Galway based athlete, Pat O’Leary, has secured a slot for Team Ireland at the Tokyo2020 Paralympic Games. O’Leary secured the slot overnight after a brilliant fifth placed at the World Championships in Szeged, Hungary.
Pat, who races in the Va’a Para canoe qualified for the VL3 Men’s 200m by winning his semi final in a time of 49:38. He bettered that performance in the final as he recorded a time of 49:27 to finish in fifth place, two seconds behind the winner; Curtis McGrath, from Australia.
The result means that Patrick has secured a slot for Ireland at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo next year. Team Ireland for the Paralympic Games will be named in July 2020 with the games themselves set to gt underway on August 25th 2020.
Elsewhere, it was a good week for Niall McVeigh who competed in the Para Badminton world championships. He was handed a tough draw in Basel where he got his campaign off to a losing start against Krysten Coombs who is ranked #2 in the world. However, he improved a lot for his final two games where he easily overcame America’s Dawson McClure and Wyatt Lightfoot to secure his place in the quarter final. However, it was another difficult draw for McVeigh who played Taresoh from Malaysia who was ranked fifth. Niall batted bravely but lost both sets 21-14 to bow out of the competition. However, with points at the world championships counting double, he has taken a significant step towards Tokyo by virtue of reaching the Quarter Finals.
