DAY ONE OF the Paralympics provided plenty of talking points.
There was disappointment for James Brown and David Shaw, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal.
In addition, Enda Smyth also put in an excellent performance, coming seventh in in the Individual C1-2-3 1km time trial and setting a new Irish record in the process.
And there was excitement elsewhere too, with a number of athletes, including Brazil’s Daniel Dia and Zheng Tao of China, setting world records in their respective events.
Headline of the day:
Heartbreak for Brown and Shaw
The Irish cycling duo narrowly missed out on a bronze medal, as they finished just two seconds behind Spanish pair Miguel Angel Clemente Solano and Diego Javier Munoz, with a time of 4:26.075.
However, it was still a relatively impressive performance from the Irish team under the circumstances, given that they’ve only been riding together since January.
What we learned today?
The standard this year is as high as ever
There were a number of eye-catching displays today, with several records being broken. Zheng Tao was one of China’s three gold medallists in swimming – in the men’s S6 100m backstroke, he broke Russian Igor Plotnikov’s 2004 world record.
In addition, Brazil’s Daniel Dias also broke the world record in the S5 50m freestyle.
Storey remains the same
Cyclist Sarah Storey continued her remarkable record at the Paralympics, winning her eight gold medal today in the women’s C5 individual 3km pursuit.
Her time would even have been good enough to win her a non-disabled title. She thus secured a new world best of 3min 32.170sec.
Highlights from Team Ireland
(Ireland’s Ronan Rooney - INPHO/Jeff Crow)
- As mentioned already, James Brown and David Shaw narrowly missed out on a bronze medal, finishing fourth in the cycling.
- Enda Smyth set a new Irish record in the Individual C1-2-3 1km time trial, coming 16th overall and 7th of the C3 riders.
- In table tennis, Rena McCarron Rooney, Eimear Breathnach and Philip Quinlan all lost their respective matches and now must win tomorrow to keep their Paralympic hopes alive. In addition, Ronan Rooney is out of the Men’s Singles M2 Table Tennis competition, after losing his second preliminary match 3-0 to Slovakia’s Martin Ludrovsky
- Ellen Keane was seventh in 100m Butterfly S9 final at the Aquatics Centre. She finished with a time of 1:14.04 – a time that was 0.89 seconds off the PB she set in the morning’s heats. Meanwhile, James Scully failed to qualify for the men’s 50m Freestyle S5 final, after coming ninth in the morning’s heats.
- And finally, Eilish Byrne is currently seventh in the Equestrian Team Test – Grade II.
Best thing we’ve read today:
There’s an interesting piece in The Guardian on Spanish swimmer Sebastián Rodríguez, who was once jailed for his association with leftwing terror attacks, before turning his life around.
Hero of the day:
South Africa’s Natalie du Toit, who won her 11th Paralympic gold today, and still expressed disappointment with her time. She also ruled out competing in Rio in four years time, thus ensuring her career ends on a high.
You said what?
Margaret Maughan, 84, recalled her starring role in the Opening ceremony, when she lit the Paralympic cauldron in London’s Olympic Stadium. She said:
“It was all timed so perfectly. I had an earpiece and it said ‘Light the flame, Margaret’. I had to listen and was a bit nervous about that. I thought I might get it wrong but it was marvellous when it actually lit.
“You could feel the heat coming off it but the torch was not hot.
“I breathed a sigh of relief.”
Watched the game. I have to say, I sometimes questioned some of the refereee’s decisions during the game (such as multiple high tackles before a yellow card was given).
But I beg to ask what is going on with Connacht. They lost just 2 players form the championship winning team last season, but they’ve lost control of their own basics and skills that made them so successful.
A complete lack of a pre season was a factor, the last 5 minutes sum this up.
Yeah, pre-season couldn’t have gone much worse for them
Maybe a bit of credit to Glasgow and the Ospreys
They both played extremely well
Always felt last seasons pro12 was seriously skewed by the world cup. Teams like ospreys & glasgow really werent at their best. Whereas connacht & scarlets made hay, both are 0-2 so far now. Hope its not a sign of things to come. Although to be fair its been a tough start to the season.
I would expect both to get top 4 with Leinster and Ulster the favourites to be there with them. Improved performance this week from the team but a bad pre-season, injuries and teams becoming more aware in how to play us has been the main factors in our poor start. The defence has been really poor in both games conceding tries from our own half which we weren’t doing for the majority of last season. The half back pairing in both games have been very poor, Marmion seems to have regressed from where he was about 2 seasons ago and Carty’s kicking is a liability at this stage nowhere near good enough for this level, Boshoff cant come soon enough and I would probably go with SO’L in the mean time. It’s still early and we played two excellent teams so I wouldn’t be pushing any panic buttons yet and with Zebre up next we should stop the rot with a win next week.
Makes you worry about Aki’s decision in the summer.
What decision was that?
To head home or speculate about his future or something I missed?
What decision? He was always under contract. No decision to make until next year.
I don’t think the losses of McGinty and Muldowney can be understated. Henshaw is obviously a big loss too (Griffin has been poor so far) but those two were central to launching our attacks last year and were massive defensively. The lack of a proper preseason and the injury list doesn’t help either. Most of the lads looked goosed after an hour tonight.
What gives with that bad pre season? I would have thought preparation wpuld have been meticulous under Pat?
Two of the teams they were supposed to play pulled out.
Not uncommon for surprise champions to have an indifferent start to the season now that they’re the ones to beat. It’s only round 2 of 22 though so it’s a bit early to hold crisis talks but Connacht need to pick it up for the next game.
Connacht need to up their game fast ahead of the ERC
When Connacht were winning last year we barely got a mention in the journal…. Leinster got off to bad start too last year,,,,,, it’ll be grand, they’ll regroup and turn it around…. To early to be in a panic
Poor support from fans again tonight though!
How was it poor support most fans stayed until the end and clapped the players off tonight and 5.7k is a decent crowd for the start of the season.
Fitness is the key issue here, those last 2 tries sum this up, taking the ball in there own half and essentially running over for a try. Zebre couldn’t have come at a better time.
At this stage the top 6 looks far superior to the bottom 6.
They’re really missing henshaw
Muldowney and mcginty not hensaw
@bmul, Dont be silly Henshaw was one of Connachts best players last season. Of course he will be missed!
Henshaw missed most of the Pro 12 games last season. Actually think Muldowney a much bigger loss.
Maybe you should check how many games hensaw played
Such a lengthy match report without mentioning the final score. Did your reporter leave early to file his copy?
Lack of decent preseason training games have hurt them badly but let’s not lose the run of ourselves here. They had a terrible game but showed glimpses of last seasons quality in the first match and made massive improvements to this match. Next week I’ll put money on them winning or at least it being a very tight scoreline and I don’t even know who they’re playing right now. It’s game 2. They didn’t go unbeaten last season either and won it. No need for alarm bells, and this from a leinster supporter. Cudn’t have been happier with a defeat last season, look forward to some great local derby games this year.
For conspiracy theorists 2 Welsh refs 2 games! For honesty missing MacGinty and Aly abilities to defend and force attack. Skills still there fitness improving. O’Leary should be given a chance now. Muls needs help can’t lead the team on his own so far personally I’ve not seen anyone step up to the plate to do so . If there’s leaders there they need to show themselves now before we actually do have a crisis.