IRELAND’S INDIVIDUAL BOCCIA challenge got off to the best possible start on Wednesday morning when Johnny Cronin won his BC3 seeding match at the ExCeL Arena.
Cronin was the first of three Irish competitors up in the mixed individual event where he beat Nurul Mohammad of Singapore 6-4. He now qualifies for Thursday’s last 16 round.
Bobbie Connolly and Tom Leahy will hope to follow that example with wins of their own when they take to the court in the BC2 classification later this afternoon. Leahy faces Abilio Valente of Portugal at 4.40pm while Connolly is up against Robert Mezik of Slovakia at 5.45pm.
In cycling, there was disappointment for world champion Cathal Miller in the individual time trial C5. Battling cross-winds, Miller finished 11th in a time 35:14.82 at Brands hatch, more than three minutes behind gold medal winner Yegor Dementyev of Ukraine (32:12.98).
“I negative splitted throughout the race, going faster as it went on. I did the best Time Trial of the year,” Miller said afterwards, adding that it was particularly sweet to get one back on Team GB’s John Allen Butterworth who passed him in the pursuit race.
“The best part is I passed Butterworth, my one minute man”.
Enda Smyth finished 14th in the C3 time trial (27:30.64) while Colin Lynch narrowly missed out on a podium finish in the C2 event. Lynch’s time of 24:58.23 was less than 20 seconds off the bronze medal pace of Maurice Eckhard of Spain.
In shooting, 19th place was not enough to see Seán Baldwin throiugh to the final of the R7 – 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 event in the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Ireland’s sailing trio of John Twomey, Ian Costello and Anthony Hegarty started the day with 13th and 10th place finishes in races eight and nine of the three-person keelboat (sonar) class. The Irish team have one race to come in Weymouth this afternoon.
Over at the Olympic stadium, Ailish Dunne finished 12th and Nadine Lattimore finished 19th in the final of the Shot Put F11/F12 final. Team Ireland’s youngest member Heather Jameson finished seventh in her 200m T37 heat in a time of 32.76, bringing an end to her debut Paralympics.
Collated Results
BocciaBC3 Mixed Individual
Johnny Cronin (IRL) bt N.B Mohammad Taha (SG) 6-4
Shooting
R7 – 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1
Qualifiers: 1. D Sharziri (ISR) 1157, 2. J Jakobsson (SWE) 1155, 3.C Dong (CHN) 1152, 19. S Baldwin (IRL) 1112
Athletics
Shot Put F11/12 Final
Medallists: 1. A Legnante (ITA) 1001, 2.H Tang (CHN) 1008, 3. L Zhang (CHN) 1003,
12. A Dunne (IRL) 808, 18. N Lattimore (IRL) 705
200m T37 Heat 1
Heat 1: 1. M Seifert (GER) 29.87, 2. O Krechunyak (UKR) 30.02, 3. V Kravchenko (UKR) 30.33,
7. H. Jameson (IRL) 32.76
Cycling
Individual Time Trial C5
Medallists: 1. Y Dementyev (UKR) 32:12.98, 2. X Liu (CHN) 32:21.03, 3. M Gallagher (AUS) 33:12.03, 11. C. Miller (IRL) 35:14.82
Individual Time Trial C3
Medallists: 1.D Nicholas (AUS) 23:22.13, 2. J Berenyi (USA) 23:31.73, 3. M Fujita (JPN) 23:55.54,
14. E. Smyth (IRL) 27:30.64
Individual Time Trial C2
Medallists: 1. T Graf (GER) 24:35.12, 2. G Liang (CHN) 24:40.33, 3. M Eckhard Tio (ESP) 24:40.7,
5. C. Lynch (IRL) 24:58.23
Sailing
Three Person Keelboat
Race 8 Placing: 13. Ireland
Race 9 Placing: 10. Ireland
