Kate O'Connor finishes in 14th-place in the Women's Heptathlon with a total of 6167 points. What an achievement for the 23-year-old from Newry in County Down. In summary, she finished in a time of 14.08 seconds in the 100m Hurdles, followed by a 1.77 metre High Jump, and a 13.79 metre Shot Put throw. Thursday's action for the Team Ireland athlete concluded with a 27.44 second 200m sprint. This morning, O'Connor nailed a 5.79 metre Long Jump which preceded a 50.36 metre throw in the Javelin. The seven-event competition came to a halt with the grueling 800m run, in which O'Connor crossed the line in 2.13.25 seconds to finish her Heptathlon with a total of 6167 points. Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium has take gold in the Heptathlon with a 6880 point total, doing just enough to hold off the best efforts of Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson (6844 points) who settles for silver. Bronze goes to a second Belgian athlete by the name of Noor Vidts (6707 points).
Rhasidat Adeleke takes 4th-place in a time of 49.28 seconds. It's dissapointment for the Team Ireland athlete but at 21 years of age she can be ecstatic with her effort! It wasn't to be for the Tallaght Athletic Club member who appeared to labour into the final 100 metres, but it was a far better performance than the semi-final prior to tonight. An race that she can be extremely proud of at such a young age. Marileidy Paulino of Dominican Republic took gold with 48.17 seconds and a new Olympic record. Bahrain's Salwa Eid Nasser glides home for silver (48.53), while Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland (48.98) taking bronze. The Polish sprinter just appeared to have the legs on Adeleke over the final 50 metres. The Dubliner did well to dip her head at the line and take fourth ahead of Great Britain's Amber Anning.
Team Ireland's Lara Gillespie and Alice Sharpe finish in 11th-place with 3 points in the Women's Madison final. Alice Sharpe attempted to lap the field and bag a 20-point sprint in the last third of the race, but the attacking play was snuffed out by opposing riders. Team Italy have taken gold in the 120 circuit race, with that crucial 20-point lap paying off towards the final quarter. A total of 37 points sees them over the line. Second place and silver on the podium goes to Great Britain (31 points). In the twelfth and final sprint, in which scores count for double, Elinor Barker crosses the line first to net 10 points - just what they needed to eclipse the Netherlands duo. The Netherlands (28 points) riders could do little to alter their fate as Team GB consign them to bronze, but it's a fantastic result nonetheless. Ireland finished above Japan (1 point), Germany, Switzerland (0 points each), and Canada (DNF). The minute the peloton upped the speed, Lara Gillespie and Alice Sharpe struggled to keep with the frantic pace set by other riders.
Meadow steadies the ship as Maguire's struggles continue Both Stephanie Meadow and in particular Leona Maguire are enduring Olympics to forget at Le Golf National. Neither Maguire nor Meadow arrived to Paris in stellar form and they've been unable to pick it up. The Antrim native at least had some positives to take from her third round of 72 - her best of the week - but it's been disappointing so far, +8 for the tournament, tied 43rd with one round to go. For Maguire, Friday was disastrous shooting an 11 over round of 83, bringing her to +24 for the tournament, 59th on the leaderboard.
Kate O'Connor up to 14th ahead of last leg of women's heptathlon Kate O'Connor picked up 867 points with the third longest javelin throw of the day in the women's heptathlon. The 50.36 throw was only marginally short of the Dundalk athlete's season's best of 52.12, bringing her up to 14th overall. She will round off her Olympics in the 800m at 7.25pm tonight.
Sarah Lavin exits after sixth place in 100m hurdles semi-final The Limerick athlete was competitive in the second of the three semi-finals, top three for much of the race but fell back to sixth in its closing stages. She finished in 12.69 but even her Irish record of 12.62 wouldn't have been enough. Netherlands' Nadine Visser was second in Lavin's race in 12.43, the last automatic qualifier, while 12.44 and 12.52 were ultimately the fastest non-automatic qualifiers. The women's 100m hurdles is a stacked division right now exemplified by world record holder Tobi Amusan missing out on the final in 12.55. Puerto Rico's defending champ Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (12.35) and American duo Grace Stark (12.39) and Alaysha Johnson (12.34) were the semi-final winners and the fastest qualifiers.
"You'll see me out in the night-clubs tonight, having some Guinness." - Daniel Wiffen retiring from open-water-swimming "I'm never doing it again," he told RTÉ Sport. "My goal was to finish. I'm happy I didn't come last." "This sport (open-water-swimming) isn't for me. I definitely want my own lane next time. "I'm so happy I've completed it, but I'm retiring from open-water." "I'm looking forward to the homecoming on Monday." What's the plan for the rest of the Olympics Daniel? "Party...You'll see me out in the night-clubs tonight, having some Guinness."
Mark English 6th in 800m semi-final as his Olympics comes to an end at the semi-finals English was swallowed by a fast-finishing field having led them around the final bend. Things looked promising as the Donegal runner took the bell in third, surging to the front with 250m to go. But he had no more to give dropping to sixth in the home straight, finishing in 1.45.97, with Algeria's Djamel Sedjati first across the line in 1.45.08. Only the top two and the fastest go through to the final. World champion Marco Arop won the second semi-final ahead of France's Gabriel Tual, with the impressive Arop set to go into the final as favourite.
Ireland qualify for the final of the women's 4x400m relay The women's 4x400m team qualify automatically for the final with a third place finish behind Jamaica and the Netherlands in their semi-final. Sophie Becker got Ireland off to a brilliant start with a storming opening leg, passing onto Phil Healy in the lead. The Cork athlete retained a narrow advantage over the Dutch by the close of her run, passing onto Kelly McGrory who went out hard and dropped to fourth down the home straight. But then Ireland's anchor Sharlene Mawdsley ran a controlled leg, passing Canada with a strong finish coming home in third in a time of 3.25.05. The Ireland team will be boosted by the return of star Rhasidat Adeleke in the final, where the favourites for the medals will be the USA, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Jamaica.
Daniel Wiffen 18th in the 10km swim The Armagh swimmer rounds off his brilliant Olympic campaign with 18th in the marathon swim. He settled into the middle of the pack in the early stages before it split, leaving him in 12th in a chase group. He battled on eventually finishing 6 minutes and 27 seconds back from winner Hungary's Kristof Rasovszky. That brings the swimming to an end from this Olympic Games, with the medals won by Wiffen and Mona McSharry making it a great games for Ireland.
