Day 2

DAY 2   

MORNING

In the swimming Helen Fredrickson of Great Britain won the woman’s 400 metres freestyle S8 and broke the 5 minute barrier which I feel is quite an awesome accomplishment.

In the woman’s s9 Backstroke 100 Metres Team GB’s Steph Millward won her heat and won it well there was no one near here she could have floated the last 10 metres. Steph was beat by Australia’s Ellie Cole in the final later in the evening.

In the cycling Laura Tunnam of Great Britain and Caroline Walsh of Ireland were not strong enough to get a medal.

Lynch from Great Britain reached the bronze medal race but was very unfortunate to be in a race where two world records had been broken. To catch that type of time you have to be almost perfect and he was so close to perfection….he was very unlucky. Mark Colbourne from Great Britain destroys the world record in C1 but was asked to reclassify because they thought he was too good.

Darren Kenny from Great Britain finished in third position, this must have disappointed him considering the legendary status that Kenny has held. Enda Smith of Ireland was no where near that time.

In athletics 

Mohamad Angolun from Morocco also gaining a world record in the 400 meters T13 as I saw it I could not believe that many records were being broken.

Hannah Cockroft showed that she will be the one to beat in the woman’s 100metres T34 she will be of her own in her wheelchair and I did not ever think I would say that. 

AFTERNOON

When I was watching the Iran v Argentina game in the blind football I was very impressed by the amount of skill to simply pass a ball as all of the competitors are blindfolded. They did get the passes horribly wrong at times but I feel the ball control is awesome. It does seem like the winning and loosing of games is on one good pass. There does seem to be a noise off the boards that they use. I just wonder is the ball weighted because there seems to be no high passes. To compare against regular soccer is completely different. You do feel excited when goals are scored Argentina win 2-0. Great Britain got a 1-1 draw against Spain, first Spain scored a penalty with a Dave Clarke absolute peach to equalise just before half time. I really think blind football is a brilliant achievement.

In the wheelchair basketball I was disappointed by Great Britain as the most points they got in a period in the first three periods was 6 and the least Australia got in the first three was 11. They should be able to be better than that surely.51-24 to Australia.  Australia may be ready to get out of the group while Britain has very slim hopes, Britain needs to refocus and regroup quickly. South Africa lost to Spain by 50 points to 74 this says to me that Spain is ready for this huge challenge. Also the USA comfortably beat the Italians.  

In cycling Jow Cundy was cheated out of a medal as there was a small technical fault with either his bike or the equipment but Britain did get a medal as Cabello got the gold.   

Mark Le Colbourn from Great Britain got gold in the individual pursuit. But did you know that before Colbourn had his accident he wasn’t a strong cyclist. 

 Did you know that Ireland only started getting competitors in the Paralympics in Athens 8 years ago having 1 then 7 in Beijing 

 

EVENING

In the swimming. Wang gets gold Ollie Hind gets silver and Sam Hind gets bronze. Did you know that Ollie and Sam Hind are brothers? And they also represent Great Britain. 

Today we have the fastest of race in the pool the 50 metres s10 class.  Brasil of Brazil won first, Stein from Canada in second and Pasterfield gets the bronze. I would wonder how someone one with a disability like that can go that fast.

Watching the men’s 100 metre backstroke made me think about the ways that they use science to train you how to put your hands into the water or how to kick. I think would take a long to both understand and learn if you didn’t like school in the first place you would find this type of swimming pretty difficult. I did see a show before the Olympics that made me think in this way.

 The woman’s s11 was fascinating to watch considering the fact that they were blind.  They used big poles to touch at the end to tell them when to turn. To swim without sight must be absolutely terrifying.

 In most of the sports there has been capacity crowd after capacity crowd. There have probably been more people going to the first 2 days of the Paralympics than the actual Olympics. I think shows how popular the Paralympics are.

In Athletics Hannah Cockroft from Great Britain won gold in the100 metres t14. She controlled the race from the start she looked brilliant as she got closer and closer to the finish. 

 

NORHERN IRELAND ATHLETES

Downpatricks Bethany’s Firth finished second in her heat and fourth overall in her S14 100 Metres backstroke heat this morning. She went into the final and she won it racing for the Ards club in Northern Ireland and that is Ireland’s first medal!

Did you know three years ago Bethany Firth could not swim !!!! 

 Newry’s Lawrence Mc Givern, a S9 100 metre backstroke swimmer, beat his PB by almost 2 seconds today.  If there is ever a time to do this it is at the Paralympics. Lawrence finished 8^th in the final but to reach a final is an achievement in itself.

 Sally Brown finished in 4^th with a season best but failed to reach the final as it was a slower race she was very unlucky as she did finish fourth.    

 

Jason Smythe got a world record in 10.54 seconds in his 100m T13 heat today. Watch out for him tomorrow in the final at 7.15pm. 

My athlete of the day has to be Bethany Firth as this is a great achievement for her.