Nicole Turner has earned her place in the final, securing the third position in her heat with a fifth quickest time of 35.35 across both heats. Dearbhaile Brady, however, will not join her in the final despite finishing fifth with a time of 36.45. Brady had the 10th quickest time but only the top eight qualify for the final round. Yuyan Jiang from China broke a new Paralympic record in the first heat with a time of 32.70.
The S6 50m Freestyle heats kickstarted with swimmers Nicole Turner and Dearbhaile Brady at 9.43am. This afternoon’s final (6.19) will witness the eight quickest swimmers from these heats. The duo from Ireland found themselves in a challenging heat, competing against veterans like Zhang Li of China, Anna Hontar of Ukraine, Ellie Marks of USA and Nora Meister of Switzerland.
Turner and Brady, however, bring their prowess to the heat. Turner, a joint winner at 50m freestyle in the European Championships held in April and a silver winner at 50m butterfly in Tokyo, will now share the pool with a bronze medallist, Brady, who’s only 17. With such a strong competition, a high-speed heat is expected. Here’s hoping the women from Laois and Derry secure their spots in the final.
Nine athletes from Ireland will spring into action today, marking the first day of activities for the team. By noon, five of these will have embarked on their 2024 Paralympic journey, including swimmers Nicole Turner, Dearbhaile Brady and Róisín Ní Riain, cyclist Richael Timothy and archer Kerrie Leonard.
Auto-correct persistently suggests the name Richael should be Rachael, while struggling to find an alternative to Dearbhaile.
At 12.41, the qualification rounds for the cycling B4 4000m Individual Pursuit will see two pairs. The second heat features Martin Gordon and Eoin Mullen and the sixth has Mitchell McLaughlin and Damien Vereker.
Providing luck is on our side, both our swimmers and cyclists will advance to the finals later in the day. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
At 9.43am, we will see Nicole Turner and Dearbhaile Brady (Swimming – S6 50m Freestyle, heat two)
At 10:11am: Róisín Ní Riain will be in action (Swimming – S13 100m Butterfly, heat two)
At 11.55am, we will watch Richael Timothy ( Cycling – C1-3 3000m Individual Pursuit, qualification)
At 12 pm, Kerrie Leonard will feature (Archery – W2 Individual Compound Open, ranking round)
Then at 12:41, we have our two cycling pairs, Martin Gordon and Eoin Mullen and Damien Vereker and Mitchell McLaughlin, both (Cycling – B4 4000m Individual Pursuit, qualification)
Good morning to all! Paris is yet again in the sport’s spotlight, this time hosting the 17th Summer Paralympic Games just after the Olympics.
For the next 11 days, 4,400 athletes from 182 countries, including the Refugee Paralympic Team and approved Russian and Belarusian athletes, will compete in 22 sports. You can watch on RTÉ2 and Channel 4.
Ireland is represented by a team of 35. They will compete in different sports: cycling (10), swimming (six), athletics (five), triathlon (five), equestrian (four), rowing (two), archery (one), powerlifting (one) and table tennis (one).
Meet our team, introduced to you by our very own Muireann Duffy. Among the team, we have Paralympic newbies and experienced members, with swimmer Ellen Keane being the most seasoned of them all. She is heading into her fifth Paralympics, astonishing, given her young age of twenty-nine. Ellen had a conversation with Gordon Manning prior to her departure for Paris – feel free to peruse the transcript of their talk. Looking ahead, our next post will provide a rundown of the Irish participants competing on the inaugural day.