This evening, Barry McClements brought the curtain down on a memorable two weeks of Para swimming at the La Défense Arena, as Team Ireland’s action in the pool came to an end at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Under head coach Kevin Anderson at National Centre Ulster, McClements entered tonight’s 100m Butterfly S9 Final as the sixth fastest qualifier (1:01.85), improving on his Tokyo 2020 performance, where he did not progress beyond the heats.
Swimming in lane seven, McClements stayed with the pack throughout the two lengths of the Paris pool, stopping the clock at 1:01.24 to finish fifth. This time marked a new lifetime best, surpassing his previous best of 1:01.39, set at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships.
Speaking directly after the final, McClements said: “I got a PB, so I can’t not be happy, I’m definitely capable of going the time that got bronze (1:01.08), so it’s a bit bittersweet but I can’t be angry going a PB. The race was perfectly executed in my opinion, to get a medal was always going to be me having a good race and a lot of people having a bad race, everyone out there had a good race.
“If I look back three years ago, I didn’t even have a place to train, I had to train away from home for year, that didn’t quite work out. I’ve moved back home, and I’ve only been with my new coach (Kevin Anderson) a year and a half, I owe lot of credit to him and to my team back home. Kevin (Anderson), Ryan (Keating), Sinead (Chambers) and Dave (Thompson), they really helped make the dream come through. I’ve got another four years until LA; I’m looking forward to it.”
Speaking on his experience in Tokyo, McClements added: “I’m actually so happy, in Tokyo I kind of forgot to enjoy the races, here I really enjoyed them, so I’m really happy. I’ve been away for a month now, it was great to seeing my family up there, I can’t wait to see them, I’ve really enjoyed the experience. In Tokyo, I only made one final, now I’ve made two finals and in fifth I was really close to a medal. I’m really excited to see what the next four years holds.”
After two weeks of excitement and emotion, tonight’s final brings Team Ireland’s action in the pool to an end, coming away with a silver and bronze medal, both delivered by Róisín Ní Riain.
Elsewhere Ireland’s equestrians achieved their top 10 goal in the Team Event at Versaille, thanks to all riders improving their scores from the individual tests earlier in the week.
Michael Murphy and Cleverboy, competing in Grade I, scored highest of the trio with 73:083%.
Paralympic debutant Sarah Slattery and Savona had a score of 68.895 % in Grade V and the particularly new partnership of Kate Kerr-Horan and Lykkebo’s Don Akino scored 66:567 in Grade III.
That produced a total of 208.545 % to clinch 10th place overall, two higher than Ireland achieved in Tokyo three years ago and less than one per cent behind ninth-placed Austria in an event won by America (235.567), ahead of Netherlands (232.80) and Germany (223.751).
“Regardless of the score I was super happy, because myself and Cleverboy gave everything we could for the team,” Murphy said. “In the past we’ve had better scores but I think it’s the best test we’ve ever done and I’m so glad I was able to do that for the team, especially as Sarah had already put in an amazing performance.”
The Galway woman said: “The first day I was only riding for myself, but today I was riding for Team Ireland. I really wanted to do well for the team. That meant I felt a little more pressure today but we finished on over 68% again and I’m really thrilled.”
Kerr has only had ‘Akino’ for a year so was delighted with how he coped. “He has surpassed every expectation I had of him. We only did our first international competition in March and, when I got him, he was actually afraid of the letters around the arena. I wanted to ride the best test I could, not only for my horse but for the rest of the team. To finish top 10 is amazing.”
Like Murphy, Kerr-Horan also competed in Tokyo three years ago and she said Paris 2024 was phenomenal in every respect, not least its 15,000 volunteers.
“In my wildest dreams I could never have expected it would be so friendly,” the Wicklow rider said.
“As a Para athlete you never want to say ‘can you help me?’ or at least I don’t. It’s not in my vocabulary to say I need help,” she admitted. “But here the volunteers are so nice, everyone is just so willing to help and always with a smile.”
Day 9 Paralympics Games Results (Friday 6th September)
| Sarah Slattery | Para Equestrian Team Dressage | Grade V | 68:895% – 10th place |
| Michael Murphy | Para Equestrian Team Dressage | Grade I | 73:083% – 10th place |
| Kate Kerr-Horan | Para Equestrian Team Dressage | Grade III | 66:567% – 10th place |
| Barry McClements | Para Swimming | S9 100m Fly Final | 1:01.24 PB – 5th place |
Day 10 Paralympics Games Schedule (Saturday 7th September) (times subject to change)
| 8.35 | Richael Timothy | Para Cycling (Road) | C1-3 Women’s Road Race |
| 10.51 | Mary Fitzgerald | Para Athletics | F40 Shot Put Final |
| 16.00 | Britney Arendse | Para Powerlifting | Up to 79kg Final |
