Shauna Bocquet has qualified for Saturday’s final of the Paralympics T54 5,000 metres after finishing fourth in her heat at the Stade de France on Friday morning.
On her Paralympic debut, the 20-year-old Craughwell, Co Galway native raced away in a breakaway group of four in the second heat and came home less than one second behind the winner.
Bocquet’s time of 12:44.52 progressed her to the final as the ninth-fastest qualifier – the first heat on Friday was significantly quicker, Susannah Scaroni winning in 11:38.34. The final is scheduled to take place on Saturday morning at 9.40 Irish time.
“I was smiling as I was going around because all I could hear was my name being chanted,” said Bocquet.
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“My family and friends are over here but there’s just so much Irish support here as well, so many Irish flags around the place, it’s really special.”
It was a decent day all round for Galway athletes as cyclist Ronan Grimes set both a new personal best (PB) and also a new national record with his time of 1:05.521 in the C4-5 1,000-metre time trial at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Vélodrome.
His eighth-place finish wasn’t enough to progress to the final, but Grimes was delighted with his PB.
“I can’t believe it, I think going in I was nearly worried that I wouldn’t PB,” he said. “I knew on the first lap it felt like I was going fast. When I saw 1:05 on the board, I can retire happy now.”
Also in cycling, Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal finished fifth in the final of the B 1,000-metre time trial.
Rowers Katie O’Brien and Tiarnán O’Donnell had a thunderstorm-interrupted morning in their PR2 Mixed Double Sculls heat before eventually finishing fourth, which sees them now enter the repechage at 9.50am Irish time on Saturday to keep their Paralympic hopes alive. Ireland will have to finish in the top two to progress. O’Brien and O’Donnell will be in lane one against France, Ukraine, Netherlands and Turkey.
“Tomorrow is our final and we’ll be giving it everything, that’s the way we’re thinking,” said O’Donnell.
O’Brien, another of the Galway contingent on Team Ireland, celebrated her 28th birthday on Friday.
Meanwhile, archer Kerrie Leonard came up just short in her head-to-head eliminator in the W2 Individual Compound against China’s Jiamin Zhou, with the Meath native losing 140-135.
