Tokyo 2020 Day 13 Kellie Harrington secures at least silver in boxing

Boxing: Kellie Harrington guarantees herself at least silver with lightweight semi-final win against Sudaporn Seesondee of Thailand.

Diving: Tanya Watson misses out on women’s 10m platform final.

Golf: Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire each finish their women’s individual strokeplay second round on four-under-par 138 in tied-11th position.

Modern pentathlon: Natalya Coyle got underway in the fencing ranking round at 5am.

Track cycling: Mark Downey gets underway this morning in the men’s omnium. First up for them is the scratch race at 7.30am.

Athletics: there are five Irish competitors in action on Thursday with David Kenny and Alex Wright going in the men’s 20km walk at 8.30am before Andrew Coscoran races in the men’s 1,500m semi-finals at 12pm. Rounding off the day then is the men’s 50km walk which begins at 9.30pm and will include Brendan Boyce and Alex Wright.

Boxing

Kellie Harrington is into the lightweight final and guaranteed at least a silver medal after winning her semi-final bout against Sudaporn Seesondee of Thailand on a 3-2 split decision.

Beatriz Ferreira is now all that stands between Harrington and an Olympic gold in the women’s lightweight boxing final (Sunday morning, 6am Irish time). She defeated Finnish fighter Mira Potkonen in the second semi-final.

After the fight Harrington said that her patience was the key to victory: “It was a close fight. I knew it was going to be a chess match. I fought her in 2018 in the world final. It was tricky then, it was a chess match then, and it was a chess match today. She didn’t want to give anything, I didn’t want to give anything, but eventually someone had to.

“It was patience that was key, I kept my patience and she didn’t. And that’s what won me the fight. The coaches were in the corner telling me, ‘stay patient’ and giving me tactics to throw and it worked.”

Ireland’s Kellie Anne Harrington and Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee after their semi-final at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo. Photograph: Getty Images

The Portland Row boxer says her past defeats and heartbreak were key to securing at least an Olympic silver medal in these games.

“It’s fantastic. Olympic silver medallist. That’s the stuff that people dream about. Many tried to get there, many don’t have what it takes to succeed because they don’t have the willpower, the determination, the focus, the dedication. I eat, sleep and breathe boxing.

“I’ve had heartbreak. I know what it is to fail and I know how hard it is to pick yourself back up after that. This is why I am who I am, and why I am here today â€" because I’m not afraid of failure. I know what it is. I’m Kellie Harrington. I’m myself and I make my own pathway.”

Golf

Stephanie Meadow - with a second round 66 - and Leona Maguire - with a 67 - made upward moves on the leaderboard in the women’s individual strokeplay golf, each finishing on four-under-par 138 in tied-11th position.

World number one Nelly Korda fired a second round 62 for a midway total of 13-under-par 129 to claim a four stroke midway lead over her closest pursuers.

The sweltering heat remains a factor, with tournament organisers implementing additional heat mitigation measures including provision of umbrellas on the first tee and roving carts providing ice and cooling towels to players, caddies and officials.

Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow during her second round at the Kasumigaseki Country Club. Photograph: Getty Images

“I just kind of managed it a bit better today I think,” said Meadow after her round. “I still didn’t have my best stuff but I gave myself a little bit more room on left pins and didn’t short side myself so that was really the key and is always part of shooting under par.

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“I guess I hope I can start like that tomorrow. There’s a lot of wedges on the last few, they’re easy-ish holes and they moved the tee on 18 up today so all of those things contribute but I finally got comfortable, hit good shots and started to see it a bit better.”

Diving

A historic place in an Olympic diving final proved just out of reach for Tanya Watson as she finished 15th best overall after the semi-final round of the 10m platform.

Already the first Irish woman to compete in Olympic diving, the 19 year-old needed to finish in the top 12 to go through to the medal-deciding dives later in the day.

Watson did put herself in contention early on with two excellent opening dives: Her first dive earned her a score of 64.00, placing her ninth, and she followed that up with a 63.00 which by then moved her up to seventh.

However she slipped back down with her third dive, the 39.15 her lowest score of the morning and that’s what cost her. She rounded up with two further quality dives, and her final score of 278.15 put her 15th overall.

Tanya Watson of Team Ireland competes in the women’s 10m platform semi-final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty Images

“Making the semi-finals was amazing,” said Watson. “To be able to go out there again and dive was great. I just love flying through the air. I was nervous up there a bit but at the end of the day, once I am at the end of the board, I am focusing on something specific so I am just trying to do the best that I can with that really.

“My first dive was solid. A good dive for me and I met the coaching points that I was asked to do. Second dive was probably the best I’ve done that dive in a while, so I was really happy with that one! My third dive, I met some of the targets, but unfortunately, I kicked a bit late so therefore I over cooked it a bit. I was just so joyful to be in the Olympics like I was a bit sad about it, but I still had two dives to go.

“Fourth dive, I pulled it back and I am always proud of myself when I can pull it back and do another good dive so reverse has been interesting in training so to hit it twice in a competition right now for me is great because that used to be my worst dive in competition. I am really really happy that I managed to pull that off. And then my last dive I had a pretty good take-off, I just came out of it a bit early, a bit splashy but you know what, sixes I am happy with that to be honest. I am just chuffed to be here.”

Watson is certainly set to target Paris 2024, only her immediate focus after Tokyo will be her university studies in chemistry. “Paris would be cool. I am going to university to study Chemistry now so I am really excited for that. You know what, I have not been able to meet anybody this year really. It has actually been so nice to talk to other divers, to see people I haven’t seen in years and like just meet new people as well, that’s been cool.

“So I am really excited to go to University and study again, meet other people and yeah, I think Paris would be really cool but I have to assess the next few years as they come as it is really hard to say what I will be doing in a year’s time because I don’t know.”

Athletics

Down at the Olympic Stadium, the American track and field team continued to have some mixed luck. No man has yet won a gold medal on the track, and the two big chances went missing here on Thursday.

First, the men’s 4x100m relay missed out on the final, only managing sixth in their heat, as Jamaica posted the fastest time of the round, 37.82, looking very good. Italy, helped by 100m champion Marcell Jacobs, also clocked a national record of 37.95 to advance, with hosts Japan going through also.

In one of the biggest shocks on the track so far Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment also beat Grant Holloway to win the 110m hurdles title.

Hansle Parchment finishes first ahead of Grant Holloway and Ronald Levy to win the gold medal in the men’s 110m hurdles final at the Olympic Stadium. Photograph: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

Holloway was the red hot favourite, and the American was up for most of the race, only for Parchment, who had only placed third at the Jamaican championships, to nail it over the last two barriers and take the win in 13.04. Ronald Levy also won bronze for Jamaica in 13.10.

The US have won a track gold medal in men’s running events at every Olympics going back to 1896, only the chances of them winning one in Tokyo are getting increasingly slim.

It took them seven days but the US men did manage to win a medal on the field, Ryan Crouser dominating the men’s shot put to defend his title.

Crouser produced a brilliant series of throws, three times breaking his own Olympic record, finishing up with a best of 23.30m, just 7cm off his world record set at the US trials in June. Joe Kovaks made it a one-two for the US, winning silver in 22.65, but that wait for a men’s gold medal on the track continues.

Portugal’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo also lorded the men’s triple jump, his winning distance of 17.98m, the second-best jump in Olympic history.

Zhu Yaming won a surprise silver with 17.57m, just two centimetres shy of the Chinese record. Bronze medallist Hugues Fabrice Zango also made history by becoming Burkina Faso’s first ever Olympic medallist. With that Burkina Faso becomes the 100th country to earn an Olympic medal in athletics.

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