Galway para equestrian rider Sarah Slattery produced a fairytale finish in the Chateau de Versailles after getting an 11th hour call-up to the Grade V Freestyle final and then producing the best score of her life to finish seventh.
“Fairytale is literally the only word for it,” said the 34-year-old from Tynagh. “This is only the second time I’ve ridden freestyle at an international competition and the score (71.795) was a personal best as well.”
Slattery’s ninth place, with her 16-year-old bay mare Savona, in the Grade V individual test earlier in the week was just one place short of making the Grade V Freestyle final but it left her ‘first reserve’.
When one rider was forced to withdraw after today’s early morning vet checks she was suddenly propelled into the final and, once there, produced a dream ride.
The freestyle final is performed to each rider’s customised music and Slattery confessed she had only previously ridden hers once, so unprepared was she for reaching the final.
“Coming in here my goal was just to make selection for the Irish team and get a top 10. I never dreamed I’d make the freestyle final,” she revealed.
“But my mother (Linda, who was also her groom in Paris) was insistent I had a freestyle prepared. I’d only actually ridden it once. My coach Niels Bax and I were down in the stables, running through it on video in the two hours prep we had beforehand.
“It was just magical,” Slattery said of making the Grade V premier dressage final on her Games’ debut. “I’ve just got the rosette and plaque for seventh place in a Paralympic final and I honestly don’t have words to describe it.
“Right now I’m struggling to take it all in. Savona is having a well-earned snooze and I think I need a nap myself because all the adrenaline has gone out of my body and I’m suddenly exhausted,” she laughed.
The last Irish athlete in action at the Stade de France, Kilkenny thrower Mary Fitzgerald, qualified for her second F40 Shot Put final and finished eighth with a best throw of 7.64m.
The 24-year-old from Gowran AC was ranked fifth thanks to her personal best of 8.87m this season but, on an unseasonally wet and cold morning in Paris, just could not find her sharpest form.
She opened her series with 7:49m. Her best throw came in the second round and was enough to make the top eight who got three extra throws, but she could not improve on that.
Reflecting immediately afterwards Fitzgerald said: “Sometimes you just have those days and today wasn’t my day. After all the warm weather training I’ve done the weather was unexpected, but you have to be able to deal with that. I really gave it my best; it just wasn’t to be.”
The gold was won, in a new Paralympic record of 9:10m by Netherland’s world record holder Lara Baars with her very first throw but Poland’s defending champion Renata Sliwinska was the only other woman to reach nine metres (9:00m exactly in the second round) and Tunisia’s former world champion Raja Jebali took bronze with 8.66m.
Richael Timothy closed off Team Ireland’s para cycling events, finishing in 11th place in the Women’s C1-3 Road Race. Timothy put in a strong performance on the 56.8km course in Clichy-sous-bois, crossing the finish line with a time of 01:48:47, just over 3 minutes away from the top 10.
“It was just so hard, any bit of an incline at all with the one-sided injury, is just so hard. My goal was just stay on them for as long as I could, so I kind of had to chase back after both of the hills, three or four times, and I just couldn’t keep doing it. I did nearly two laps on my own, I didn’t want to give up.”
The Irish supporters & family helped Timothy push onwards, “It’s great to have people here watching. It’s been really good the last two weeks and to show them you’re I’m not going to give up. I’ll see what next year brings.”
Reflecting on her performance, Richael shared “I’m just not at the level I need to be at to be aiming for medals, so I just did the best I could and hopefully that’s good enough for now. I think I’ll do it next year, and then I’ll see how I’m fixed. A few things I need to change going forward, I’m just so slow in comparison to the team. On camp, you’re just getting your ass handed to you every time, so I think we just need more people of my standard as opposed to people with four legs.”
Richael shared her excitement for Team Ireland’s achievements throughout the Games, “The girls have been amazing – not just cycling – athletics & swimming too. The lads are here but the girls are really showing them how it’s done!”
Day 10 Paralympics Games Results (Saturday 7th September)
| Richael Timothy | Para Cycling (Road) | C1-3 Women’s Road Race | 01:48:47 – 11th place |
| Sarah Slattery | Para Equestrian | Grade V Freestyle final | 71:795 – 7th place |
| Mary Fitzgerald | Para Athletics | F40 Shot Put Final | 7:64m – 8th place |
Day 10 Paralympics Games Schedule (Saturday 7th September)
| 16.00 | Britney Arendse | Para Powerlifting | Up to 79kg Final |
