As it happened: Team Ireland at the Paris Olympics - Day 2

We're up and running in the French capital to keep you all up to date on how the Irish athletes perform throughout Sunday.

ALL SMILES: Mona McSharry of Team Ireland after finishing second in her women's 100m breaststroke semi-final. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

8.40pm McSharry produces to seal final qualification 

Mona McSharry produced the swim of her life to qualify for the final of the women’s 100m butterfly at the La Defense Arena. 

The Sligo woman produced a personal best of 1:05.51 to finish second of 16 swimmers across two semi-finals with the top eight progressing.

The 23-year-old’s time was bettered only by Tatjana Smith of South Africa but enough to push world record holder Lilly King of the USA into third in the list. 

McSharry, who reached three finals at the World Championships earlier this year, swims her final on Monday night.

8.10pm Marley conquers Bereznicki challenge

21-year-old Dubliner Jack Marley turned in a crisp, clinical display to advance to the final eight of the men’s 92kg category. He’s now just one win away from a medal.

Following defeats for Dean Clancy, Aidan Walsh and Grainne Walsh, this was badly needed.

Marley sprang from his corner like a man on a mission, getting the better of the early exchanges with Poland’s Mateusz Bereznicki, taking the first round 4-1. Things were much the same in the second, Marley taking it 4-1. 

From there, he just had to navigate a safe path to the finish and that he did, despite one scary moment in the final round when he was caught with a dangerous right hook. 

But he stayed standing, taking it 4-1 to move on and meet Tajikistan’s Davlat Boltaev in the last eight.

ONTO THE NEXT: Ireland’s Jack Marley celebrates his victory. Pic: /Ryan Byrne

7.05pm Irish women’s sevens bank first win

Ireland 38-0 South Africa 

Ireland’s women’s sevens side has rebounded from an opening group defeat to Team GB with a 38-0 trouncing of South Africa.

A converted Beibhinn Parsons try was all that separated the sides at half-time but another five touchdowns followed after the break from Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Stacey Flood, Parsons again, Vicki Elmes Kinlan and Eve Higgins.

Qualification for the quarter-finals is still very much alive. They play Australia on Monday, a side that hammered a Team GB outfit that enjoyed a comprehensive win against Ireland earlier on Sunday.

6:10pm: O'Connor clear in cross-country

Austin O’Connor delivered a foot-perfect clear cross country round within the time on board Colorado Blue to lie 14th individually in Eventing.

O’Connor and his dashing grey came home one second under the limit to remain on his dressage score of 31.7.

Unfortunately an injury to Sarah Ennis’ Irish Sport Horse Acton Lady M, picked up in the course of a brilliant round that saw the Howth pilot pick up just 3.2 penalties, have put a major dent in hopes of a medal for Dag Albert’s squad.

First alternate, Aoife Clark will step into the breach on Sportsfield Freelance in Monday's show jumping but with 20 penalty points added to Ireland’s tally, Ireland are now in ninth overall.

That represented a climb of two places for the squad, while O’Connor vaulted 14 places from the 28th position he inhabited after the dressage

6.01pm Dublin sailors end first day in style in Marseille

Dublin pair Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove claimed a first place finish in their third and final race in the men’s skiff in Marseille.

That result puts them into second place overall going into day two on the south coast after a long day of changing courses and waiting for wind.

5.02pm Walsh beaten in opening fight

Grainne Walsh faced disappointing in her opening fight in the women’s 66kg category at the Olympics in Paris today, the 28-year-old Tullamore boxer losing 4-1 to Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary.

Walsh had the better of the early exchanges in the round of 32 contest, but Hamori started to break through Walsh’s guard soon after, landing several times to take the first round 3-2 despite Walsh battling back into it in the final minute.

Hamori faced a one-point deduction midway through the second round due to excessive grappling, with the Hungarian taking it on the judges’ scorecards 5-0. But the deduction left Walsh still firmly in contention heading into the final round: up on two scorecards, down on three.

However, Hamori asserted herself better in the final round, making some clean connections and forcing Walsh to go on the offensive, but the Offaly woman couldn’t do enough in the closing minute to convince the judges, losing the round 3-2 and 4-1 overall.

Grainne Walsh in action against Anna Luca Hamori of Team Hungary. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

3.10pm Irish women's 7s open with defeat to Team GB

No joy for the Ireland women's sevens team in their first ever game of Olympic rugby with Team GB turning around a 12-7 half-time deficit to take the win at the Stade de France on Sunday afternoon.

Two Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe tries sandwiched a score from Isla Norman-Bell in the first-half but Jasmine Joyce and Emma Uren turned the screw for the GB team after the break to leave nine points in it at the end.

2.36pm Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy begin Olympic defence in style

Vintage Paul O’Donovan in Paris on Sunday.

Not just on the water where he dovetailed once again with Fintan McCarthy to destroy a field in the lightweight men’s doubles, but off it afterwards when the cheeky chappie we knew from Rio made his return.

The Skibbereen men had over seven seconds to spare on the Norwegian crew that came in behind them in their opening heat at this 2024 Olympic regatta.

Read the full piece below.

11.50 Third and repechage route for women’s four

By Brendan O'Brien

Ireland’s women’s four will take the repechage route after finishing third in a heat of four at Vaires-sur-Marne with only the top two earning final berths.

Netherlands and Romania had clear water from early on and the latter finished seven seconds ahead of the Irish crew made of two Tokyo bronze medallists Eimear Lambe and Emily Hegarty who have been joined by Imogen Magner and Natalie Long.

11.40am Skibb’s Olympic champions get off to a flyer

By Brendan O'Brien

Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy got their Olympic title defence off to the smoothest of starts by cruising to a win in their men’s lightweight doubles heat, finishing more than seven seconds ahead of Norway in second place.

Their time was the slowest of three winning heats. Italy were five seconds faster and Switzerland ten but that is immaterial at this stage. 

The Irish were never challenged and never needed to exert themselves in the effort.

11.35am McSharry serves notice of intent 

By Brendan O'Brien

A three-time finalist at the World Championships in Doha earlier this year, Mona McSharry has served notice of her intent at these Games with a very impressive 1:05.74 in the heats of the 100m breaststroke.

The time is just 0.19 off her PB for the event and it left her second in her heat behind world champion Tang Qianting of China and third overall. Her semi-final will start at 8.10pm this evening.

11am: First round exit for Aidan Walsh 

By Brendan O'Brien

Aidan Walsh, a bronze medallist in Tokyo three years ago, has gone one-and-done at Paris 2024, losing his round of 32 bout to Makan Traore of France on a split decision after a strong start to his bout at the Arena Paris Nord.

The Belfast man is the second of ten Irish fighters in action to date and both have lost with Dean Clancy having fallen short on Saturday and it comes after Walsh won the opening round 5-0 after a controlled performance.

Traore, the more aggressive of the two, was given the nod by four judges after what had looked like another decent three minutes for Walsh and that left it finely balanced entering the third and decisive round.

That started terribly for him, Traore landing a hefty punch soon after the bell and bad went to worse from there with the referee docking the Irishman a point for repeated holding and then taking three more blows from the increasingly confident Frenchman.

Walsh, who had retired from the sport for 14 months before returning for this second Olympic bid showed considerable maturity afterwards, stating that he was “happy and grateful” after the fight and gave Traore his full due afterwards.

It was, he said, a "dream and a miracle" to make it to these Games after overcoming well-documented mental health issues in recent years. 

10.47am Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen will have to go through the repechage route in the women’s lightweight double sculls after finishing third in their opening heat at the rowing regatta east of Paris.

UP AND RUNNING: Ireland’s Fiona Murtagh and Aifric Keogh. Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Bronze medallists at the World Championships in 2022, and eighth in Tokyo three years ago, the Munster duo settled into third place early in the race but only two of the six crews were going straight through to the semi-finals.

The Team GB boat of Emily Craig and Imogen Grant, a strong favourite for the gold medal this week, powered out in front and stayed there with the Greek crew holding on to the second spot with no discomfort through the second 100m. - BOB

10.33am

The first of Ireland’s Olympic sailors take to the water today. Brendan O’Brien spoke to HP director James O’Callaghan about the team base they will use in Marseille on race days, and the replica they used in Dun Laoghaire. No detail is too small at this level.

10.20am:

Gripping as that first race was, it had nothing on the jeopardy in Ireland’s next outing with the Fermanagh men’s pair of Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney avoiding the repechage by the skin of their teeth, or by two-hundredths of a second to be exact.

This was a five-boat race with three to qualify directly for the semi-final. The USA were dropped early while Switzerland and New Zealand made the early running. Ireland were gripped for much of it with Spain slightly further back.

By the closing stages, things had changed with a photo finish needed to separate all four at the finishing line. Spain came though first, the Kiwis second and Ireland just did the necessary to get there ahead of the Swiss. - BOB

10am: Good morning, after a busy start to the Games on Saturday, we go again with plenty of Irish participation today. 

Brendan O'Brien in Paris sends this early update:

Aifric Keogh and Fiona Murtagh came through a tough heat in rowing’s women’s pair at Vaires-sur-Marnes, pipping Czechia to second place behind the Romanian crew having been pushed for much of the way by Team GB.

The top three now go through to a semi-final with GB detouring into a repechage It was an impressive finish by the Galway pairing, who looked to be in a fight for third through most of the second 1000m before edging the Czechs by one-hundredth of a second.

Places matter even at this stage with higher finishes offering better lane draws going forward.

Keogh and Murtagh are the first of five Irish crews due out on the water here east of Paris this morning.

Ireland’s three-person eventing team got the Irish action underway on Day 2 – and their own day two – with Sarah Ennis, Susie Berry, Austin O’Connor taking part in the cross country section of the competition at the Palace of Versailles.