Ireland's Sanita Puspure gets her semi-final started in a few minutes in lane 4 of the women's C semi-final against competitors from Iran, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Thailand. If you have any comments or queries please join in.
As you can see from the schedule, it's another busy day for the Irish in London, starting with Sanita Puspure, who was so unlucky to miss the A semi-final of the single sculls, drawing the short straw in the semi-finals. Even at that, she just missed out by one spot and must be fancied to secure a fairly high end-of-competition finish.
Her times of 7:44:19 and 7:49:35 in the quarter-finals and heats compare favourably with her competitors.
Barry Murphy and Mel Nocher return to the pool, while Anna Merveldt bridges a 30-year gap to compete in her second Olympics in the dressage.
The sailors have lived up to the promise they showed in the past 12 months but Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern need some good results today to stay in the top 10 and make the medal race. Ger Owens and Scott Flanigan get their 470 campaign under way.
@Daragh Ó Conchúir 30 year gap? That's a lot to catch up on.
Peter O'Leary and David burrows were serious medal contenders and need to return to the form of the first day in the Star. Hannagh Craig competes in the Kayak K1 semi-final while boxing captain, Darren O'Neill returns to the ring for his last 16 middleweight bout.
Sanita is on her way and has eased into a comfortable lead. I'd say she's different class to these to be honest and it looks like that.
She is already a length clear and they haven't gone 500m yet
What a brilliant story Sanita is.... She's 3.7 seconds clear at the 500m mark by the way.
A member of the so-called 'New Irish', she moved to Ireland from her native Lativa seven years ago as her husband sought work. She had rowed at world level for Latvia but had long given up the sport. She had two children. Then for a variety of reasons, including meeting new people and losing weight after having a baby, she took it up again. And found she was actually better than before. And now she's at the Olympics.
Pulverising the field in the C semi-final I might add. The lead was almost seven seconds at the half-way mark. It is now 9.1 seconds.
She was desperately unlucky to draw the strongest rowers in her quarter-final and would probably have made the semi had she been in the other. Not every mother of two can do this though having given up for a few years! That was a cruise and she's not even out of breath. Which in rowing, one of the hardest sports around, is unusual. With her class, you'd expect her to be too strong for these and it looks like she is. She really eased up in the last 500 and won by just under 10 seconds.
People like to knock when they don't see medals, but Sanita Puspure is a world class single sculler. Hope she keeps going for another couple of years. She may be 31 but having had a few years off, there is more to come from her in terms of world championships. Of course there is a lot of sacrifice, and with a young family, it might not be possible. But I would love to see her achieve her potential in an Irish singlet.
Do you think she would be a favourite now for the C Final?
@Daragh Ó Conchúir What do you think of the appeal by the Japanese boxer being successful? It's great to see the AIBA taking action so quickly, but it must bring into question their judging system.
@Peter I do. She was very close to the A semi-finals (sorry, I was saying final). I think she's too strong although we'll get a better idea after the times of this semi. She had her semi in the bag at the 500m mark and eased up competely in the final 500m. So she was capable of much more
@Peter Tremendous to see the right decision being arrived at, but problems with their scoring system are nothing new. Joe Ward was just one example from what we hear. And according to a IBA official, his case wasn't even in the top three worst decisions made at those qualifiers.
Zimbabwean wins the second C/D semi-final in a time that was .67 seconds faster that Sanita Puspure's. But given that Sanita was in splendid isolation for more than half her semi-final and was in cruise control for the last 500, while the second semi was hotly contested right up until the last 200m or so, my money is on Sanita winning the C final.
Sanita's C Final will be on Saturday. Will she win a medal or is it just to place her from 13-18?
I'm also glad to have just read an interview from after her quarter-final where she said that she is just short of a bit of speed in the middle part of the race and it's something to work on for next year. Brilliant. I reckon she's battling for a ranking of 13 Peter, those medals are a precious commodity!
@Peter Just getting back to Anna Merveldt, she has been in the shadow of another Kildare native, Heike Holstein, who competed in the next three Olympic Games and is Ireland's most successful international dressage rider ever. Heike is no longer competing at the top level, although she is a much sought after trainer. It is tremendous for Anna though and hopefully she will do herself justice with a strong performance.
Heat 2 of the men's 50m freestyle is just about to get underway, so Barry Murphy will be on in under 10 minutes.
Good morning from the Aquatics Centre on a roasting day already in London. Two swimmers competing for Ireland - Barry Murphy in the 50 freestyle at 10:07 andMelanie Nocher in the 200 backstroke at 11:35.
Grainne Murphy is still listed in the 800m freestyle field, but will show up as a DNS.
@Will Downing Does Barry Murphy have a good chance of progressing Will?
Barry Murphy is in lane 5 in Heat 4. With his PB, he should be close to winning this. Obviously hoping for PB here.
Here's Barry Murphy in lane 4 now... and finishes second in 22.78.
Murphy has finished in second.
Just touched off in 22.76, which is disappointing
As always, it's down to times, and not positions. The 16 fastest go through. Murphy's qual time had been 22.71 so that mark was relatively close to it.
@Daragh Ó Conchúir But he got the second fastest time of the first three heats, so there is hope.
Wow! All the competitors in heat 6 beat Barry's time.
As have all the competitors in heat 7.....
@Peter we're only hitting the best swimmers now
@Daragh Ó Conchúir Yeah, looks like he hasn't progressed.
The heats are seeded by the times so winning your heat means nothing. Barry would have had to go well under his PB to qualify, so qualification wasn't really on. But he would have been aiming, like anyone in the Olympics really, to bring his best. Morning swims are more difficult but he is capable of better.
Good win for Sunita Purspore #TeamIrelandby kealeybhoy via twitter 8/2/2012 8:42:33 AM
@Barry_J_Murphy All behind ya today, best of luck #TeamIreland #irishhouseby lol929 via twitter 8/2/2012 8:51:55 AM
Good luck @barry_j_murphy and @melanienocher! #coybagig #teamireland #olympics #london2012by RitaSylex via twitter 8/2/2012 8:54:40 AM
GO TIME. Thank you for all the love and support. I really appreciate it!! See ya's on the other side. #teamireland #London2012by Barry_J_Murphy via twitter 8/2/2012 8:56:38 AM
G'waaan @Barry_J_Murphy #TeamIrelandby KatieIsAnimDom via twitter 8/2/2012 9:08:00 AM