It was a “Fantastic Friday” on day ten of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympic Games with five medals for Scots across four different sports.
Athletics
Fife’s Owen Miller is making his Paralympic debut in Tokyo and what a debut it was destined to be. Owen took to the track for the final of the T20 Men’s 1500m and blew the field away to take the gold medal. Owen was in fifth position with 400m to go but stayed patient and kicked hard down the back straight to move into second place. He hovered on the shoulder of the Russian Paralympic Committee’s Alexander Rabotnitskii and overtook him on the last bend before sprinting home to stop the clock in 3:54.57.
After his gold medal winning performance. Owen said;
“It is my first Paralympic Games and what an experience, it is really hard going but the work I have done in the last 18 months has really paid off and helped me,”
“If it wasn’t for all the support back home I wouldn’t be here today. It means the world to me and I have done my best.”
“I was third in the world in Dubai 2019 so to be number one now is quite the experience and I have never done it in my life. This is the best day of my life.”
The 4x100m universal relay team of Scotland’s Libby Clegg, Jonnie Peacock, Ali Smith and Nathan Maguire safely made it through to the evening session’s final by qualifying third fastest in a time of 47.86. The ParalympicsGB quartet set a time of 47.50 in the final to secure the silver medal behind the USA who took gold.
Libby said this medal trumped her double gold in Rio;
“I’m so privileged and proud to be a part of this team and share this moment with these guys,”
“Right now this is my proudest moment – being part of this team.”
“I’m going to take some time out but this is my last running competition, unless I dabble in a sports day when my son is at primary school.”
“To end my athletics career with this medal is a dream come true.”
Reigning Paralympic champion, Jo Butterfield, started the defence of her F51 Women’s Club Throw title in the Olympic Stadium today. Despite throwing a season’s best of 21.77, Jo finished the competition just outside the medals in 4th place.
Ben Rowlings was back on action in the Olympic Stadium for the heats of the T43 Men’s 800m. Ben raced home in a time of 1:48.21 to finish in 4th position which was enough to see him through to tomorrows final.
Swimming
Stephen Clegg qualified second fastest in his heat to set up a push at his own 100m butterfly S12 world record and Paralympic gold. The Scot led the race throughout, turning in 26.98 and winning in a time of 59.13. Stephen was determined to break 56.75 in the final, the new world best time he set in Sheffield in April.
He had already won a pair of bronze medals in Tokyo and came into this final as the world record holder. However, he was to face Azerbaijan’s Raman Salei, who had won two golds coming into this event and had also qualified fastest for the final. Stephen surged into the lead on the final 25m, but Salai fought back and touched in 57.81, six hundredths of a second ahead of Stephen, but a full second outside the ParalympicGB swimmer’s world record.
After the final Stephen said;
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, I came here to win and it is quite far short of where I wanted to be. I can’t really make any excuses, my prep coming into the meet was really good and I’ve been where I wanted to be in my other events.”
“I definitely want a gold medal from my career, so there’s no chance of me retiring any time soon. I’ll go away from this and come back with a vengeance for Paris.”
Wheelchair Tennis
Gordon Reid and doubles partner Alfie Hewett suffered further Paralympic heartbreak at the hands of French pair Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer following a dramatic three-set doubles defeat in Tokyo. The ParalympicsGB pair had lost to Houdet and Peifer in Rio and once again had to settle for silver medals at the end of a gripping match which the experienced defending champions snatched 7-5, 0-6, 7-6 (3).
Reid and Hewett fought back from losing the opening set to lead the decider 3-1 but could not capitalise before a tense tie-break went against them. The pair will return to court at the Ariake Tennis Park tomorrow to face each other in the bronze medal singles match.
After the mammoth encounter, Gordon said;
“We’re devastated right now; we came here with one job to do and that was to win the gold.”
“We both believed we were going to do it, we came in with brilliant form and tried so hard to change it from five years ago.”
“It’s going to take a while for it to sink in, I’m just proud of the way we fought to the end. We backed each other up the whole way through the match. We win together, we lose together.”
Cycling
Jenny Holl was back on her bike as pilot to Sophie Unwin for the Women‘s B Road Race at the Fuji International Speedway track. The ParalympicsGB pair posted a time of 2:36:00 to win the silver medal and round-off a hugely successful Games for the cyclists. World champions Unwin and Holl kept up with the leaders, only briefly dropping off the back of a breakaway made by Katie-George Dunlevy of Ireland and Sweden’s Louise Jannering. Dunlevy and pilot Eve McCrystal sprinted away in the final stretch to claim their second gold of the Games, while Unwin and Holl pipped the Swedes on the line to add silver to their individual pursuit bronze on the track.
Boccia
The Tokyo boccia competition was drawing to a close and today witnessed the final encounters in the pool stages ahead of tomorrow’s medal matches.
Hamilton’s Stephen McGuire was a member of the ParalympicsGB BC4 pair who faced Canada with a shot at the medals still in their own hands. ParalympicsGB were one shot down after two ends but staged a brilliant fight back to close out the match 5-2.
This led to a final Pool A encounter against Portugal for the opportunity to compete for the medals. Again, it was a close encounter which sat all square at 1-1 after two ends. However, on this occasion it was the Portuguese pair that upped their game in the latter stages and took a shot in each of the remaining two ends to win 3-1. No medal opportunity for Stephen on this occasion but some fantastic play during the Games from the world number ten.
After his last match Stephen said;
“I’m pretty disappointed to be honest. There was nothing I would have loved any more than to provide a medal for ParalympicsGB. It’s been my dream. It’s been a fantastic tournament, the third end was where the game turned around, so credit to Portugal.”
The McCowan family were also back in action today for their concluding Pool A ties in the BC3 Pairs competition. Their first match of the day was against the Thailand pair currently only one place behind them in the world rankings. At the halfway stage of the match, the ParalympicsGB pair found themselves trailing 6-0. They rallied toward the end of the match but it was too little too late and the match was eventually lost 7-3.
Their final Pool A match of the Games was against the pair from France. The ParalympicsGB pair hit top form to record a thoroughly convincing 7-0 win. Unfortunately again, not enough for progression to the medal matches but a memorable Games for Scott McCowan in particular after some great form to finish 4th in the BC3 individual competition.
After his match Scott said;
“It’s great to have so many people enjoying boccia and enjoying what they’ve seen from me playing on the court. It’s been brilliant to be back at the Paralympics again. We’ve had a great time in Tokyo.”
Shooting
Scotland’s Lesley Stewart finished 13th in the R8 Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions qualification after three years out with a major injury. Lesley finished two places ahead of ParalympicsGB team-mate Lorraine Lambert in a high-scoring qualification event. The Blairgowrie shooter scored 1133, just 14 off the eighth and final qualifying spot.
Speaking off her Tokyo experience, Lesley said;
“It has been a great experience for me at my first Paralympic Games,”
“I only qualified for these Games two months ago, so it has been a very quick turnaround from qualification to performing here in Tokyo.”
“After three years out with major injury, I am so proud to have made it here and be part of a great team.”
“This will make me stronger and know more about performing at major Games and I will reflect and learn from the experience.”
“The support from the whole team has been immense as has the welcome here in Tokyo.”
Scotland’s medal tally rises to twenty with two gold, nine silver and nine bronze after ten days of competition.
Photo – courtesy of imagecomms
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