Ireland at the Olympic Games
Flag of Ireland IOC code  IRL NOC Olympic Council of Ireland external link
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
Competitors	54 in 12 sports
Flag bearer	Ciara Peelo (Sailing) [1][2]
Medals Rank: 61	Gold 0	Silver 1	Bronze 2	Total 3
Olympic history (summary)
Summer Games
1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1996 • 2000 • 2004 • 2008
Winter Games
1992 • 1994 • 1998 • 2002 • 2006
Other related appearances
Great Britain and Ireland (1900–1920)

Ireland competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, China. It was the 19th Summer Games that Ireland has contested as a nation under the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Contents 1 Medalists 2 Results by event 2.1 Athletics 2.1.1 Men 2.1.2 Women 2.2 Badminton 2.3 Boxing 2.4 Canoeing 2.4.1 Slalom 2.5 Cycling 2.5.1 Mountain Biking 2.5.2 Road 2.5.3 Track 2.6 Equestrian 2.7 Fencing 2.8 Rowing 2.9 Sailing 2.10 Shooting 2.11 Swimming 2.12 Triathlon 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
2 Silver	Egan, KennyKenny Egan	Boxing	Light heavyweight	24th
3 Bronze	Sutherland, DarrenDarren Sutherland	Boxing	Middleweight	22nd
3 Bronze	Barnes, PaddyPaddy Barnes	Boxing	Light flyweight	22nd

[edit] Results by event

[edit] Athletics

16 Irish athletes qualified for 17 different Olympic events in 2008.^[3]

[edit] Men

Athlete	Events	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Paul Hession	200 m	20.59	3 Q[4]	20.32	1 Q[5]	20.38	5 [6]	Did not advance
David Gillick	400 m	45.83	4			Did not advance
Thomas Chamney	800 m	1:47.66	5 [7]			Did not advance
Alistair Cragg	1500 m	3:44.90	8			Did not advance
Alistair Cragg	5000 m	13:38.57	6 Q[8]					Did not finish
Robert Heffernan	20 km walk							1:20:36	8
Jamie Costin	50 km walk							4:15:16	44[9]
Colin Griffin	50 km walk							DQ[9]
Martin Fagan	Marathon							Did not finish

[edit] Women

Athlete	Events	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Derval O'Rourke	100 m hurdles	13.22	6			Did not advance
Joanne Cuddihy	400 m	53.32	6			Did not advance
Michelle Carey	400 m hurdles	57.99	7			Did not advance
Fionnula Britton	3000 m steeplechase	9:43.57	10					Did not advance
Roisin McGettigan	3000 m steeplechase	9:28.92	2 Q					9:55.89	14
Olive Loughnane	20 km walk							1:27:45	7
Pauline Curley	Marathon							2:47:16	63
Eileen O'Keeffe	Hammer	67.66m	10					Did not advance

[edit] Badminton

Men

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Scott Evans	Singles	Zwiebler (GER) L 18-21 21-18 19-21 [10]	Did not advance

Women

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Chloe Magee	Singles	Tolmoff (EST) W 18-21 21-18 21-19 [11]	Jun Jae-youn (KOR)  L 21-12 21-13 [12]	Did not advance

[edit] Boxing

Ireland qualified five boxers for the Olympic boxing tournament. Barnes became the first when he qualified at the World Championships.^[13] Nevin was the second, qualifying at the first European qualifying event.^[14] Joyce, Sutherland, and Egan brought the number to five at the 2nd European tournament.^[15]

Athlete	Event	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final	Overall Rank
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result
Paddy Barnes	Light flyweight	Bye	Jose Luis Meza W 14-8 [16]	Łukasz Maszczyk W 11-5	Zou Shiming L 15-0	Did not advance
John Joe Nevin	Bantamweight	Abdelhalim Ourradi W 9-4	Enkhbatyn Badar-Uugan L 9-2 [17]	Did not advance
John Joe Joyce	Light welterweight	Gyula Kate W 9-5 [18]	Felix Diaz L +11-11 (CB) [19]	Did not advance
Darren Sutherland	Middleweight	Bye	Nabil Kassel W RSC [20]	Alfonso Blanco W 11-1	James DeGale L 10-3 [21]	Did not advance
Kenny Egan	Light heavyweight	Julius Jackson W 22-2	Bahram Muzaffer W 10-2 [22]	Washington Silva W 8-0	Tony Jeffries W 10-3	Zhang Xiaoping L 11-7

[edit] Canoeing

Ireland qualified one competitor for the Canoeing events in the 2008 Olympics. Eoin Rheinisch qualified an Irish boat in K1 Slalom event by virtue of his 17th place finish in the 2007 World Championships.^[3] Ireland did not have any competitors in the flatwater events.

[edit] Slalom

Athlete	Event	Preliminary						Semifinal		Final		Total	Rank
		Run 1	Rank	Run 2	Rank	Total	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Eoin Rheinisch	K-1	88.52	18	87.81	12	176.33	15 Q	88.85	10 Q	88.06	4	176.91	4 [23] [24]

[edit] Cycling

Ireland qualified 2 places for the road race as a result of UCI rankings. Robin Seymour qualified for his 3rd men's cross country race. On June 18, the Olympic Council of Ireland announced that David O'Loughlin had secured a place in the Individual Pursuit event of the track programme. Initially the UCI had announced a list of qualifiers that did not include O'Loughlin

[edit] Mountain Biking

Men

Athlete	Event	Time	Rank
Robin Seymour	Cross-country	Did not finish

[edit] Road

Men

Athlete	Event	Time	Rank
Philip Deignan	Road race	6:39:42 (+15:53)	81
Nicholas Roche	Road race	6:34:26 (+10:37)	64

[edit] Track

Men's Individual Pursuit

Athlete	Event	Qualifying		1st Round		Finals
		Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Rank
David O'Loughlin	Men's individual pursuit	4:26.102	11 [25]	Did not advance

[edit] Equestrian

Eventing

Although Ireland did not qualify for the team event in the 2008 Olympics, as a result of having 5 individual riding spots qualify, they were automatically entered into the team event.

Athlete	Horse	Event	Dressage		Cross-country		Jumping				Total
							Qualifier		Final
			Penalties	Rank	Penalties	Rank	Penalties	Rank	Penalties	Rank	Penalties	Rank
Geoffrey Curran	Kilkishen	Individual	61.70	59	30.40	39	2.00	33	Did not advance		94.10	32
Niall Griffin	Lorgaine	Individual	50.60	35	26.40	41	12.00	39	Did not advance		109.00	38
Louise Lyons	Watership Down	Individual	57.40	55	28.40	35	9.00	34	Did not advance		94.80	33
Austin O'Connor	Hobby Du Mee	Individual	52.80	42	34.40	36	0.00	27 Q	0.00	26	87.20	21
Patricia Ryan	Fernhill Clover Mist	Individual	78.70	68	34.80	47	13.00	44	Did not advance		126.50	43
From: Geoffrey Curran Niall Griffin Louise Lyons Austin O'Connor Patricia Ryan	as above	Team	160.80	10	265.10	8					276.10	8

Individual Jumping

As a result of Jessica Kürten's world ranking, Ireland earned one individual place in show jumping at the 2008 games. As Kürten opted not to ride in the Olympics, the place was awarded to Denis Lynch.

Lynch and his mount Lantinus progressed to the finals stage. However, along with riders and horses from four other finalists, Lynch was suspended from taking part in the final, following a positive test for a banned substance.^[26]

Athlete	Horse	Event	Ind. Round 1		Ind. Round 2			Ind. Round 3			Final
											Round A		Round B		Total
			Penalties	Rank	Penalties	Total	Rank	Penalties	Total	Rank	Penalties	Rank	Penalties	Rank	Penalties	Rank
Denis Lynch	Lantinus	Individual	1	14	1	2	4	6	8	8 Q	Withdrawn[27]

[edit] Fencing

Siobhan Byrne secured her place in the Olympics by winning silver at the qualifying tournament in Istanbul in April.

Women

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score
Siobhan Byrne	Individual sabre	Irena Więckowska L 8-15	Did not advance

[edit] Rowing

Ireland qualified with two boats for the rowing events. The Men's heavyweight four qualified by finishing tenth at the 2007 World Championship. The Lightweight four took the last available qualifying spot by finishing 2nd at the last Olympic qualifying regatta in Poznan in June 2008.

Alan Martin and Richard Coakley were the travelling substitutes for the Coxless Fours and Lightweight Fours respectively.

Men

Athlete(s)	Event	Heats		Repechage		Semifinals		'B' Final		Overall
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Rank
Sean Casey Jonno Devlin Cormac Folan Sean O'Neill	Fours	6:02.85	3 Q			5:58.14	6	6:07.97	4	10
Richard Archibald Paul Griffin Cathal Moynihan Gearoid Towey*	Lightweight fours	5:52.32	4 R	6:21.81	1 Q	6:13.85	4	6:06.02	4	10

* Replaced by Richard Coakley in B Final

Both teams reached the B Finals in their respective disciplines, both finishing fourth. In the Lightweight Fours B Final, Gearóid Towey had to withdraw due to illness, and was replaced by substitute Richard Coakley.^[28] (A spate of illness circulated in the regatta field during the heats and finals, to the extent Germany's lightweight men's four had to withdraw entirely from the semifinal after three crew-members were affected.)

[edit] Sailing

Men

Athlete	Event	Race											Score	Rank
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Medal race
Philip Lawton Gerald Owens	470	22	1	17	15	1	25	21	15	13	24	Did not advance	129	16
Stephen Milne Peter O'Leary	Star	6	12	7	10	12	13	13	8	11	12	Did not advance	91	13

Women

Athlete	Event	Race										Score	Rank
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Medal race
Ciara Peelo	Laser Radial	23	17	15	7	13	24	25	18	10	Did not advance	127	23

Open

Athlete	Event	Race									Score	Rank
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Medal race
Tim Goodbody	Finn	(22)	13	15	15	17	16	21	15	Did not advance	112	21

[edit] Shooting

Men

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Final
		Score	Rank	Score	Total
Derek Burnett	Trap	110	29 [29]	Did not advance

[edit] Swimming

(Qualifiers for the latter rounds of all events are decided on a time only basis, therefore positions shown are overall results versus competitors in all heats.)

Athlete	Events	Heat		Semifinal		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Andrew Bree	Men’s 100 m breaststroke	1:01.76 NR	30	Did not advance
	Men’s 200 m breaststroke	2:10.91 NR	12 Q	2:10.16 NR	11	Did not advance
	Men’s 200 m individual medley	DNS	–	Did not advance
Aisling Cooney	Women’s 100 m backstroke	1:02.50	31	Did not advance
Melanie Nocher	Women’s 200 m backstroke	2:12.29 NR	20	Did not advance
	Women’s 200 m freestyle	2:04.29	43	Did not advance

Key: NR=Irish Record; DNS=Did not start

[edit] Triathlon

Emma Davis became Ireland's first ever Olympic qualifier for the Triathlon when her 15th place at the 2008 World Championships guaranteed her enough ranking points.

Women

Athlete	Event	Swim	Cycling	Run	Total	Rank
Emma Davis	Individual	20:17	1:06:03	39:09	2:06:29.36	37

[edit] See also

• Ireland at the 2008 Summer Paralympics

[edit] References

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