Archery supplies Ireland’s first interest at the European Games in Minsk, with just one Irish competitor in action on the opening day.
Maeve Reidy competes in the women’s recurve individual qualifiers at 11:15am Irish time at the Olympic Sports Complex in the north-east of the Belarussian capital.
Each competitor’s scores in this opening ranking round, consisting of two rounds of 36 arrows, determines the draw for the last 64 when the archers face off in best-of-five head-to-head matchups.
The field is whittled down round-by-round until the one-on-one gold medal match, with both losing semi-finalists playing-off for bronze.
ARCHERY 🏹
— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) June 21, 2019
Practice run almost over - and Maeve is looking relaxed and focused 👌 #TeamIreland☘️🇮🇪@ArcheryIreland 🙌 pic.twitter.com/TTZWog2ZNw
Despite four weights with Irish interest taking place today, no Irish boxers will be in the ring until tomorrow.
Regan Buckley now opens up in the last-16 of the light-flyweight competition, with Anthony Browne competing at heavyweight and Dean Gardiner at super-heavy – but today’s contests at those weights are in the preliminary round of 32, with the mentioned Irish trio all given a bye.
EU champion bantamweight Kyle Walker is also among those given a pass into the last-16 on Monday, but will still be keeping an eye on today’s last-32 clash of Romania’s Robert-Eusebiu Jitaru and Zhirayr Sargsyan of Armenia.
Walker, who is seeded four in Minsk, is on the same side of the draw as British top seed Peter McGrail.
Ireland are left without representatives at two weights following a foot injury picked up by 2015 European Games silver-medallist flyweight Brendan Irvine during training, and light-heavyweight Joe Ward turning pro this month, with the European Games now being passed-up by the twice World Championship silver-medallist.
The opening ceremony takes place at the Dinamo Stadium tonight at 8pm Irish time, with three-times Olympian badminton star Chloe Magee given the task of being Irish flagbearer.
Team Ireland for European Games
Maeve Reidy (Recurve)
Nelvin Appiah-Konadu (High Jump), Brandon Arrey (4 x 400m), Stephen Gaffney (100m), Conall Kirk (Pursuit), Andrew Mellon (4 x 400m), Gerard O’Donnell (110m H), Paul White (Pursuit).
Grace Casey (Javelin), Ciara Deely (4 x 400m), Sinead Denny (4 x 400m), Victoria Harris (Pursuit Race), Sarah Lavin (100m Hurdles), Sophie Meredith (Long Jump), Amy O’Donoghue (Pursuit Race), Niamh Whelan (100m)
Paul Byrne, Luke Lennon-Ford, Kelly McGrory, Catherine McManus, Lily-Ann O’Hora, Rolus Olusa
Rachael Darragh (Singles), Nhat Nguyen (Singles)
Chloe Magee (Mixed Doubles), Samuel Magee (Mixed Doubles), Joshua Magee (Men’s Doubles), Paul Reynolds (Men’s Doubles).
Tony Browne (Men’s Heavy -91kg), Regan Buckley (Men’s Light Fly -49kg), Dean Gardiner (Men’s Super Heavy +91kg), James McGivern (Men’s Light Welter -69kg), Kieran Molloy (Men’s Welter -69kg), Michael Nevin (Men’s Middle -75kg), Kurt Walker (Men’s Bantam -56kg).
Kellie Harrington (Women’s Light -60kg), Aoife O’Rourke (Women’s Middle -75kg), Grainne Walsh (Women’s Welter -69kg), Michaela Walsh (Women’s Feather -57kg).
Jenny Egan (Women’s K1 200, 500, 5000), Ronan Foley (Men’s K1 200, 500, 5000)
Mark Downey, TBC, Robert Jon McCarthy, Ryan Mullen, Michael O’Loughlin
Alice Sharpe
Mark Downey, Felix English, JB Murphy, Marc Potts, Fintan Ryan
Lydia Boylan, Mia Griffin, Lydia Gurley, Shannon McCurley, Robyn Stewart, Orla Walsh
Emma Slevin (Women’s All-Around), Adam Steele (Men’s All-Around)
Nathon Burns (Men’s Half-light weight -66kg), Megan Fletcher (Women’s Middle weight -70kg)
Aoife Gormally (Women’s Shotgun Trap), Derek Burnett (Men’s Shotgun Trap)