Excitement building across Carlow and Kilkenny ahead of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony tonight

Excitement is building across Carlow and Kilkenny ahead of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Rio de Janeiro tonight.

Three local athletes are taking part this year with Carlow’s Finn Lynch competing in the sailing and Kilkenny’s Ciara Everard and Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe competing in track and field and the modern pentathlon respectively.

Meanwhile, Team Ireland suffered a blow last night with news that boxer, Michael O’Reilly has been suspended for failing a drugs test.

Paulstown boxer, Darren O’Neill – who captained Team Ireland in London 2012 – missed out on qualifying for this year’s Olympics.

But speaking to KCLR, Darren says he’s expecting the remaining boxers to bring home plenty of medals.