's followed by Ellen Walsh in the 200m individual medley.
Nhat Nguyen gets badminton underway at 11:20 with a game against Sri Lanka's Karunaratne.
SEE ALSO: Mona McSharry Makes History By Qualifying For Olympic Swimming Final
