Team Ireland
Although there are no medals on the line for any of the competing Irish participants (across athletics, golf and taekwondo), there is little or no room for error.
Ireland’s big track hope Rhasidat Adeleke is back for a late-evening semi-final of the women’s 400m and, on the evidence of her efficient win in the heat, the 21-year-old from Tallaght in Co Dublin is in peak condition and should advance onwards to the final on Friday as a medal contender.
Step by quick step so for Adeleke, and even quicker for 100m hurdler Sarah Lavin, who competes in the first round of her discipline.
Jack Woolley – who, like Adeleke, hails from Tallaght – finally gets into action in the round of 16 of Taekwondo’s men’s 58kg category.
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A second-time Olympian at the age of 25, Woolley’s first round encounter is against the Russian-born Gushim Magomedov representing Azerbaijan. The match – three rounds of two minutes – takes place in Grand Palais Bercy Arena, and Woolley has genuine aspirations of moving on to the quarter-finals.
Things will be rather slower for the two Irish women golfers who start their Olympic journeys in the 72-hole stroke play tournament at Le Golf National where rounds are expected to take up to five hours. Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are competing in their third Olympics, having played in Rio and Tokyo.
Meadow is in the first group off with French player Perrine Delacour (who will hit the first shot of the tournament) and Belgium’s Manon De Roey.
Maguire has disappointed in the Majors so far this season (with next month’s AIG Women’s Open left) but recently won the Aramco-London tournament on the Ladies European Tour. The Cavan golfer is in a three-ball with Great Britain’s Georgia Hall and South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai.
Worth a Watch
Women’s Keirin Cycling: Hold on tight for the wildest event in cycling, as the women’s Keirin heats get under way in the velodrome.
This is the race where an electric derny bike is ridden by an official with the cyclists – six in each heat – following and gradually builds from 20kph to 40kph at which stage the bike swerves away and the racers go hell for leather in a madcap sprint.
This form of cycle racing has its origins in Japan where more than €4 billion is gambled each year and there are special Keirin schools. Oh, by the way, there are no gears and no brakes which only adds to the madcap nature of it all.
Tokyo silver medallist and current world champion Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand is the favourite.
Irish in action
- 8am: Stephanie Meadow (Golf – women’s tournament first round)
- 9.15am: Sarah Lavin (Athletics – women’s 100m hurdles heats)
- 10.10am: Brian Fay (Athletics – men’s 5,000m heats)
- 10.48am: Jack Woolley (Taekwondo – Men’s 58kg qualifying)
- 10.55am: Mark English (Athletics – men’s 800m heats)
- 11.17am: Leona Maguire (Golf – women’s tournament first round)
- 11.45am: Sophie O’Sullivan (Athletics – women’s 1,500m repechage)
- 11.57am: Sarah Healy (Athletics – women’s 1,500m repechage)
- 12.13pm: Finn Lynch (Rescheduled Dinghy Medal Race)
- 7.45pm: Rhasidat Adeleke (Athletics – women’s 400m semi-finals)
