Super Saturday for Irish athletes

Super Saturday lived up to its billing for the Irish Paralympian team yesterday in the Olympic Stadium and Aquatic Centre in London.

Golds for Jason Smyth, Mike McKillop and swimmer Darragh McDonald have ensured that Ireland’s medal haul for the London Games  is already superior to Beijing after just three days of competition.

McKillop rounded up a brilliant evening for the Irish by winning the T37 (for cerebral palsy athletics) 800 metres in a world record time of 1.57.22 even while slowing down coming up to the line.

“Whenever people talked about Super Saturday, I don’t think they expected Super Saturday to be like this,” he said summarising a day which Ireland’s gold medallists proved to be far superior to the competition and broke two world records.

Smyth (26) lived up to his billing as the fastest Paralympian on the planet winning his T13 (for visually impaired athletes) 100 metres in a world record time of 10.46 seconds, shaving 0.08 seconds off the record he had set in the heats on Friday night.

Smyth was presented with an Irish flag which read: Jason – the Fastest Paralympian in the World by his coach at the end of his lap of honour in which he was raucously cheered by a predominantly British crowd and a sizable Irish contingent. He was presented with his medal by the Minister for Sport Michael Ring.

By his own admission winning the Paralympic title did not lessen the disappointment of missing out on qualification for the Olympics by 0.04 of a second.

Neverthless, he said there was “something sweeter or better about coming to a major event and actually succeeding.

“Some people already had the medal around your neck before you start, you can’t go up and beyond what is expected”.

Smyth and McKillop are roommates and best friends. McKillop joked that “everybody likes the dessert better than the main course”, a reference to Smyth’s earlier win.

“I wasn’t walking into that bedroom tonight without a gold medal around my neck,” he quipped. “I knew I was the best athlete in the field. It was just a matter of executing it.”

He was particularly emotional because it was the first time that his mother Catherine had watched him in a major final.

McKillop has the final of the 1,500 metres on Monday and will be a strong favourite to win the double.

Darragh McDonald won Ireland’s second gold medal of the Paralympic Games in the S5 400 metres freestyle final in the Aquatic Centre.

McDonald (18), who won silver in the same event in Beijing, led from start to finish and finished almost eight seconds ahead of his old rival, Sweden’s Anders Olsson (47), who is the Paralympic champion and world record holder and whom he has never previously beaten.

McDonald said he never expected to finish so far ahead of the rest of the field. “I knew I had something left in the tank from this morning, but I didn’t know I’d be looking at that much. To see Anders fall back so far was an amazing feeling.

“We knew it was going to be a two horse race. To get the edge on him from the beginning was a huge bonus for me. It spurred me on for the rest of it.

“I said before I started that I wasn’t going to think about times. I was just going to swim at my own speed.”

He said his gold medal win coming after Bethany Firth’s showed the strength of Paralympic swimming in Ireland.

McDonald, from Gorey in Co Wexford, was born without one leg below the knee and one above. He is also missing part of his right arm below the elbow. He now intends to take on the triathlon.

Firth, Ireland’s first medallist of the Paralympic Games, was cheered into the Irish team lodge yesterday afternoon.

The 16-year-old from Seaforde, Co Down, won gold in the S14 100m backstroke on Friday night for swimmers with an intellectual disability. Her portrait has been put on the wall of the Irish team lodge in Stratford High Street near the stadium.

Bethany said she did not know she had won until she touched the wall at the end of the race.

Her proud parents Peter and Lindsey said her success made the sacrifices worthwhile. Bethany starts in the early morning with a 40km drive to the swimming pool in Newtownards at 4.30am for a two-hour training session.

Lindsey said she received 110 texts in the immediate aftermath of her daughter’s win with many complementing Bethany on her nails which were in the Irish colours.

Bethany’s ambition is to compete in Rio, both in the Olympics and Paralympics. “I really want to get there. I think with the work that I’m putting in I will," she said.

President Michael D Higgins sent his congratulates to  yesterday's gold medallists.  "These performances, following on the earlier success of Bethany Firth on Friday, are indicative of the overall determination and preparation of our team. I wish all our paralympian athletes every success over the coming days."

Taoiseach Enda Kenny also congratulated the Irish medal-winners. “This has been a great weekend for Ireland and for sport, with four gold medals,” Mr Kenny said. All the athletes “are inspirational and have done their country, family and Team Ireland proud”.