LAST UPDATE | 29 Jul
ELLEN WALSHE has finished eighth in this evening’s 400m Individual Medley final.
The 22-year-old from Templeogue was competing in her first Olympic final.
Walshe will be slightly disappointed at not matching her best time of 4:37.18 but can take heart from a terrific achievement in getting to this stage.
The Irish star finished with a time of 4:40.70.
The race was won by Canada’s Summer McIntosh (4:27.71), with US duo Katie Grimes (4:33.40) and Emma Weyant (4:34.93) taking silver and bronze respectively.
“I’m an Olympic finalist, not many people are able to say that,” Walshe told reporters.
“I would have liked a stronger swim tonight. I thought I had a little bit more in me than this morning but I think I tried to race the race beside me [rather] than my own race so probably paid for it a little bit.
“It does take a massive toll on your body but I didn’t think I was the strongest in some areas in this morning’s [race] so I thought I could have executed that tonight. But yeah, it wasn’t exactly what I hoped for but it’s an Olympic final, so I’m delighted.
“I think an IM race can be raced in so many different ways and my stronger stroke is the butterfly and I think I needed to take that out strong and I’ve been pulling
back on that and only recently in the last couple of months I learned that I need to take it out hard and – obviously – when you come to a massive meet like this, nerves kick in and all sorts of things.
“And I think when you probably do try to get out a little bit stronger, you kind of nearly fear that you won’t be able to finish it. But probably if I stuck to my own race timing, maybe I would have been able to go a bit quicker.”
Walshe is back in action for the 200m Individual Medley Heats on Friday.
Meanwhile, there was disappointment for Danielle Hill in the semi-finals of the 100m Backstroke semi-finals.
Hill finished eighth with a time of 1.00.80, well off the Irish record of 59.11.
The race was won by USA’s Regan Smith with a time of 57.97.
Canadian duo Kylie Masse (58.82) and Ingrid Wilm (59.10) were second and third respectively.
“A little bit disappointed with the time,” Hill told RTÉ afterwards.
“I know my best can get me through another round.
“It’s my first semi-final. I cannot be disappointed. Of course, I can be annoyed at the time.
“But I’m an Olympic semi-finalist.
“When I step back and look at it, I’ll be proud of what I’ve done.
“The old me would have been in tears right now, but I can’t control that scoreboard.”
Hill is not done yet as she still has the 4x100m Freestyle Relay (27 July) and the 50m Freestyle (3 August) to come.
Earlier, Walshe and Daniel Wiffen advanced to the 400m Individual Medley and 800m Freestyle finals at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Danielle Hill also progressed from the 100m Backstroke heats this morning.
Wiffen cruised to victory and prevailed as the fastest qualifier in 7:41.53 — just off the Olympic record.
Walshe finished fourth in her heat — and seventh overall — in a time of 4:39.97.
The Dubliner was up first. She produced a superb swim, with her freestyle leg particularly impressive. Walshe opened her Games in the 100m Butterfly on Saturday, where she fell short of a semi-final spot, but the Individual Medley is the Irish record holder’s favoured event.
“I tried to take out the fly strong, I don’t think it was quite there this morning,” Walshe told reporters afterwards. “I thought, ‘Oh no, we have a long way to go.’
“The backstroke is probably my weakest stroke, I knew I had 200 to go, I could see the middle of the field and thought, ‘Okay, I just need to turn on the gears and fight.’ I had a strong finish and I am delighted to go into the final tonight.
“It’s a bit of a shock. I saw fourth on the board and I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know’, it’s just a waiting game. I hadn’t seen the results from the heats before and once I saw it, it was such a relief. The time left my head which I wasn’t too over the moon with, but I have another chance to have a go at this tonight.”
“I need to go out there and enjoy it and if I can be in or around my best that would be amazing for me,” she added. “It would be great to come out of these Olympics with a PB and a new national record.”
Hill, meanwhile, clocked 1:00.40 to finish fourth in her heat and 16th overall.
Wiffen was the last Irish swimmer in action in the morning session. The world champion produced a controlled performance from Lane 5: he was third early on before moving through the gears and taking second after a superb turn at the 300m mark.
The two-time Olympian claimed the lead just after the halfway mark and never looked back as he made an early statement of intent ahead of tomorrow night’s final.
- Additional reporting from Gavin Cooney, Sinead O’Carroll and Paul Fennessy
