Smyth and McKillop produce their golden moments in record style

PARALYMPICS: THAT HUG. Long after the action had finished on Saturday night, that hug was the image that stuck. Jason Smyth had just completed his lap of honour after taking gold in the T13 100m final and just as he passed the finish line he was beckoned over to the athlete seating area by a stick-thin figure in a backwards green baseball cap.

Smyth’s 10 per cent sight is such that all he’ll have seen was a blur of colour but the cap and the north Antrim accent told him who was calling.

Michael McKillop was less than 90 minutes away from his T37 800m final but he wasn’t missing this. He hung out over the railing and hugged his roommate close. “I just said, ‘Well, done. I want a bit of that.’ Because I wasn’t walking into the bedroom tonight with no gold medal around my neck.”

He didn’t either, rounding off one of the truly great days. In the space of just over three hours, Wexford schoolboy Darragh McDonald took gold at the Aquatic Centre in the S6 400m freestyle, Smyth wowed the stadium by retaining gold and lowering his own world record and McKillop went out and did the same.

“Everyone likes the dessert better than the main course,” he cracked afterwards. “Jason was the main course but even when you’re full, you always have room for dessert. That’s what I was.”

It’s hard to imagine ever getting to sit down to another meal as good. The planets aligned to give Ireland a day of days here and the amount of green in Olympic Park was testament to how many decided to take a look at the stars. Tricolours hung from every corner of the stadium and pool and even parts of the resolutely Team GB’d velodrome were annexed.

If Amhrán na bhFiann was going to get an airing, there were going to be plenty of willing throats around to help it along.

Of the three times we got to hear it, two emanated from that hug. Smyth and McKillop make for a box-office double act. Five minutes in their company leaves you in no doubt who’s the straight man and who’s the wise-ass. Smyth carries the permanently half-awake bearing of a man who never came across a problem that a good chillax wouldn’t solve.

McKillop is a far more restless sort, the kind that mammies across the country would swear needs a good feeding if he’d only sit still for five minutes.

They came to these games as the Irish bankers, both of them by a good distance the best in the world at their event. For Smyth, the extra twist that comes with being the fastest man at the games brought its own burden yet he bore it like he wanted it. And for 10.54 seconds on Saturday night, he owned the Olympic Stadium.

Most of the time at the Paralympics, you are watching sport that has been tilted to a different angle than what you’re used to. Just about all of it is incredible to behold but there is context in every performance that you can’t miss and wouldn’t want to miss.

What Smyth did on Saturday night was erase that context. His start and drive phase completely obliterated the competition and stunned the crowd. There is lots at the Paralympics that brings you to your feet and sets your heart a-thump. This made you purr.

“I’m delighted,” Smyth said afterwards. “I put so much work into this.

“You’re under so much pressure to succeed and people obviously have the medal around your neck before you even start so you can’t really go up and beyond what’s expected. So first and foremost it’s relief that I got it done, thankful that the work I did has paid off. It definitely is harder to win it a second time. In any sport it’s probably easier to get to the top to start with but then having to come back and retain your titles is definitely that bit harder.

“Beijing was fantastic, no getting away from that. It was my first Paralympic games. This without a doubt has been far better. Retaining the titles is a bit more difficult so that makes it a bit sweeter.

“But when you’re in that stadium with 80,000 people and half of them seem like they’re Irish and even the British ones are supporting you as well, it’s amazing. We’re never going to get this again, we’re never going to have something like this so close to home. We’re never going to be in the same time zone with something this big.”

For McKillop, the day had been long and edgy. His race didn’t go off until two minutes to nine on Saturday night and he found the time hard to fill.

His made himself fight through a Nutella sandwich just as McDonald was winning his gold medal at 5.45 but otherwise the build-up had dragged. He cheerfully admitted afterwards that it was Smyth who had kept him together throughout.

“Jason is the most relaxed, horizontal person in the world. To have him in the room with me has been brilliant because he kept me calm. Last night, after he had broken his world record, I got up and wandered out to the living room and back in at about 1am because I couldn’t sleep.

“I came in and he was lying on the bed going, ‘Michael, can you not sleep?’ And I said no and he said, ‘That’s alright because I can’t either. I’m still buzzing. Just relax, calm down go to bed – your own bed, by the way – and just chill. You’ll fall asleep and wake up tomorrow morning ready to go.’ Even during the day today I was quite nervous but he always kept me calm and kept me relaxed.”

He took the race at his ease, letting Australian Scott Brown set the early pace before jumping off his shoulder 20 metres before the bell and immediately putting clear water between himself and the rest of the field. From there to the line it was a procession, his world record time of 1:57.22 a full four seconds better than everyone else in a field where four others ran personal bests and silver and bronze set national records.

Onwards then for them both. McKillop is all but certain to win his second gold medal tonight in the 1,500m and Smyth has his 200m defence starting on Thursday. By the end of the week, their bedroom in the athletes’ village will be heaving with gold.

And that hug might even get another airing. Brothers in arms, the class of London 2012.