The Sisters-Are-Doing-It-For-Themselves Blog - Irish at the Olympics: Day 10

Today was circled on the calendars a long time ago, marked out as the day Ireland would send a woman into action to seal victory for the nation. Little did we know that just an hour before the action in the ExCel, we would be getting our sea-legs, watching another female competitor battling to be crowned Olympic champion.

Alas, it was simply not to be. Annalise Murphy (left) captured hearts and minds with her opening four victories; after the ten races were completed, she was, for all intents and purposes, in a four-way tie at the top. An outstanding achievement in itself, but anyone familiar with Irish sporting success (or the lack thereof) could probably see where this one was going. After leading through the first marker, Annalise had the agony of watching her three rivals beat her to the line, and her hopes of an Olympic medal slipped away. She can hold her head high after an outstanding regatta, but that will be of little consolation for now; as Eamonn Coughlan famously said, fourth really is "dee loooonliest place in dee world".

And so, to the squared circle. Spirits were high in Irish boxing circles after John Joe Nevin sealed Ireland's first medal last night, but that was, frankly, just an appetiser. There are no sure things in sport, but Katie Taylor (right), Ireland's four-time reigning, defending World Champion is - in the eyes of many - as close as they come. But in typical Irish fashion, we began to get just a little nervous as her time drew near. Was Natasha Jonas better than we'd anticipated? Would the home advantage for the GB fighter lead to another dodgy call? Was Katie's dream going to be over before it even began?

The answers: no, no, and hell no. The Bray boxer made sure there wasn't a judge in the world that could see it as anything other than an Irish victory by battering the Scouser from pillar to post, winning every round, forcing two standing counts, and looking every inch the world beater we know her to be. With a 26-15 win, a medal is now guaranteed; for Taylor, and for Ireland, it's only the beginning.

Also making her first appearance of the Games was Derval O'Rourke (left), the darling of Irish track and field. She missed out on automatic qualification, but her season best time of 12.91 enough to see her through to tomorrow's semi-finals. She would need an incredible improvement to make the final, but qualification from the heats was the main priority - job done.

Sure, the men were there too - Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern eliminated from the 49er class, Ger Owens and Scott Flanigan ruled out of contention in the 470. Cian O Connor missed out on the final of the showjumping, and Derek Burnett's finish of 27th was way below the standard required to make the closing stages of the trap shooting. Not a day for y chromosomes, then.

The men, to be fair, have been well looked after round here. Today, it was all about the ladies.