8.0: Kerrie Leonard v Jiamin Zhou (Chn) (W2 Individual Compound Open Round of 16). Leonard lost 140-135.
9.50: Katie O’Brien & Tiarnán O’Donnell (Para Rowing – PR2 mixed double sculls, heat one). Delayed due to thunderstorm.
10.22: Ellen Keane (Para Swimming – SB8 100m breaststroke, heat two). Dead heat with Brock Whiston for first place in Heat 2 and qualifies for tonight’s final.
10.30: Ronan Grimes (Para Cycling Track – C4-5 1000m time trial qualifying)
10.50: Shauna Bocquet (Para Athletics – T54 5000m round one, heat two)
12.58: Josephine Healion with pilot Linda Kelly, Katie George Dunlevy with pilot Eve McCrystal (Para Cycling Track – B 1000m time trial qualifying)
*13.52: Ronan Grimes (Para Cycling Track – C4-5 1000m time trial final)
*15.34: Josephine Healion/Linda Kelly & Katie George Dunlevy/Eve McCrystal (Para Cycling Track – B 1000m time trial final)
18.51: Róisín Ní Riain (Para Swimming – S13 100m backstroke final)
19.21: Ellen Keane (Para Swimming – SB8 100m breaststroke final)
Grimes is on the bubble to make the final, sixth place with the final heat to come. Reigning Paralympic champion and world silver medallist in the heat.
Grimes fifth fastest overall. Two heats left. Squeaky time.
Grimes down to fourth with three more heats remaining. Top six qualify for the final.
Ireland’s Shauna Bocquet will make her Paralympic debut at the Stade de France shortly. The heats of the T54 5000m Bocquet will be in the second of the two heats. That second race will be around 11.10.
Grimes is now down to third fastest with about half the field gone.
Ronan Grimes in his second Paralympic Games recorded a time of 1.06.41 in the men’s C4-5 1,000m time trial qualifying round and is the early leader. The top six riders will qualify for this afternoon’s final and ride for medals.
Here is how Keane qualified for the final.
Spain’s Anastasiya Dmytriv Dmytriv posted the fastest time in winning heat one in 1:22.91 with Keane and Whiston recording a time of 1.24.59.
Keane in a dead heat for first place with England’s world record holder Brock Whiston and qualifies for tonight’s final. A broad smile and a big wave from the Irish woman. She will get a chance to defend her Paralympic title that she won in Tokyo in tonight’s final (7.21pm).
Keane leads after 50 metres.
Ellen Keane is racing.
Right it’s nearly time for Ellen Keane. A little over 10 minutes or so to be semi-precise.
Who’d have thought, a thunderstorm in Paris. Still it’s a chance to use this.
The cycling velodrome will be a focus for much of the morning as three Irish athletes will take to the track. Ronan Grimes, the Galway native, who found his way to Para-Cycling by an unorthodox root through the government’s Cycle to Work scheme, is back for his second Paralympic Games and will be in action in the men’s C4-5 1,000m time trial qualifying round.
Josephine Healion with pilot Linda Kelly and Katie-George Dunlevy with her longtime cycling buddy Eve McCrystal – they have more precious medal than most Irish athletes – compete in the women’s B 1,000m time trial later in the day. In each event, the six fastest riders in the qualifiers will proceed to the afternoon’s final.
Róisín Ní Riain has another chance at a medal after finishing an agonising fourth in Thursday’s S13 100m butterfly final. She wasn’t too despondent. “It was a good swim, obviously every time you get in, you’d like to PB. I was .04 off my PB so it’s probably as close as you can get. I’d definitely like to have been faster tonight but for day one it’s a good start and hopefully I can build on that for the rest of the week.”
The Limerick native on the experience so far: “It’s been really nice so far, it’s very different to Tokyo with having the crowd in Paris. It’s a lot of my families first time at a major international, so it’s nice to have them here.”
A transition year student at Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh when she made her Paralympic debut in Tokyo as the youngest member of Team Ireland, she will compete in one of her stronger disciplines the S13 100m backstroke final (18.51) tonight.
Our man is Paris, the suave, sophisticated, man about town, Gordon Manning will have to learn the art of bi and tri location but it’s well within the compass of someone who has travelled the GAA’s highways and byways. Prior to departing for the French capital he caught up with one of Ireland’s medal hopefuls, Ellen Keane.
[ Ellen Keane hoping to reprise her success from TokyoOpens in new window ]
Hello, good morning and welcome to the Irish Times blog. John O’Sullivan here and I will be taking you through the day’s events from the Paralympics in Paris. Irish medal hopefuls will be in the pool on the cycling track while also featuring in the disciplines of rowing and archery. Ireland’s golden girl from Tokyo, the effervescent Ellen Keane will take to the pool at 10.22 in the SB8 100m Breaststroke heats in a bid to qualify for tonight’s final (7.21pm), the first step to retaining her Paralympic crown.
Kerrie Leonard was first into action in the round of 16 elimination tie in the para-archery W2 individual compound open event. The Meath woman placed 21st in yesterday’s ranking round, scoring a season best of 653. She faced Rio gold medallist, China’s Zhou Jiamin who qualified 12th.
Leonard was level 82-82 after the third end of the contest, but her Chinese opponent finished the stronger moving into a 111-109 lead after end four before pulling away further in the fifth end to win 140-135.
Next up in an Irish context is para rowing, a sport to which Ireland returns as Muireann Duffy explains. “Ending the hiatus will be two westerners – Katie O’Brien from Galway and Tiarnán O’Donnell from Limerick. The duo will compete in the first heat of the PR2 mixed double sculls at Vaires-sur-Marne Stadium, with the first two finishers qualifying directly for Sunday’s A final.”
