IRELAND’S ORLA COMERFORD has won a bronze medal in the T13 100m at 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Comerford clocked a time of 11.94 seconds at Stade de France.
It is the Dubliner’s first Paralympic medal — and Ireland’s fourth of these Games. The 2024 tally was doubled in just over five minutes this evening.
Before Comerford, Róisín Ní Riain secured her second swimming medal at La Défense Arena — bronze in the SM 200m Individual Medley — while Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal were previously on the track cycling podium.
Comerford won her heat this morning in 12.02 seconds to qualify as the third fastest overall. Just two other athletes went sub-12 earlier: Azerbaijan’s Lamiya Valiyeva, the Tokyo silver medallist, won the other heat, while Rayan Soares da Silva of Brazil was second.
The trio remained in that ranking at the electric Stade de France tonight: Valiyeva winning gold in a world record time of 11.76, and Soares da Silva taking silver in an area record of 11.78. That also broke the previous world record mark of 11.79.
Comerford was home third, 0.04 of a second off her personal best of 11.90.
“It feels insane,” the three-time Paralympian told reporters afterwards.
“I think my initial feelings when I crossed the line were of disappointment and then when I was turned around and sent to my family I was like, ‘I can’t be disappointed with that.’
“It’s such an honour and a privilege to do it with them all here. Brian’s family are here [her late coach Brian Corcoran], my [Raheny Shamrock] club members are here, I think I would have taken your hand off for it a couple of years ago, so I have to take in the moment, enjoy it and let it fuel me for the next four years. I’m delighted.”
“I just feel like there is lots more in the tank,” she added. “I reckoned at the start of the year that it was going to take a world record to win it, that’s what I had my eyes on.
“I know that was ambitious but I think that is well within my wheelhouse so I’m excited for the next cycle to push on towards that and go faster.”
The 26-year-old, who has Stargardt’s disease, a degenerative condition that affects her central vision, also detailed the race to the best of her memory. She went from the slowest reaction time in her heat to the second fastest in her final, and finished ahead of defending champions Adiaratou Iglesias Forneiro (fifth) and back-to-back bronze medallist Kym Crosbie.
“Honestly, I have no recollection,” Comerford said. “Usually I feel like I come off the track and I almost remember too much of it, I’m almost like, ‘Ah, I’m in my head a bit much’.
“I just got up and I remember feeling the girls there in front of me and I was just pushing as much as I could, I didn’t want to get tense or tighten up. I just said, ‘Run your own race’. All I remember at the end was trying to stay relaxed and push myself out.
“Thankfully it was enough for third, but unfortunately not enough for anything else.”
