Day two of the Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo brought further medal success in the velodrome for Scots on the ParalympicsGB team.
Cycling
The second day of the cycling competition at the Izu Velodrome saw Scotland’s Aileen McGlynn OBE start her Tokyo campaign, with pilot Helen Scott, in the Women’s B 1000m Time Trial. Aileen, competing in her fourth Summer Paralympic Games, set the pace with a time of 1:06.743 to lead the competition. The Scots remained in pole position until the very last heat when Larissa Klassen and pilot Imke Brommer from the Netherlands posted a time of 1:05.291 to snatch the gold medal. A magnificent silver medal for Aileen, bringing her Paralympic medal haul to three gold, three silver and a bronze.
Scotland’s Jenny Holl was also in action in the Women’s B 1000m Time Trial, piloting Sophie Unwin to a time of 1:08.701 and a 5th place finish.
Next on the track was Fin Graham, making his Paralympic debut in Tokyo in the Men’s C3 3000m Individual Pursuit. In his qualifying ride, Fin smashed the existing seven-year old world record, the longest standing in track para-cycling, with an incredible time of 3:19.780. However, his record was destined only to last around 20 minutes, when fellow ParalympicsGB rider, Jaco van Gass, recorded a time of 3:17.593 to set a new world best time.
The back-to-back world records meant the ParalympicsGB pair would race for the major medals, with Van Gass taking the victory by 1.13 seconds in a winning time of 3:20.987.
A magnificent silver medal for Fin on his Paralympic debut, who said;
“It means everything, even if it was only for a short time, it’s so nice to say that I’ve broken the world record at the Paralympics. It stood for so long.”
“The extra year has given me the time to prepare to do that. If the Games were last year, I wouldn’t have been in such a good position.”
Swimming
Andrew Mullen (S5), along with Ellie Challis (S3), Will Perry (S4) and Ellie Robinson (S6), was a member of ParalympicsGB’s mixed 4x50m Freestyle Relay 20 points team that set a 7th fastest qualifying time of 2:42.42 for a spot in the final. The ParalympicsGB quartet were back in the pool for the final later in the day and posted a time of 2:48.34 for an 8th place finish.
Wheelchair Basketball
Scotland’s Robyn Love and Jude Hamer were back in action in the Women’s Wheelchair Basketball competition having lost their opening Group A match to Canada yesterday. It was destined to be another a frustrating day for the ParalympicsGB side as they suffer their second Group defeat by 54-48.
Japan established an early 25-21 lead after a tight opening two quarters, before pulling away to lead by 12 points at the end of the third. The impetus continued to be with Japan in the fourth quarter, inflicting a second loss in Group A for ParalympicsGB.
At the conclusion of day two, the Scottish medal count has increased to two silver and one bronze.
Photo – courtesy of imagecomms