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The Guardian
Paris 2024 Paralympics day five: GB triathlon golds; swimming, athletics and more – live
By Michael Butler (now) and Will Unwin (earlier),
3 hours ago
Britain’s Megan Richter crosses the line to win gold in the women’s PTS4 para-triathlon. Photograph: The Guardian
4.01pm BST
Thank you very much for joining me. Michael Butler will take you through the rest of the action today.
3.51pm BST
Men’s wheelchair tennis: Another break in the third game as neither is able to hold. Hewett has three break points but hits the net twice, completing the job at the third attempt with a wicked return.
3.47pm BST
Men’s wheelchair tennis: Hewett breaks in the opening game but Arai has the chance to do likewise, only for a fine ace to take us to deuce. Arai produces a cracking shot to get the advantage and returns a serve straight at Hewett and he has no response – 1-1.
3.35pm BST
We also have you covered when it comes to the US Open.
Men’s wheelchair tennis: Alfie Hewett is about to take on Daisuke Arai in the third round as he looks to complete a career ‘golden slam. The Brit is certainly favourite at Roland Garros today.
3.19pm BST
Wheelchair rugby: ParalympicsGB lost out the bronze medal match to Australia earlier in a closely-fought clash.
“If you’d have asked me two years ago, I’d have probably snatched your hand off for the experience of playing for a bronze medal,” said GB’s Gavin Walker. “In the end there were too many errors really in the game. We finished it with a timeout and that could have stopped the turnover in our favour, so the better team beat us on the day.
“The team and what we’ve managed to develop over the years has been outstanding and I’m really proud of getting to this stage and the performances we’ve put in. We go into another rebuilding process, another four years ahead of us and looking towards LA now.”
2.57pm BST
Goalball: Ukraine edge past Iran 6-3 in the quarter-final. Things were level until late goals for the Ukrainian edged them through to the semis.
2.45pm BST
GB’s Megan Richter took gold earlier women’s PTS4 triathlon, just ahead of compatriot Hannah Moore.
“I still in shock, I can’t believe that still happened,” Richter told Channel 4. “I worked so hard and so many people put everything into this. I’m so proud. Everyone in the team are so nice, it’s so great to be a part of it. I had a plan just to go as hard as I could on the run and that’s what I did.”
2.37pm BST
Later today we will have Johnnie Peacock in the men’s T64 100m final at 6.46pm BST later, while there will be plenty of interest in the men’s T54 1500m heats. Nathan Maguire, Daniel Sidbury and David Weir will all be involved.
2.10pm BST
As Britain enjoys another rush of gold medals in the opening days of the Paris Paralympic Games, the British national Paralympic committee has set out an ambitious programme for reforming the way PE is taught in schools, asking for greater emphasis on physical activity for all and greater resourcing to make it happen.
Wheelchair rugby: Australia and GB are trading points at a rates of knots. The score moves to 31-31 after some aggressive play from both sides.
1.21pm BST
Badminton: Mariam Eniola Bolaji of Nigeria became the first African athlete to win a badminton medal at a Games - Olympics or Paralympics -when she clinched bronze in the women’s singles SL3 at the Paris Paralympics on Monday. The 18-year-old beat Ukraine’s Oksana Kozyna 21-9 21-9 to secure a podium finish three years after her coach, Bello Oyebanji, died in a road accident as she was preparing for the Tokyo Paralympics. It is also Nigeria’s first medal at the Paris Paralympics.
1.16pm BST
Wheelchair rugby: Australia v GB is 24:24 in the third quarter. Should be a lively finish.
Updated at 1.19pm BST
1.12pm BST
The Italian transgender sprinter Valentina Petrillo said that her debut at the Paralympic Games was “the realisation of history” after she qualified for the semi-finals of the T12 400m on Monday.
ParalympicsGB has no concerns about the treatment of horses in the British camp ahead of the equestrian competition in Paris following the whipping scandal which plagued the Olympics.
Dressage events are scheduled to begin on Tuesday at Chateau de Versailles, with GB riders Natasha Baker, Mari Durward-Akhurst and Georgia Wilson among those in action. Equestrian was engulfed in controversy during the Olympics after three-time gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin was suspended on the eve of the Games when a video emerged of her repeatedly whipping a horse.
While ParalympicsGB chef de mission Penny Briscoe has not explicitly asked if horse whipping has occurred in British Para equestrian, she believes the set-up is “really positive and well-run”. “It was a very difficult situation for the sport but also for TeamGB,” Briscoe said of the Dujardin incident, which was recorded several years ago but made public in July. “As chef de mission, I don’t have any qualms or concerns in terms of I’ve worked with Para equestrian, this is my sixth summer cycle, and I’ve always found the environment to be hugely supportive. “Have I asked the question: have you whipped horses? No, I haven’t. But I know the athletes are in a good place coming in and I think we’re focusing on them and their performance, not what’s happened in TeamGB.
“I think it was hats off to TeamGB that they were able to regroup from that. The sport, it’s got to go away and look at that, hasn’t it? But, from my perspective, we’ve always found the Para equestrian environment really positive and well-run.”
1.01pm BST
Dave Ellis said after his victory: “It’s absolutely unreal. Tokyo was the complete opposite but so happy I had an awesome race today. You only get a couple of chances in your career to do a Paralympics - you get a lot more nervous and have to do it on the day, so it is so special to pull it off.
“The (organisers) moved it up and all the races are being run today, but we’ve done plenty of heat work and got through the race. It will take a while to sink in. I was thinking back to Tokyo yesterday - this is a much happier feeling.”
1.00pm BST
Ellis and guide Pollard take gold in the men’s PTVI triathlon, Richter wins women's PTS4 gold
Paralympics GB’s Dave Ellis and his guide Luke Pollard took glory in the men’s PTVI triathlon, while Megan Richter won the women’s PTS4 gold and Hannah Moore earned the bronze.
Updated at 2.14pm BST
1.00pm BST
Preamble
Welcome! It is day five in Paris. After a golden 24 hours for British athletes, we face another action-packed schedule across the French capital.
Today’s Paralympics daily briefing offers a comprehensive rundown on what is happening.
Coombs’ lead role in badminton After the Games have come to a close the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in northern Paris will become a cultural hub serving the local community, hosting concerts, shows and – less excitingly – “various conferences”. Before Shakespeare or PowerPoint presentations get their chance to reverberate around the 8,000-seat space, it will play host to the rapid pwock thwock of shuttlecocks and today is finals day in badminton. Dan Bethell will be looking to go one step further than his silver medal in the SL3 para-badminton singles in Tokyo. Bethell lost out to India’s Pramad Bhagat in a closely fought final in 2021. Bhagat – the world No1 – is not competing in Paris after receiving an 18-month suspension for three whereabout failures in 12 months. Another Indian, Kumar Nitesh, is Bethell’s final opponent at lunchtime. In the evening session, Krysten Coombs goes for SH6 gold against the home hope Charles Noakes. Coombs took bronze in Tokyo. Away from the court the 33-year‑old has worked at Ikea and also as an actor, appearing in one episode of Game of Thrones, The Witcher and assorted pantomimes.
Robinson ready to tackle Australia ParalympicsGB’s wheelchair rugby team scooped a historic gold in Tokyo in 2021, scoring 14 tries in the 54-49 victory over USA. The sport was known as ‘Murderball’ during its early days and is still known for “noisy contact, frequently punctured tyres and even wheelchairs flipping over”. The Americans gained revenge in Sunday’s semi-final, leaving the British team trying to repeat their group-stage victory over Australia, the world champions, and claim bronze. The 42-year-old former soldier Robinson is ParalympicsGB’s vice-captain in Paris and has a remarkable backstory having only started playing the sport – which combines elements of rugby, handball and basketball and is played with a round rather than oval ball – as part of his rehabilitation after losing both legs when his patrol vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device near Camp Bastion in 2013, on what was his fourth tour of Afghanistan.
Peacock aiming for 100m hat-trick “ Can you handle it? Can you handle everyone looking at you? Can you handle a stadium full of people screaming and then doing the job that matters?” Paralympics GB’s Jonnie Peacock attempts to make it a hat-trick of T64 100m gold medals. After sharing the bronze medal in Tokyo in a photo finish, Peacock’s particularly bullish quotes leading into these Games suggest he knows he’ll have to run the race of his life in Saint-Denis in order to defeat the defending champion and world No 1, Italy’s Maxcel Amo Manu. “This is the big one and this is the pressure cooker. I’m not the hunted any more, I am the hunter,” Peacock continued. “Once you’ve got gold, you’re not looking for silvers.” He came through his heat successfully on Sunday but only in third, showing how much he has to do to claim a medal of any colour.
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