Paralympics:Great things were always expected of this day and, in truth, it turned out better than that. Two of the three gold medals were as nailed on as they ever can be, but the addition of two world records on the track and a personal best in the pool added another dimension.
With a blisteringly fast 100m in his T13 final, a new benchmark of 10.46 seconds, Jason Smyth retained his Paralympic title with half a second to spare of the rest of the field.
His achievement was then replicated by Michael McKillop, the defending T37 800m champion, beat his own world record with ease to bring Ireland’s gold medal tally to four.
The second came in the pool this afternoon, when Darragh McDonald finally got the better of rival Anders Olsson of Sweden and turned his S6 400m freestyle silver from Beijing into gold at London, knocking seven seconds off the personal best he set in the heats this morning.
After Bethany Firth opened the Irish account with gold in the pool yesterday, it was a momentous day for Ireland in London.
The 25-year-old Smyth, who has trained alongside the joint second fastest man in history Tyson Gay in Florida over the last three winters, raced away from the rest of the field to win in 10.46 seconds.
“This just goes to show that if you work hard and apply yourself you can achieve at the greatest level," said Smyth afterwards. “Coming into the Championships I knew I was under pressure to retain my title, so I wanted to do that first and foremost and thankfully I was able to do that. Of course there was the added bonus of a world record.
“Times at championships are irrelevant. It doesn’t matter whether you run ten zero or eleven zero as long as you win. I believe I can run quicker than that again.”
The fastest Paralympian in the world spread his arms wide in celebration as he crossed the line, winning by a margin not even Usain Bolt is accustomed to, ahead of Luis Felipe Gutierrez of Cuba and South African Jonathan Ntutu.
Smyth has run quicker, but only in non-disabled competition. Another Paralympic crown helped make up for the Derry athlete’s disappointment at missing out on Olympic qualification. Smyth, who is visually impaired because of Stargardt disease, was just 0.04secs away from the ‘A’ standard.
McKillop,from from Newtownabbey in Antrim, coasted home in a time of 1:57.22, ahead of Mohamed Charmi of Tunisia (2:01.45) and Brad Scott of Australia (2:02.04).
McDonaldearlier added Ireland's second gold, following fellow swimmer Bethany Firth to the top of the podium with a dominant performance in his S6 400m freestyle final.
The 18-year-old was untouchable from the start and smashed the personal best he set in the heats this morning, posting a time of 4:55.56 to finish nearly eight seconds ahead of world record holder Anders Olsson of Sweden. The gold comes four years after McDonald was second to Olsson in Beijing.
“I knew I had something left in the tank from this morning, but I didn’t know I’d be looking at that much," said McDonald. "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.”
James Scullyset a personal best when he finished fifth in the final of the S5 200m Freestyle after qualifying sixth fastest from the heats.
At Eton Dorney, the Irish mixed coxed fours - Kevin Du Toit, Sarah Caffrey, Shane Ryan and Anne-Marie McDaid, with Helen Arbuthnotas cox - finished fourth in the repechage, behind the crews from Ukraine, China and Canada, with a time of 3:34:85, to progress to tomorrow morning's B final (10.30am).
Catherine O'Neillbegan her campaign this morning with a fourth place finish in the women's club competition. A throw of 13.64m gother to the final but she managed only 13.05m when there and just missed on a medal.
“I threw well in the first three throws but it just didn’t happen for me," said O'Neill. "Disappointing. The atmosphere was quite distracting so I worked hard to block it out. I look forward now to my main event, the Discus."
Ailish Dunnefrom Mountmellick finished 13th in the F11/12 discus
On a morning when the world record was broken twice, cyclist Cathal Millerfailed to qualify for the 4km pursuit final in a time of 4.49.237.
“The wheels came off the wagon when Butterworth (GB) passed me," he said, "I feel I let everyone down”.
Meanwhile, in an event that is not their priority, James Brown and Damien Shawfinished ninth in the 1km Time Trial, in a time of 1.07.979. The duo, who have only been together since December, were silver medallists in the World Championships in February.
Speaking after the Irishmen clocked an average speed of almost 53kmph, Brown said: “We are happy with our performance, our main event is the 4km pursuit, if we concentrated on every event there would be something wrong, we got a PB, you can’t ask for much more.”
Shaw added: “It was great experience racing in front of the crowd again, the atmosphere here is brilliant.”