The Olympics

Stunning win for the outside smoker Hafanoui of Tunisia in the 400 metres freestyle final there. He was the slowest qualifier.

The extremely authoritative Earl McCarthy is back as an analyst today @Ralphie.

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How did Dominant Puspure get on?

A stunning win from Lane 8. Presumably a first gold medal in the pool for Tunisia?

Won her QF handy back out in the Semi Wednesday.

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No, surprisingly. Ousama Meloulli won the 1500 metres freestyle at Beijing 2008. He also won the 10km marathon at London 2012 but that was at Hyde Park’s famous Serpentine.

Google technicians will be delighted to know the engine is working fine this morning :roll_eyes:

The Australians dominated that 1,500 metres for years - Kieren Perkins and then Grant Hackett.

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Popovici a 16 year old Romanian looking very strong in the 200 metres freestyle heats. 3 seconds quicker than his qualifying time. Rte subtly hinting he is doping

The event where men are men and the rest drown.

Like with rugby and cricket, African swimming has historically been dominated by the South Africans and to a lesser extent the Zimbabweans, notwithstanding Eric the Eel’s performance in 2000. It’s fantastic to see the Tunisians making a real dent in that.

That was one of the great upsets in the pool this morning. Up there with Anthony Nesty of Surinam scalping Matt Biondi, Michael ‘The Albatross’ Gross and Andy Jameson to win the 100 metres butterfly in Seoul in 1988.

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I remember that race, it was the first Olympics I watched. Biondi was tipped up as the new Mark Spitz but was perceived to have had a relatively disappointing Games.

Team GB’s Adrian Moorhouse and Nick Gillingham (always pronounced with a hard G) and Hungary’s Kristina Egerszegi are other names I recall from the pool from that Games.

Michelle Smith won a heat, which was a fine achievement, although I don’t think she qualified as time rather than placings was the qualification criteria. This is an achievement that has now been matched by Ellen Walshe in the 100 metres butterfly this time.

Great effort there from Mona McSharry there in the 100 metres breastroke.

The gold medalist was in lane beside her

A golden era for British breaststroke swimming in the 1980’s with Adrian Moorhouse and Nick Gillingham. It was some rivalry between Moorhouse and the great Canadian, Victor Davis, tragically killed in his prime in a hit and run incident in Montreal.

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I could listen to Earl McCarthy all day. RTE should keep him in the studio for the afternoon and get him to do the analysis on the Gaelic football as well instead of some of those spud munchers they retain.

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She came third comfortably afaik

RTE have some brilliant analysts for the various Olympic sports and Earl could well be the pick of the bunch. Jerry Kiernan will be much missed this year.

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Timmy “boom-shaka-lacka” Mccarthy get once every four year his run put on RTE. ( I know its 5 this time)

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DOWNTOWN