DARRAGH MCDONALD QUALIFIES FOR S6 50M FREESTYLE FINAL
MORNING HIGHLIGHTS:
Ireland’s James Dwyer finished in 6th place overall in the Equestrian Freestyle Test Grade IV Greenwich Park this morning with a score of 74.40%.
Equestrian team manager Dara Kearney said after the event:
“I was very please with James Dwyer’s performance. James rode superbly achieving a personal best. He gave it everything, had no wrong moves and the score speaks for itself. “
Sean Baldwin took part in the 50 m Rifle Prone today his 3rd competition of the London 2012 Paralympics Games. It was his best performance to date, scoring a new personal best of 585 to finish 18th of the 48 competitors. It was only four marks away from the qualifying score for the eight man final which was 589.
Sean said
“I’m happy with that performance in tricky conditions. I was aiming for 590 as I reckoned that would be the qualifying mark for the final but I am satisfied with the PB and I am well set up for my final competition tomorrow”.
Gold medallist Darragh McDonald was back in action this morning following his heroics in the pool on Saturday night. McDonald, who won Gold in the S6 400m Freestyle on Saturday, was competing in the S6 50m Freestyle event.
The Asgard SC swimmer went into this morning’s heats as the 12th fastest qualifier but set a new personal best of 33.15 to qualify in 8th position for this evening’s final.
Speaking after the race, McDonald commented
“A .2 second PB, I’m happy it was enough to make the final and there’s room for improvement later on”.
In the days following his Gold medal win he said:
“It still hasn’t set in, I’m just focusing on getting the competition finished then I’ll relax and rest and think about the Gold, but there’s still work to be done so I’m just focusing on that”.
Limericks James McCarthy finished 13th position overall in this morning’s Shot Putt F57/58 competition Final with a throw of 10.70.
Speaking about his experience McCarthy commented:
“I think in the first putt, I may have had a rush of blood to the head. For the second one I needed to relax and start doing what I had been doing in training. For the third one I just went for it and that was my best throw. It was a dream come true to be back here sixteen years after my last games in Atlanta and to have my family here to see it.”
COLLATED RESULTS:
Equestrian
Equestrian Freestyle Test:
Medallists: 1. M George (BEL) 82.100, 2. S Wells (GBR) 81.150, 3. F Hosmar (NED) 78.600,
J Dwyer (IRL) placed 6th with 74.400
Shooting
Qualifiers: 1. A.S Alaryani (UAE) 592. 2. J Jakobsson (SWE) 591, J.A Saavedra Reinaldo (ESP) 590
S Baldwin (IRL) placed 18th with 585
Swimming
Qualifiers: 1. L Perez Escalona (CUB) 29.98. 2. Q XU (CHN) 30.11, 3. T Zheng (CHN) 30.33
8. D McDonald (IRL) 33.15
Athletics
Qualifiers: 1. A Ashapatov (RUS) 16.20. 2. J Rokicki (POL) 15.68, 3. M Louwrens (RSA) 13.64
J McCarthy(IRL) placed 13th with 10.70
LATER TODAY:
Helen Kearney
Equestrian
Individual Freestyle Test – Grade Ia
15:45 – 18:00
Geraldine Savage
Equestrian
Individual Freestyle Test – Grade Ia
15:45 – 18:00
Darragh McDonald
Swimming
50m Freestyle S6 Final*
17:42 – 17:47
Ray O’Dwyer
Athletics
Shot Put F34 Final
19:03 – 21:20
Orla Barry
Athletics
Discus Throw F57/58 Final
19:00
