Day 14 was one of personal bests for Argentine athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The highlight of the day was Eugenia Bosco and Mateo Majdalani reaching the mixed multihull sailing medal race. After the 12 initial races, the duo is second in the overall results table, with 41 points. Italy has the lead with 27 points, while Great Britain and New Zealand are tied for third with 47. The medal race, the final event, allots double points, meaning the Argentines would need to win — and Italy would have to finish eighth — to claim the gold.
Coming into their first Olympics, Bosco and Majdalani are improving their performances in the Nacra 17 multihull sailing races. They finished fourth in the 2024 Nacra 17 World Championship, winning gold at the 2023 Pan Americans after managing silver in the 2019 games.
The medal race is set to start at 9:43 a.m., although the schedule is subject to change depending on sea and weather conditions.
Larocca and Larregina set best-ever finishes
Early in the Argentine morning, José María Larocca managed his best-ever finish in individual equestrian jumping. The Swiss-born athlete, who has spoken about his pride in representing Argentina, managed a time of 81.82 seconds, with 20 penalty points.
Riding his horse Finn Lente for a second Olympics, he finished in 25th place, improving his best-ever finish in a games, the 36th place he had achieved in London 2012.
“I want to continue competing for my country, which I love so much,” Larocca, who at 55 was competing in his fifth Olympics, told TV Pública after the event. “Seeing Argentines happy for what we athletes do makes me happy. That’s why I always repeat that I prefer to come last representing our country, our people than to get a medal for another country.
“I am lucky to be able to help the people who represent Argentina, I am privileged,” he added.
Another who clinched a historic result was sprinter Elián Larregina. The 24-year-old, from Suipacha in Buenos Aires province, finished seventh in the second 400m semifinals with a time of 45.02 seconds. In June, he became the first Argentine to run the 400 meters in under 45 seconds, setting a national record of 44.93 seconds in the 2024 Madrid Meeting.
“I’m very happy, pleased with today’s performance,” Larregina told TV Pública after the race. “I was a little tired after the two last races, but I got the best out of myself and I’m happy about that.”
Although he didn’t clinch a place in the final, he was the first Argentine to qualify for an Olympic track semi-final since Carlos Gats made the 200m semis in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The last Argentine to reach that instance of a 400m Olympic event was Juan Carlos Anderson — 88 years ago, in Berlin ‘36.