Olympics 2024: Team Ireland Results 08.08.24

By Heather Boyle, OFI Head of Communications & Sinéad Naughton, OFI Media Liaison

Thursday 8th August 2024

Kate O’Connor finished her mammoth day of competition in the women’s heptathlon today, lying 19th overall, after a mark of 13.79m in the shot put, and a brilliant season's best time of 24.77 in the 200m.

ATHLETICS

Kate O’Connor (Dundalk St. Gerald’s AC) was back in action in the Women’s Heptathlon tonight at the Olympic Games in Paris. The Dundalk woman competed in both the Shot Put and 200m in the evening session, having earlier been on track in the 100m Hurdles and in the field in the High Jump.

In the Shot Put, the 23-year-old threw a best of 13.79m, down on her season’s best which is in excess of 14m. She was however particularly pleased with her 200m performance where she clocked a season’s best of 24.77, just 0.04 of a second off her personal best.

O’Connor, who is coached by her father Michael, currently sits 19th after the opening four events, but has arguably her strongest of them; javelin, to look forward to tomorrow. Speaking afterwards O’Connor reflected on her opening day of competition:

“It started off a little bit rough. The hurdles weren’t really what I was planning on doing but I’m really proud of how I picked myself up and then do a season’s best in the high jump. My high jump has been a bit all over the place this year because of injury but I feel like I got rolling after that,” she said.

“The shot could have been a bit better but it was pretty solid, it wasn’t terrible. I don’t think I lost too much there. I’m really proud of that 200m. It was only five or six weeks ago that I tore my hamstring. To run 0.04 off my personal best from lane two, I can’t complain with that.”

O’Connor also spoke about her Olympic experience so far:

“I came here and my goal was to not have any regrets from all the events and I walked away from that hurdles and was like, damn it, I didn’t take in the crowd and stuff. But from the high jump on I made sure to enjoy the experience and just be me, just enjoy it and lap up the whole experience because it’s another four years before it’ll come around again,”she added.

TOMORROW

SWIMMING

In Marathon Swimming, Olympic 800m Freestyle Champion and 1500m Freestyle Bronze medallist Daniel Wiffen takes on the gruelling Men’s Marathon Swim early tomorrow morning. 

Wiffen, who has never competed in an international open water race, will set another piece of Irish history as he becomes Ireland’s first ever competitor in Marathon Swimming at an Olympic Games.

The 10km route will be on a 1.67km loop (6 loops) in the River Seine; the original venue for the swimming competition at these Games in 1924, between the Pont Alexandre III (where the boats started out for Opening Ceremony), and the Pont de l’Alma. 

The beginning of each loop will be easier as the 31 swimmers entered will have the current on their side, but the return more arduous, as competitors battle against the tide. The race kicks off at 6.30am and is expected to take just under two hours to complete.

GOLF

Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire will be hopeful of a significant change in fortunes when they take on round three of the individual singles at Le Golf National tomorrow; a course that has not been kind to the Irish pair at these Olympic Games.

ATHLETICS

Rhasidat Adeleke will be the first Irish woman to contest an Olympic 400m final tomorrow night at the Stade de France in Paris. The 21-year-old from Tallaght takes to the track at 7pm Irish time aiming to be in the mix, but the task ahead will be far from straightforward, with a particularly high calibre field vying for podium places.

Amongst them are reigning world champion and Tokyo silver medallist Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic) who won the second semi-final last night by a distance.

Also featuring are European champion and 2023 world silver medallist Natalia Kaczmarek (Poland), and world bronze medallist Sada Williams (Barbados). Great Britain’s Amber Anning beat Kaczmarek to the line last night looking quite controlled posting a new PB in the process.

Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain), a former world champion, who won Adeleke’s semi-final last night in a season’s best, and the fastest time of all eight qualifiers, also poses a major threat. Naser returned this year having served a two year ban from the sport for whereabouts violations.

Adeleke has been drawn in lane four and will have Anning on her right and Norwegian Henriette Jaeger on her inside.

The morning session features several Irish athletes, with two featuring in individual semi-finals.

Sarah Lavin from Limerick looked strong in automatically advancing out of yesterday’s heat. The Emerald AC athlete knows however that she will need the race of her life to become the first Irish female sprint hurdler to make an Olympic final. She goes in the second of the three semi-finals with only the top two in each making the final, along with two non-automatic time qualifying spots across the three races.

There are five women with faster personal bests than Sarah Lavin in her semi-final and it features Netherland’s Olympic finalist Nadine Visser, double European medallist Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland, and America’s Alaysha Johnson who has the fastest PB in the field (12:31).

Despite a brilliant run in his heat Mark English also may need to significantly lower his national record to make a final in the Men’s 800m. Six of those he will be competing against have faster seasons best times than the Finn Valley AC man. He goes in the first of three semi-finals with only the first two booking a place in the final, along with two non-automatic time qualifying spots across the three races.

Earlier in the session the Women’s 4x400m Relay team will race in heat two of their event. Having had an excellent year and not lacking squad depth, they will be aiming to secure one of three automatic spots in Saturday evening’s final. There are also two non-automatic time qualifying spots up for grabs. 

Their heat features some serious competition in European champions Netherlands, world championships silver medallists Jamaica, as well as Poland whose team won relay silver in Tokyo. The Irish team will not be confirmed until final declarations are submitted.

Meanwhile Kate O’Connor will be in action in the Heptathlon in both sessions. In the morning she competes in the Long Jump, where her best is 6.10m, and her strongest event the Javelin Throw where she has come close to breaking 53metres (52.92m), while her Olympic campaign concludes with the gruelling 800m finale event.

TRACK CYCLING

The Irish pairing of Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie will race against 14 teams in the always spectacular and highly entertaining Madison event tomorrow afternoon.

The Madison is a relay event race in pairs like a tag team with one rider competing while the other recovers by riding slowly around the top of the track, before the changeover via a ‘hand sling’ from their team-mate. It’s a 120 lap, 30km points race with a sprint every ten laps and the potential to make big points gains by lapping the main group.

Sharpe and Gillespie, fresh from their national record setting performance in the Women’s Team Pursuit on Tuesday, will take to the Saint Quentin En Yvellines velodrome buoyed by a strong fourth place finish in a stacked field at the Ghent International in June. Earlier in the season they had 6th place finish in the European championships, and a 12th place finish at the world championships last October.

RESULTS DAY 13 – THURSDAY 8TH AUGUST 2024

Athletics, Women’s Heptathlon, 100m hurdles, Kate O’Connor, 7th in heat in 14.08 (967 points)

Athletics, Women’s Heptathlon, High Jump, Kate O’Connor, 1.77m SB (940 points), on 1908 points, currently 19thoverall

Golf, Women’s Individual, Round 2, Stephanie Meadow, Round of 74, tie for 53rd place

Golf, Women’s Individual, Round 2, Leona Maguire, Round of 79, tie for 58th place

Women’s Heptathlon, Shot Put, Kate O’Connor, 13.79m (780 points)

Women’s Heptathlon, 200m, Kate O’Connor,  4th in heat in 24.77 SB (908 points), on 3596 points, currently 19th overall

SCHEDULE DAY 14 – FRIDAY 9TH AUGUST 2024

(All times are Irish times – Paris is one hour ahead)

6.30am Swimming, Men’s 10km Open Water, Daniel Wiffen

8.11am Golf, Women’s Individual, Round 3, Leona Maguire

8.22am Golf, Women’s Individual, Round 3, Stephanie Meadow

9.05am Athletics, Women’s Heptathlon, Long Jump, Kate O’Connor

9.40am Women’s 4x400m Relay, heat 1/2

10.23am Athletics, Women’s Heptathlon, Javelin Group A, Kate O’Connor 

10.30am Athletics, Men’s 800m semi-final 1/3, Mark English

11.13am Athletics, Women’s 100m Hurdles semi-final 2/3, Sarah Lavin

5.09pm Track Cycling, Women’s Madison, Lara Gillespie & Alice Sharpe

7.00pm Athletics, Women’s 400m Final, Rhasidat Adeleke 

7.25pm Women’s Heptathlon 800m, Kate O’Connor