Sinead O'Carroll Reports from Paris

NHAT NGUYEN HAS lost his third Olympic match to defending Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen and is out of Paris 2024. 

The Dublin badminton player went out in two sets 21-13, 21-10 after a brave battle against the Danish star. 

The 24-year-old had a difficult task in a winner-take-all match, as both competitors had won their previous two rounds of Group P. 

Nguyen’s third game took place in Port de la Chapelle Arena in the northwest of Paris in front of a crowd of 8,000. 

Axelsen, 30, went into the competition as world number two. He won gold in Tokyo in 2021, and was bronze medalist at the Rio Olympic Games eight years ago. 

Nguyen’s Olympics has seen his own star rise after two wins against Nepal’s Prince Dahal and Israel’s Misha Zilberman. 

Speaking before the game, the Clarehall man had admitted he was up against it, having lost to Axelsen the last two times they had face each other. 

“If I walk out there like the last two times I played him, I have no chance,” he said. “I feel fit and strong and my confidence is high. I really feel I’ve put in the work, physically and mentally, and I’m just going to go in and totally give it my all.”

Written by Sinead O’Carroll and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.