Day Two: Ellen Walshe Goes Close To Irish 100M Butterfly Record

Swimming - Early Morning Session

Templeogue's Ellen Walshe swam a time of 59.35 in her 100M Butterfly heat to take the win.
Walshe's time wasn't enough to progress through to the semi-finals but it was a great performance from 19-year old who was just 0.03 off her own Irish Senior record. At the 50M mark, Walshe was sixth in the race but a fabulous turn and gutsy final length saw her pull away with a final split of 31.06.
In January 2020, Walshe became the first Irish woman to break 60 seconds in the 100M Butterfly and with Walshe consistently swimming fast times - the future is bright for the young swimmer.
Walshe, who is coached by Brian Sweeney, came into the 100M Butterfly ranked 26th and finished 24th overall. She was 1.27s off Briana Throssell who took the 16th and final place, with a time of 58.08.
Next up for Walshe is her more favoured event, the 200M Individual Medley. Walshe is the current Irish Senior record holder where she broke the record three times in June at the Swim Ireland Performance Meet to subsequently qualify for the Games. 

Rowing - Early Morning Session

In London 2012, Sanita Puspure was the only Irish rower representing Team Ireland at the Games. This morning in what is the sign of the times for Irish rowing, Team Ireland had three female crews hoping to secure their places in the semi-finals and final of their respective events.
The Four of Emily Hegarty, Fiona Murtagh, Eimear Lambe and Aifric Keogh were impressive in their heat as they secured automatic qualification to the A final. They become only the second Irish female crew to ever get to an A Final at the Olympic Games. The Irish crew finished second, just 0.23 seconds behind Australia who set a new Olympic best time of 6.28.76.
Australia led from the front, but it was neck and neck between the two boats for the entire race. Ireland found themselves 0.87s behind the Aussie crew of Lucy Stephan, Rosemary Popa, Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre at the half-way mark but the final 500M saw Ireland push hard to close the gap but ultimately run out of water.
It will give the Irish Four huge confidence and belief going into the final. Australia are the current World champions and have been hotly tipped as favourites to win the gold medal. Ireland are the current European silver medallists, finishing just behind the Netherlands a few months ago in Varese. It’s a remarkable rise for this Irish crew who have only been in this combination since March – Emily Hegarty in stroke, Aifric Keogh in bow, Eimear Lambe in 2 and Fiona Murtagh in 3.

Ireland are into the final of the Women's Four after a close second place finish in their heat #RTESport #Olympics #Tokyo2020

Watch live - https://t.co/XnOP6grnB7
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— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 24, 2021

In the other heat, the Netherlands had an easier task as they comfortably took first place with a time of 6:33.47 – over 5 seconds ahead of the Chinese crew in second place. 
The final for the Women's Four will take place on Wednesday morning and Ireland will fancy their chances to get on that podium – perhaps even take gold. They finished 0.23 seconds behind Australia in their heat and back at the European Championships in April, they finished 0.55s behind the Netherlands in the final.
In the Pair, Monika Dukarska and Aileen Crowley will take to the repechage tomorrow after finishing fourth in their heat. Competing against New Zealand, Denmark and Spain, the Killorglin duo missed out on automatic qualification by 0.43s. The pair were in third place for over 1500M but were pipped by the Spanish crew in the final few metres. The Spanish crew cranked things up and were stroking at a rate of 42 with 200M to go. Dukarska and Crowley will go against USA, China and Greece for a place in the semi-final.