Tokyo 2020: The highs and lows for Northern Ireland's Olympians in Tokyo - BBC News

A total of 31 athletes from Northern Ireland made their way to Tokyo for the highly anticipated 2020 Olympics last month.

Their Olympic journey has now come to an end in what was a competition like no other due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a lack of spectators.

We take a look at how Northern Ireland’s sporting stars fared in Japan, including medal success for one local competitor.

Hockey

Ireland’s women's team - captained by Coleraine’s Katie Mullan - started with a 2-0 win over South Africa before defeats by the Netherlands, Germany, India and Great Britain.

The squad, which had more Northern Ireland players than any other event at the Tokyo Games – broke barriers by becoming the first Irish hockey team to qualify for the Olympics.

Also representing NI on the 16-player panel were Ayeisha McFerran, Shirley McCay and Lizzie Holden, with Zara Malseed travelling as a reserve.

Ten of the 16 that played against GB featured when the team made its way to a first World Cup final in 2018.

Meanwhile, David Ames and Ian Sloan bowed out at the quarter-final stage of the men's hockey with the Great Britain team, losing 3-1 to India and missing out on a medal place.

Triathlon

Banbridge's Russell White finished 48th in the men’s triathlon, clocking 1:54:40 - nine minutes and 36 seconds behind Norwegian winner Kristian Blummenfelt.

White broke his collarbone in March 2020 and noted that he probably wouldn’t have been at Tokyo if not for the year delay because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was the 29-year-old’s first time at the Olympics. He initially finished outside the qualifying places, but was offered a reprieve following the retirement of Denmark's Andreas Schilling.

Shooting

Craigavon’s Kirsty Hegarty failed to reach the women’s trap shooting final after shooting 116 to finish 16th.

She also missed out on the medal rounds in the mixed team final, coming 10th in qualification with men’s bronze medallist Matt Coward-Holley.

Hegarty was the first Northern Irish athlete to be selected for the Games back in January.

Despite not medalling in Tokyo, the 32-year-old will begin preparations as she bids to win a second Commonwealth Games gold medal in Birmingham next year.

Cycling

There was disappointment for Dromore cyclist Mark Downey for At the Izu Velodrome.

Downey and Felix English failed to finish the men's Madison final - the Irish pair fought hard to stay in the race but were listed as DNF after losing a second lap on the bunch late on.

It was the 25-year-old’s first Olympic Games, and he follows in the footsteps of his father Séamus, who also cycled for Ireland in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Archery

Belfast archer Patrick Huston finished 25th in the round of 64 in the men’s individual event and placed eighth in the mixed team event with Sarah Bettles.

The 25-year-old was beaten 7-1 in the individual competition by Brazil’s Marcus D’Almeida, who is dubbed ‘archery’s Neymar’ in his home country.

Huston was one of just two GB archers that qualified for the Rio Olympics in 2016, and noted that having full men and women’s team this time around was a “big highlight”.

Golf

Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy just missed out on a bronze medal at the third sudden-death hole of a seven-way play-off for third place.

The Holywood golfer began the final round tied for fifth on 11-under, three shots behind Zander Schauffele – who ended up winning gold - and only one stroke outside the medals.

Jordanstown’s Stephanie Meadow ended four shots outside of the the medal places after firing a five-under-par final round of 66 to finish seventh in the women's golf.

She said: "I would like to have won a medal but it was still great. Getting to talk to people who are the best at what they do - you can always learn something whether it is horse riding, boxing or gymnastics."

Boxing

Team Ireland’s Olympic reputation is built on boxing success and four Northern Ireland boxers were selected for the squad.

Despite Aidan Walsh’s despair at having to withdraw with an ankle injury he sustained celebrating victory in his bronze medal fight, he returns to Belfast as the city’s ninth Olympic medallist.

The 23-year-old welterweight also paid tribute to his sister Michaela Walsh, who had her own Olympic dream ended with a loss to Italy’s Irma Testa, saying he would “cut the medal in half and give her half of it, that’s how much she means”.

Belfast flyweight and Team Ireland boxing captain Brendan Irvine also suffered defeat on day three along with Michaela Walsh.

Irvine, who was competing in his second Olympics, lost 4-1 on points to Carlo Paalam of the Philippines in the last-32 stage.

Lisburn featherweight Kurt Walker missed out on a bronze medal by a razor-thin split decision to the USA’s Duke Ragan, who has been fighting in the professional ranks for much of the last year.

Former Irish boxing coach Billy Walsh was in the American’s corner, but ironically was the one to bring Walker into the Irish team back in 2012.

He said that preventing Walker from achieving a medal was “the hardest thing” he’s ever done.

Gymnastics

Newtownards gymnast Rhys McClenaghan missed out on a medal with a seventh place finish in the final of the men’s pommel horse.

The 21-year-old fell off the horse early in his routine after losing his balance when his finger got caught under one of the handles, which he referred to as “the fine margins of gymnastics”.

In 2018, McClenaghan won Commonwealth and European gold, as well as a World Championship bronze medal in 2019, and he was seeking to become the first Irish gymnast to earn Olympic gold.

"I'm standing here in front of you an Olympian, an Olympic finalist and the first Irish gymnast to achieve that,” he said. “I'll be taking away from this a more dangerous man than ever before."

Swimming

Larne swimmer Danielle Hill failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the women’s 100m backstroke, finishing third in her heat with a time of 1:00.86 and coming 25th overall.

In the second and final event of her Olympic debut, the 21-year-old placed sixth with a time of 25.70 in her 50m freestyle heat.

Meanwhile, Daniel Wiffen broke his own Irish record with a 1500m freestyle win, finishing in a time of 15:07:69 and coming 20th overall.

It wasn’t enough to qualify the 20-year-old for the final, but it was another impressive result for the Magheralin man, who also broke the Irish national record for the 800m freestyle, clocking a personal best time of 7:51:65 which placed him 14th.

Bangor’s Jack McMillan led the Ireland men's 4x200m freestyle relay team to eighth place in their semi-final.

They finished 14th overall in the event, and are the first Irish men’s team to race at the Olympics, as well as the first Irish swimming relay team to compete at the Games since 1972.

Athletics

Ciara Mageean’s qualifying hopes for the 1500m semi-finals ended after the Portaferry athlete finished 10th in her first heat, with a time of 4:07:29.

The 29-year-old ended up outside the time required to repeat her semi-final appearance from the Rio Games in 2016, and she revealed afterwards that she had sustained a torn calf muscle eight days prior to the race.

Sprinter Leon Reid made his Olympic debut in the 200m and the Commonwealth bronze medallist progressed to the semi-finals, where he finished seventh with a time of 20.54 after a strong run to qualify from his heat.

Co Tyrone’s Eilish Flanagan failed to progress to the final of the women's 3,000 metres steeplechase, but the European Cross Country team silver medallist secured a PB time of 9:34.86 in the third heat to finish 12th.

Northern Ireland’s final competitors in action were Paul Pollock, Kevin Seaward and Stephen Scullion in the men's marathon.

Seaward finished 58th in a time of 2:21:45 with Pollock 71st after running 2:27:48 while Scullion dropped out around the 20km mark as he and a number of runners struggled in the hot conditions.

Rowing

Rebecca Shorten competed for Team GB in the women's four, who missed out on bronze by just over a second and came a full five seconds behind Australian, who won gold in 6:15.37 - an Olympic best time.

Coleraine-born Hannah Scott was part of GB’s women quadruple sculls crew which placed seventh overall and Aughnacloy’s Rebecca Edwards came fifth with the GB women’s eight in the repechage.

Banbridge native Philip Doyle, who has been working as a doctor throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, competed with Ronan Byrne in the men's doubles.

Despite being silver medallists at the 2019 World Championships, the pair failed to qualify from their double sculls repechage, thus missing out on a chance to stand on the Olympic podium.

Let's hope we see many of them again in Paris in 2024!

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2021-08-08 17:35:13Z
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