WE HAD MORE live updates than you could shake a stick at, drinking in as much Olympic action as we can before it all disappears for another four years.
As always, we’d love to hear from you, so send us your thoughts and comments on all the action.
E-mail us at sport@thescore.ie, tweet us @thescore_ie, post to our Facebook wall or leave a comment below.
Main headlines:
- John Joe Nevin wins silver in the men’s bantamweight boxing after losing 14-11 to Luke Campbell of GB in the final.
- Rob Heffernan finishes fourth in the 50km walk in a new Irish record time of 3:37:54. In the same race, Brendan Boyce claims a new PB to earn 29th place, while Colin Griffin was disqualified.
- Heffernan: “To top it off with a medal would have been unbelievable.”
- Olive Loughnane finishes 13th, Laura Reynolds 20th in women’s 20km walk.
- Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe finishes 25th in the men’s modern pentathlon.
- Andrzej Jezierski won his C1 B final in the canoe sprint to finish ninth overall.
- Boxer Darren O’Neill will lead Team Ireland in tomorrow night’s Olympic closing ceremony.
- Mexico are the men’s Olympic soccer champions after stunning Brazil 2-1 this afternoon.
- Mo Farah makes history as only the seventh man to win the 5,000m/10,000m double at the same Olympics.
9.23 – Morning all, are you ready for another whopping great Olympic Saturday. OK, don’t all cheer at once. You might put the 50km walkers off their stride.
That race has been sweeping its way around the streets of London for the past 25 minutes or so. Rob Heffernan is in touch with the leaders. he’s 15th overall and his first 5km split was 22:20.
9.31 – Ireland’s other interest in this epic race, of course, are Brendan Boyce and Colin Griffin. Boyce was well down the field at the 5km marker, 53rd, while Griffin sat 36th. We’ll bring you more updates from the trio as they come in.
9.45 – Over at Eton Dorney, Andrzej Jezierski is warmed up and ready to go in the C1 sprint B final. In the k1 sprint, Team GB claimed another gold through Ed McKeever.
9.52 – Andrzej Jezierski, take a bow. The Ballincollig Pole stormed to victory in the 200m C1 b final, leading from start to finish and holding off the challenge of Vadim Menkov.
Jezierski’s finishing time was 44.041.
10.00 – In the A final, Ukraine’s Yuri Cheban has blown the field away to take gold. A beast of a man, he crossed the line in 42.291.
Jevgenij Shuklin of Lithuania finished second with the bronze medal going to Russia’s Ivan Shtyl.
Jezierski’s time would have been enough for seventh place in that eight-man Olympic final.
10.52 – We’re just approaching the 25km halfway point of the men’s race walk with Australian Nathan Deakes leading the way. His time split was 1:49:21. Rob Heffernan is just over a minute behind him in 12th position, 1:50:26 his time over the first half of the race.
This is where it gets interesting folks.
11.06 – Away from the mean streets around Buckingham Palace. Arthur Lanigan-O’Keefe is in action in the modern pentathlon. Fencing is the first event up in that one and our boy has slipped down to 18th place with 13 victories and 14 defeats.
11.10 – In the diving pool, Tom Daley is carrying the expectation of Team GB and it seems Clare Balding is as clueless as the rest of us when it comes to the scoring system.
After four dives of the 10m platform semi-final, Daley sits in second place; 14 points behind USA’s David Boudia.
11.35 – Heffernan making solid progress as the red flags start waving to the naughty boys who skip a step. The Corkman has pushed his way up to ninth as the leaders show their class. we’re hearing that even Colin Griffin in 21st place has been lapped.
11.59 – Back to the pentathlon where the fencing portion has ended. Lanigan-O’Keefe is in joint 29th place. He’ll go in heat four of the 200m freestyle swim at around 1.30.
In the race-walk, Heffernan is continuing to finish strong. He’s now eighth after the 40km point less than a minute behind the leader Sergey Kirdyapkin.
12.11 – Heffernan has reportedly put in the fastest 5km split of the field between the 35 and 40km markers. But still out in front is Kirdyapkin, followed by China’s Si Tianfeng and two more Russians; Bakulin and Erokhin.
Anything a mid-sized Caribbean island can do, the world’s largest nation can do better.
12.20 – He’s flying, Heffernan has a smile on his face and as he spies on of many tricolours. He raises his hand, urging the crowd to up the volume and he streaks past Sergey Bakulin. He’s fourth.
Australian, Jared Tallent is in second, but he has two warnings to his name. Without wishing ill on an Australian….
12.30 – Sean has gone to get liquids on board after handing the baton over, so it’s Ben Blake taking you through the afternoon. Heffernan remains in fourth. The leader Sergry Kirdyapkin, has reached the 48km mark, meaning he has one lap to go.
12.36 – Kirdyapkin crosses the line in 3:35:59 to claim gold…
13.02 – IRELAND’S BRENDAN BOYCE FINISHES 29th – 19:02 behind the gold medal spot. It’s also a personal best and a superb performance from the Donegal man. Like with many of the other competitors, the Trojan effort has completely zapped him of energy…
13.15 – Colin Griffin, who was disqualified from the 50km walk, has just spoken to RTE Sport:
You’re almost home, in the thick of it (when he was disqualified). I tried tactics that were new to me. I picked up the cards when I back off the group and got isolated.
There’s a lot of what could have been so it’s a hard one to take. This isn’t what I trained for.”
13.18 – Next up, one for the all-rounders – the modern pentathlon. Team Ireland have Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe, who was 29th in the fencing this morning, in Heat 4 of the swimming event.
Want to know more about the 20-year-old? Read this profile we did last month:
Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe was handed a late call-up to become the second ever modern pentathlete to represent Ireland at the Olympics.
The 20-year-old Kilkenny native, who is on an elite athlete scholarship in UCD, joins Natalya Coyle in the event.
13.48 – Who wants to see the Team GB women’s football lip sync SClub7?
YouTube credit: UK3Lion007
WHAT A PHENOMENAL finish for Robert Heffernan. An excellent, measured and competitive performance brought Rob a fantastic fourth place finish in this morning’s 50k walk.
15th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, 8th, 5th, 4th — that was the progression on the 5k standings for Rob. The most gruelling of events on the athletics spectrum, he bided his time as other ahead of him could not cope with the pressure and were disqualified or dropped out in distress. His race plan was executed to almost perfection.
14.53 – We’re are about seven minutes away from the men’s football final, where strong favourites Brazil take on Mexico. Here are the two teams:
Brazil: Gabriel; Rafael, Thiago Silva, Juan, Marcelo, Sandro, Romulo, Alex Sandro, Oscar, Neymar, Leandro Damiao.
Mexico: Corona; Jimenez, Mier, Reyes, Chavez, Enriquez, Salcido, Herrera, Fabian, Aquino, Peralta.
15.27 – Brazil haven’t impressed in the opening 25 minutes of the game, which isn’t flowing at the moment. In the modern pentathlon, meanwhile, Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe will partner Willcox in the riding event. That has just begun so we’ll keep you updated on how he gets on.
15.35 – Anyone hoping to welcome the Irish Olympic team home on Monday will have to make other plans as the Dublin City Council announced earlier today that a proposed homecoming ceremony won’t take place after the athletes felt they would “like to go home to their families, their communities and their friends”. Read more here.
16.07 – Interesting stat…
16.28 – Peralta has the ball in the back of the net for Mexico but it’s ruled offside. AC Milan’s Pato has just entered the fray with 20 minutes of football still to be played.
16.34 – GOAL! BRAZIL 0 MEXICO 2 – Mexico double there lead and it’s that man Peralta again. A free-kick form the right is met by the head of Santos Laguna’s striker. Fine header but what happened to Brazil’s defending?
This would certainly be a bit of an upset.
17.01 – From the frying pan to the fire, the women’s 20km walk has just started on the Mall. We’ll keep a close eye on Olive Loughnane anLaura Reynoldsd for you over the next 90 minutes or so.
17.10 – Olive Loughnane is in 15th place through the first 2km split, 10 seconds behind race leader Olga Kaniskina. Laura Reynolds has dropped off to the back of the field and is in 53rd.
17.37 – At the 8km mark, Olive Loughnane has dropped off a little bit. She’s now in 12th but the gap between her and the five-strong pack chasing the leaders is 28 seconds. She could do with a hand closing the gap if she’s going to challenge. Laura Reynolds is still in 46th.
17.47 – At the 10km mark, Loughnane is just under a minute short of the podium places and about 1m45 behind race leader Olga Kaniskina who is striding away at the head of the field. Laura Reynolds continues to make up ground and is up to 41st at the half way mark.
17.53 – Let’s quickly check back in with the modern pentathlon, where the riding has just finished. Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe’s 80 penalty points was good enough for 20th place in that event and has moved him up to 18th place overall. He’ll start the combined run/shoot event 1:08 behind leader David Svoboda of the Czech Republic.
The run/shoot kicks off at 6.45pm.
17.58 – It’s not looking good for Olive Loughnane’s medal chances. Kaniskina’s pace is pretty ferocious at the 12km mark — possibly world record speed? — and it’s stringing out the field behind. Olive is in 13th, 2:15 behind the leader and about 1:30 off the medal places.
Laura Reynolds is making up some serious ground though. She’s up to 33rd now.
18.03 – As our man Will Downing quips on Twitter, Australia hasn’t got Tallent anymore — Aussie medal hopeful Claire Tallent has been disqualified from the 20km walk.
At 14km, it’s still Kaniskina who leads from Liu and the trio of Lashmanova, Kirdyapkina and Qieyang. Olive Loughnane is back in a growing bunch in 14th now.
18.11 – While we keep one eye on the progress of Loughnane and Reynolds, we’ve been discussing the merits of the modern pentathlon’s final act — the run/shoot or “combined event” as it’s properly known.
“It’s essentially like a big game of Time Crisis,” is the verdict from TheScore.ie HQ.
18.15 – With 4km to go, it’s Kaniskina-Lashmanova-Qieyang occupying the medal positions. Olive Loughnane is in 12th, desperately trying to make up up some ground on Masumi in 11th. As for Laura Reynolds, she’s flying and up into 25th now.
18.20 – Barring a remarkable turnaround it’s going to be gold for Olga Kaniskina, completing a brilliant double after Kirdyapkin’s win in the 50km this morning. Lashmanova and Qieyang are fighting it out for the silver — but keep your eyes on that world record time. Going, going…
18.52 – If you’re not watching the women’s handball bronze match, you might want to start now. It’s South Korea 28-28 Spain in the second period of extra time. It now has our undivided attention…
19.09 – Time Crisis (aka the modern pentathlon run/shoot) is underway… and China’s Cao Zhongrong has taken a slight advantage over David Svoboda.
20.09 – GOLD FOR SAVINOVA OF RUSSIA! A season’s best time for Maria Savinova who wins in 1:56.19. Caster Semenya has to settle for second, also in season’s best time of 1:57.23, but she might wonder if she could have executed her tactics a bit better. Ekaterina Poistogova takes bronze with a personal best in 1:57.23.
20.20 – Time for a quick breather. Here’s the main schedule for the rest of the evening:
- 8.25pm: Women’s 4x400m relay final
- 8.45pm: John Joe Nevin v Luke Campbell
- 9.00pm: Men’s 4x100m relay final
We also have the women’s basketball final between USA and France at 9pm as well to look forward to.
20.23 – It’s 20 minutes to John Joe time and in the RTÉ studio, Bernard and Kenny have dug out their best ties especially for the occasion.
Mick Dowling is wearing a tie too but it’s actually not that bad, so we’ll let him off.
20.27 – The mantle of favouritism doesn’t usually sit well with us Irish folk but it’s a burden John Joe Nevin will have to bear. He’s 3/5 to take home the gold while Campbell is almost 2/1. That’s big.
20.39 – There is a lot of talk in the RTÉ studios about the perils of fighting a British fighter and of hometown judging. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that and that we’ll all be dancing the Mullingar shuffle by nine o’clock.
20.56 – Round 1: An absorbing contest and there’s very little to choose between them. Campbell did have marginally the better of the exchanges though and it’s no real suprise that he leads 5-3 at the end of the first round. Campbell 5-3 Nevin
Have you been playing the Google Olympics?
Olympic Breakfast: John Joe Nevin awaits moment of destiny
Comments (17 Comments)