Success for Cork's Paralympians

A Cork athlete finally got their hands on a medal when Orla Barry took bronze in the Paralympics on Tuesday night. Orla, who is 22 and from Ladysbridge, won her medal in the F57/58 Discus Throw final where she put herself in a good position from the off as she was in third position going in to the medal throw-off. However she could not register a throw further than her original throw of 28.12 which saw her finish in the bronze medal position.

A delighted Orla, who was part of the Beijing 2008 Paralympian squad where she finished in fifth position in the same competition, said: "I thought with my first throw I might not make it into the final but it ended up winning me a bronze medal. I don’t know how that happened really but I came here to get on the podium and I am going back with a bronze medal. I am absolutely delighted.

Orla is an amputee who broke on to the international scene aged just 16 in 2006 and a recent achievement includes winning gold at the 2011 IPC European Championships last June.

She continued: “It doesn’t matter that it was not my best performance, a medal is a medal. It makes up for Beijing, I am still learning, I am only 22 and Rio is ahead of me. I’ve gone from fifth to third and if that trend continues, we’re looking at great stuff.

“I tried to go in and put pressure on them. I know when I went into my second round I was in third position. I should have relaxed more but I don’t think I did. But a medal is a medal.”

Meanwhile, Mallow man Johnny Cronin advanced to the quarter finals when he won his seeding match in the Boccia BC3 Mixed Individual at the ExCel Arena yesterday. Johnny beat his Singaporean competitor Nurul Mohammad 6-4 and he received a bye in to the quarter final which takes place this morning at 12.30pm. His Boccia teammate Tom Leahy had less luck in his opening match which he lost 6-1 to Portugal's Abilio Valente. 

Cork trio John Twomey, Anthony Hegarty and Ian Costello(who is from Kerry but sails at Kinsale Yacht Club) lie in tenth place in the Three-Person Keelboat after a strong finish in yesterday's races. They started the day in thirteenth position but climbed to tenth in their second race out of three on the day. However chances of securing a medal are slim as today is the last race in the 11-race event. The three will set sail at Weymouth and Portland at 11am. 

There was disappointment for 38 year old John McCarthy from Dunmanway who finished in seventh place in the Men's 100m T51 final on Monday and he finished fifteenth in the Men's Club Throw F31/32/51 final last Friday.

Sandra Fitzgerald, from Cobh, who acts as a sighted pilot for Katie-George Dunlevy finished in fifth place in the Women's Individual B Pursuit and seventh in the Women's Individual B 1km Time Trial in track cycling. The pair finished in fifth place in the Women's Individual B Time Trial in Road Cycling and they will compete in the Women's Individual Roadrace at 10.30am on Saturday.

It has been a highly successful Paralympics across the country with Irish athletes collecting 13 medals in total, including six gold medals, and they lie in fourteenth position in the overall medal count.