Month: September 2024

Stephen McGuire smiling with the Union Jack flag wrapped around his shoulders

Scottish Boccia Athlete Wins Paris 2024 Paralympics Gold Medal on Day 5

Scottish boccia star Stephen McGuire wins gold for ParalympicsGB and his first ever Paralympic medal.

By Bethany Lee 


Scotland’s Stephen McGuire just won a 2024 Paralympics gold medal on day five in Paris. 

The star from Hamilton dominated the men’s BC4 individual final against Columbia’s Edilson Chica Chica – which marked the inaugural final for this boccia category at a Paralympic Games.  

There was not a dry eye in the audience of GB supporters, or the thousands watching on the livestream, as Stephen celebrated his win. 

“I’ve played this sport for 20 years and I’ve been in every possible final, apart from the Paralympics, I’ve never even been to the podium. I was starting to feel this event was getting away from me, two fourths in London, another fourth in Rio, I didn’t even make the semis in Tokyo, it just shows why you should never give up,” said Stephen. 

Despite drawing three all by the second end, Stephen took a magnificent lead in the third, dominating the game after a few mistakes from Chica Chica. 

His victory looked almost certain by the final end, but Stephen kept his cool, bringing it home with an 8-3 win and securing the gold medal.  

Stephen said: “I felt really confident in the final. My flatmate is David Smith and he’s won three golds, he told me to have no regrets and told me not to settle for silver, just go for it.” 

Stephen’s older brother and boccia player, Peter McGuire, commentated on the game for Channel 4. As Stephen took the win, Peter got emotional.  

When asked what this means for him and his family, Peter tearfully said: “I can’t describe it right now, it means not only acceptance, but we’re here and we’re strong. It’s hard to put into words.” 

The victory comes after an incredible Paralympics for Stephen, only losing one game the entire tournament. 

“There wasn’t many nerves, there were more in the semi-final because I’ve lost the last three. It’s a Paralympic final, I may never reach another one, so I told myself to enjoy it,” Stephen said. 

Stephen has been working towards this for twenty years, finishing fourth at three previous Paralympic Games and coming back from a knee injury in 2021. He has had an amazing year in the sport, winning 17 out of his previous 18 international matches. However, qualifying for Paris 2024 was never guaranteed. 

“The easiest way to qualify [for the Paralympics] is through the pairs but I didn’t make it, so I had to focus everything on the individual. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of soul searching and I was the last person to be named on this team, the others knew months ago. It’s been an unbelievable season, I’ve made a final in every competition I’ve entered.” 

 A well-deserved win in Paris for Stephen and for ParalympicsGB. 

The Paris 2024 Paralympics runs from the 28th August – 8th September. You can follow all the action and find out how the 21 Scottish Para athletes get on by following Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, X and Instagram, as well as on the SDS website. You can catch all the action on Channel 4. More information here  

Stephen McGuire on the podium biting his gold medal

After 20 years of Chasing a Paralympic Medal, Stephen McGuire Gets Paralympic Gold 

Scotland’s Stephen McGuire wins inaugural BC4 boccia gold ahead of Nathan Macqueen’s gold in Para archery, on day five of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

It’s been the perfect Games for Stephen McGuire in Paris, who ends his fourth Paralympic Games with a gold medal in the men’s individual BC4.  

A Paralympic medal was the only medal that the Scot had never won. He had been chasing this dream for 20 years and finally, on Monday 2nd September, he was crowned Paralympic champion. 

“I’ve played this sport for 20 years and I’ve been in every possible final, apart from the Paralympics, I’ve never even been to the podium. I was starting to feel this event was getting away from me, two fourths in London, another fourth in Rio, I didn’t even make the semis in Tokyo, it just shows why you should never give up.” Said Stephen. 

Stephen got off to a great start to take the first end 3-0, against Colombia’s Edilson Chica Chica.   

The Colombian fought back in the second end though to draw level at the halfway point (3-3). Stephen needed to bounce back and lean on his years of experience to get himself back in front. The Scot did exactly that – he remained calm and dominated the third end with a further 5 points (8-3). 

The Colombian had to pull something special out of the bag to leapfrog into the lead. However, Stephen only allowed his opponent to score two points after strategically setting up some good block balls. 

Errors made by Edilson in the first and third ends proved critical and Stephen claimed the title, with a final score of 8-5.  

The Para athlete from Hamilton went on to say: “The easiest way to qualify is through the pairs but I didn’t make it, so I had to focus everything on the individual. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of soul searching and I was the last person to be named on this team, the others knew months ago. It’s been an unbelievable season, I’ve made a final in every competition I’ve entered. 

“There wasn’t many nerves, there were more in the semi-final because I’ve lost the last three. It’s a Paralympic final, I may never reach another one, so I told myself to enjoy it.” 

The Scots won a second gold medal on day five of the Games thanks to Nathan Macqueen and teammate Jodie Grinham (ENG), who showed great composure on their way to bagging gold in the mixed team compound open, in Para archery.  

Their path to the podium followed a 150-141 over Australia in the quarterfinals and a new Paralympic record in the semifinals against Italy with a score of 156 (v 149).  

The duo looked solid heading into the gold final where they faced Fatemeh Hemmati and Hadi Nori (IRI). The pair shot some incredible arrows in very tense moments. They kept their cool to take the Paralympic title, winning 155-151.  

“It’s pure relief. This is my third Games and I hadn’t medalled. We are both parents now and there is a lot of sacrifice being a high-performance athlete, being away from your children. They are the hardest bits but this has made it all worth it, I can give my wee boy a medal.” Said the Scotsman. 

Sammi Kinghorn and Melanie Woods were racing in the same event today on the Para athletics track. The Scottish duo clocked 3:34.83 and 3:20.70 respectively, to seal their places in tomorrow’s 1500m T54 final.  

Just one year after giving birth to her son, Alison Peasgood delivered a terrific swim-bike-run to finish fourth in the women’s Para triathlon PTVI (vision impairment). Alison, with guide Brooke Gillies, clocked a time of 1:09:21.  

“I’m just completely overwhelmed.” Said Alison after the race.  

Despite Paris being Alison’s third Paralympic Games (Rio 2016 silver, Tokyo 2020 4th), it is the first time she has been guided by 26-year-old fellow Scot, Brooke, at a Paralympics.

“Give me a whole year and I’ll be fully fit but I’m just so proud of Brooke for supporting me through this.” Alison said.  

Reflecting on the past year, the 36-year-old Para athlete from Dunfermline said: “It’s been a rollercoaster, there’s nothing you can compare it to. There are days where you feel amazing, there’s days where you feel awful but ultimately no matter what I do I know Logan (son) is going to want to play with me. He’s here, probably fast asleep somewhere.” 

In Para table tennis, Martin Perry’s Paralympic campaign concluded in Paris after a defeat in the men’s singles SM6, last 16.  

Ian Seidenfeld of USA got the better of Martin in each set, 11-5, 11-5, 11-9.  

“This has been the highlight of my career and up there with one of the best experiences of my life”, Martin said.  

“This whole experience has been everything I’ve wanted it to be and more despite the results. Obviously they would have been the cherry on top but the whole experience and privilege of being at the Paralympics and representing my country at the highest level is a honour I will never forget.” 

Gordon Reid continued his winning ways in the men’s wheelchair tennis singles.  

Gordon used his extensive experience to ease through to the quarter finals with a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 win against Japan’s Takuya Miki. 

He will face the talented Argentinian Gustavo Fernandez in the last eight. Gustavo has the slight edge in head-to-head matches over the 58 times (27 v 31) they have played each other. 

Reid will very much see this as the business end of the event beginning now and a chance to get to the final four in what will undoubtedly be a tough fixture.

The Paris 2024 Paralympics runs from the 28th August – 8th September. You can follow all the action and find out how the 21 Scottish Para athletes get on by following Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, X and Instagram, as well as on the SDS website. You can catch all the action on Channel 4. More information here.  

Photo of Gordon Reid stretching to hit the tennis ball.

Gordon Reid Makes Strong Start to Wheelchair Tennis Events in Paris 

The four-time Paralympic medallist won twice today to begin his quest for more success in impressive fashion 

By Paul Morrison 


Day 4 of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games saw Scotland star Gordon Reid take to the courts at Roland Garros to begin his events in wheelchair tennis. On a busy Sunday on the clay, the ParalympicsGB athlete was in action twice as he started both his singles and doubles tournaments. 

Up first for Gordon was a match in the singles against Sri Lanka’s Suresh Dharmasena. With this Paralympic match-up being the first time the two players would face off, it could have been a tricky contest for Gordon after Dharmasena enjoyed a comfortable straight-set win in the opening round against Austria’s Josef Riegler. 

Gordon was locked in from the first point as he was straight off the block with breaking the Sri Lankan’s serve in the opening game and despite facing a break point on his first service game, Gordon held to take an early lead. 

A second and third break came quicky after as Gordon quickly wrapped up the first set 6-0, with Dharmasena’s many unforced errors and double faults proving costly. 

The same story followed for the second set when Gordon once again cruised through each service and return game as his opponent’s error count only increased. The Scot would go on to claim victory with another set to love as the match finished 6-0, 6-0 in 50 minutes. 

Gordon was pleased with his performance and of the conditions at Roland Garros, saying: “For the first match, to get used to the conditions, courts, match play, I’m happy with the start.” 

He added: “I love the heat and a bit of humidity, get a sweat on. It’s nice conditions so hopefully it stays like this for the rest of the week. It’s going to get harder from here but I’m looking forward to the challenge.” 

In the afternoon, Gordon turned to doubles action with teammate Alfie Hewitt as the top seeds looked to start their campaign strong in the hope of achieving gold together for the first time. 

They were up against the Chilean pair of Alexander Cataldo and Brayan Tapia which proved to be a much more difficult match for Gordon. Serving first, the Scot experienced a shaky start as his serve was broken, handing the Chileans the lead. 

It wouldn’t take long before the Brits settled into the match as while it wasn’t all comfortable for them and were forced to save some more break points, Gordon and Alfie won six consecutive games to take the first set 6-1. 

After breaking serve again to lead 2-1 in the second set, Gordon was unable to hold his serve for a second time. The advantage was immediately restored afterwards when the Brits broke to love to lead 3-2 after a third straight break of serve in the set. 

A long and gruelling game tested Alfie’s serving skills as they took the game after several cagey moments at deuce. 

A collection of unforced errors saw the Chileans throw away a service game to hand Gordon the chance to serve for the match. For a third time though, the Scot was broken to hand Cataldo and Tapia a lifeline. 

The British pair followed this up by showing how well they can bounce back from a hiccup, firing home three forehand winners to seal the win at 6-1, 6-3. 

Along with the strong performance, Gordon was delighted with the atmosphere that was seen throughout the day of action at Roland Garros. 

“It’s amazing to see the whole place and every stadium and every court so busy and to know that everybody is here purely for wheelchair tennis is an incredible feeling and incredible for us to be part of it,” he said. 

“Hopefully we’ve entertained a few people and we’ll have the chance to do that again as the week goes on.” 

The pair will now face the Netherlands’ Ruben Spaargaren and Maarten Ter Hofte (7) on Tuesday (3rd September) in the quarter finals. 

On Monday (2nd), he will be back on court to face Japan’s Takuyo Mika in the third round of the singles after the 9th seed defeated the People’s republic of China’s, Jinhui Ding, earlier today. 

The Paris 2024 Paralympics runs from the 28th August – 8th September. You can follow all the action and find out how the 21 Scottish Para athletes get on by following Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, X and Instagram, as well as on the SDS website. You can catch all the action on Channel 4. More information here.  

Podium photo of Jenny Holl and Sophie Unwin with their gold medals. They have their arms in the air and are smiling to the crowd

Scots Add Three More Medals and a New World Record to the Tally at Paris 2024

There was plenty of action on day four in Paris as the Scots scooped up a further three medals and set another world record, on Sunday 1st September.  

It was a second medal in Paris for Jenny Holl, who piloted Sophie Unwin to gold in the women’s B 3000m individual pursuit. 

“We’ve completed the set now, when you include our Tokyo medals, we’re done!” Exclaimed Jenny. 

The pair made their intentions very clear after qualifying for the final with a new world best time of 3:17.643. Although they couldn’t catch their own blistering time in the final, the duo took the title with another impressive time of 3:19.149, a gap of 2.166 seconds to second placed Katie George-Dunlevy and pilot Eve McCrystal (IRL).  

“We needed to do something new, we came second at the World Champs this year. We had nothing more than that, that’s what we had then. We didn’t want another silver medal.” Said Holl, the 24-year-old from Blair Drummond.  

The win takes their medal tally to one gold and one silver in Paris. 

Neil Fachie, piloted by Matt Rotherham, sealed silver in the men’s B 1000m time trial in the velodrome. The defending champion headed into the final with the fourth fastest time of 1:00.543. In order to guarantee a podium finish the pair would have to break the one minute barrier. Despite achieving this and clocking a time of 59.312, teammate James Ball and pilot Steffan Lloyd bettered the duo by 0.348 seconds. A thrilling final and first medal in Paris for Neil and Matt.  

“I think we’re both proud of ourselves. We came for the gold but it was always going to be hard. I thought we rode really well all day today, we executed the plan the way we wanted it to. Our opening lap has been mega, but I felt like I didn’t have the legs at the end of the race today and that’s where our teammates had the better of us. It’s the only time they’ve ever gone quicker than us so fair play to them, I think we can be really proud of ourselves, we couldn’t have done more today.” Said Neil.  

From the Para cycling track to the Para athletics track, both Melanie Woods and Sammi Kinghorn were in action in the 800m T54 and T53 respectively.  

Melanie clocked a new PB time of 1:45.81 to finish third in her heat and bag her spot in the 800m final T54. The Para athlete from Glasgow put in another solid performance in the final, setting another PB time of 1:43.85 to finish fifth.  

Sammi Kinghorn had a straight final of the women’s 800m T53 and claimed silver behind Catherine Debrunner (SUI) who retained her Paralympic crown. 

Sammi secured the silver medal with a superb time of 1:42.96. 

In boccia, the dream of finally winning a Paralympic medal has come true for Stephen McGuire as he progresses to the gold medal final of the men’s individual BC4 competition (Monday 2nd, 4pm BST).  

Stephen leaned on his years of experience and kept his cool to beat Davor Komar 5-3 in the semifinal (1-0, 3-0, 1-0, 0-3).  

“It’s incredible. It’s 20 years hard work, I’ve wanted this for 20 years. I’ve been working with my coach for 10 years so it’s been a long, long process. To finally get that medal for myself and ParalympicsGB is a dream come true.” Said Stephen. 

Reflecting on his semifinal performance, the 40-year-old from Hamiltonn said: “He [Davor] is European champion so it was always going to be a tough game but I just battled. I got the angles I needed, put him under pressure and scored points at critical moments, which was key.” 

A Paralympic medal is the only medal that Stephen hasn’t got. The only question that remains now, is will it be silver or gold.  

“I’ll certainly enjoy the final. I perform well in finals, there’s no pressure as you’ve made it to the end. I’ve enjoyed the whole event and I will enjoy the final.” 

Stephen will face Colombia’s Edilson Chica Chica in the tomorrow’s (2nd) final.  

Meanwhile Edinburgh’s Patrick Wilson’s Paralympic campaign came to an end when Croatia’s Damian Iskrzycki (with ramp operator, Dariusz Borowski) defeated him 4-1, in the men’s individual BC3 quarterfinal.  

“Pretty gutted. I was trying to do the right things but they weren’t coming off. I almost came back in the third end but it didn’t quite happen.” Said Paddy. 

Reflecting on the game, he said: “I definitely belong here but at the moment need to put it all behind me.” 

“We can never forget the support we have. Great support from friends and family.” 

Despite the loss, Patrick (with ramp operator Meredith Greenwood) put in a solid performance in what was an extremely competitive event.  

It was a nail-biting quarter final in Para archery, with Nathan Macqueen up for Great Britain in the men’s individual compound. Nathan was beaten by just one point (143-142) by the American Matt Stutzman (the ‘armless archer’).  

“I think it was lost on the first end. I shot 9-8-9 and if I hadn’t done that, I would have had him. I’ve shot against him before but never in this kind of setting, final-style.” Said Nathan. 

“It’s quite hard, it was noisy – I thought I was up against a Frenchman for a second. I’ll chill now, see my family – I shot really well, it was just that first end. I’m happy and I’ll go into tomorrow (mixed team) with confidence.” 

Nathan will play alongside Jodie Grinham in the Mixed Team Compound Open Quarterfinal, tomorrow (2nd) at 4:50pm BST. 

Faye Rogers made headlines in the pool this morning by breaking the Scottish record in the women’s 100m freestyle S10, with a time of 1:01.90. After finishing joint third in the morning heats with Columbian swimmer Maria Paula Barrera Zapata, Faye was forced to compete in a swim-off but missed out on a Paralympic debut final by 0.06 seconds.  

“I couldn’t be happier. I know I didn’t win and didn’t make the final but it was a huge PB and I can’t ask for much more than that and the first time I’ve been under 62 seconds which is cool.” Said Faye. 

She continued to say: “The crowd is motivating me so much. I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with it but it’s the coolest thing ever. I get so excited walking out and I’m trying to stop grinning the whole time which is really hard as I actually love it.” 

It was a solid start in Paris for Gordon Reid, who took the win in both opening pool matches in the men’s wheelchair tennis singles and doubles.  

He cruised to victory in the singles first, beating Sri Lanka’s Suresh Dharmasena 6-0, 6-0.  

 “I’m happy with that as a starting point. He can be a tricky opponent, if you give him time he can strike a good ball so I think I made it uncomfortable for him. For the first match, to get used to the conditions, courts, match play, I’m happy with the start.” Said Gordon. 

 Gordon, who is ranked number five, will face Japan’s Takuya Miki (ninth seed) tomorrow (2nd) at 11am BST. 

 The Scot had a few hours to rest and recharge ahead of his doubles game with Alfie Hewett against Chile’s Alexander Cataldo and Bryan Tapia. The duo left plenty in the tank though to take the game 6-1, 6-3. 

It’s a fifth consecutive Paralympic Games for Gordon and together with Alfie, they’ll be searching for the one big doubles title that has eluded them so far. 

In wheelchair basketball, it was another defeat for Robyn Love and Jodie Waite, after losing to Canada in yesterday’s pool game and today to the People’s Republic of China. 

The People’s Republic of China continued their winning streak to remain undefeated in their pool in Paris. Despite a thrilling fourth quarter, the final score read 47-62 (9-16, 13-18, 9-11, 16-17). The result of tonight’s Canada versus Spain game, will determine where Great Britain finish in Pool A.  

The Paris 2024 Paralympics runs from the 28th August – 8th September. You can follow all the action and find out how the 21 Scottish Para athletes get on by following Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, X and Instagram, as well as on the SDS website. You can catch all the action on Channel 4. More information here.