Paralympics:Wexford swimmer Darragh McDonald has qualified for the final of the Men's 50 metre freestyle – S6 this evening (7.01pm).The gold medal winner in the 400 metres freestyle finished third in his heat in a time that saw him squeak into the final as the eighth fastest from the heats.
The Asgard SC swimmer went into this morning’s heats as the 12th fastest qualifier but set a new personal best of 33.15 to qualify in 8th position for this evening’s final.Speaking after the race, McDonald commented “A 0.2 second PB; I’m happy it was enough to make the final and there’s room for improvement later on”.
In the days following his Gold medal win he said: “It still hasn’t set in, I’m just focusing on getting the competition finished then I’ll relax and rest and think about the Gold, but there’s still work to be done so I’m just focusing on that”.
At Greenwich Park James Dwyer finished sixth on Orlando in the Equestrian Individual Freestyle test Grade 4. Equestrian team manager Dara Kearney said after the event: “I was very please with James Dwyer’s performance. James rode superbly achieving a personal best.
He gave it everything, had no wrong moves and the score speaks for itself.”
Sean Baldwin took part in the 50 m Rifle Prone today his third competition of the London 2012 Paralympics Games. It was his best performance to date, scoring a new personal best of 585 to finish 18th of the 48 competitors. It was only four marks away from the qualifying score for the eight man final.
Baldwin admitted: "I'm happy with that performance in tricky conditions. I was aiming for 590 as I reckoned that would be the qualifying mark for the final but I am satisfied with the PB and I am well set up for my final competition tomorrow."
Limericks James McCarthy finished 13th position overall in this morning’s Shot Putt F57/58 competition Final with a throw of 10.70. Speaking about his experience McCarthy commented: “I think in the first putt, I may have had a rush of blood to the head. For the second one I needed to relax and start doing what I had been doing in training. For the third one I just went for it and that was my best throw. It was a dream come true to be back here sixteen years after my last games in Atlanta and to have my family here to see it.”
Raymond O’Dwyer did manage to make tonight’s final (7.0pm) in the Shot Put F34 category, qualifying in 16th place.