PARALYMPICS:Ireland's 100m gold medalist and world record holder Jason Smyth raised the bar again today when easing through to the 200m final in the Paralympic Games in Beijing. The Derry sprinter broke his own record, set two years ago in Holland, by 0.2 seconds, clocking a winning time of 21.81.
Russian Alexey Labzin, who Smyth beat into second when winning the 100m final on Saturday, won the other T13 heat for the visually impaired athletes, posting a time just five hundredths of a second outside the Irishman.
Cuban Luis Manuel Galano finished second to Smyth today in a time of in 22.04, with Jonathan Ntutu of South Africa third (22.71).
The times are proof that Smyth won't have it all his own way in the final tomorrow but he and coach Stephen Maguire are looking forward to another tilt at a gold.
"He was controlled out there he ran a strong bend and a good straight and everything went according to plan. Tomorrow will be a really close run race but we're looking forward to it," Maguire said afterwards.
Athens silver medalist John McCarthy was theonly other irish athlete in action today but he was unable to make the club throw final, recording a best effort of 19.53m to finish 11th overall.