Wheelchair rugby | Paralympics Australia

Day 2 Wrap: More Medals In Swimming And Cycling

The Australian Paralympic Team has added another four medals on Day 2 of competition at Tokyo 2020, spearheaded by more success at the cycling track and in the pool.

Australian Para-cyclists collected a silver medal and a bronze, while another two bronze medals were collected by Australian Dolphins team members at Tokyo Aquatics Centre. The medals took Australia’s tally to 14, including six gold, two silver and six bronze, and fourth place behind China, Great Britain and the Russian Paralympic Committee.

At the Izu Velodrome, Darren Hicks claimed silver in the 3000m Individual Pursuit C2 and David Nicholas claimed bronze in the 3000m Individual Pursuit C3.

“I’m over the moon. It’s the most incredible feeling to work towards something and then have it come off,” Hicks said.

It was an unusual set of circumstances as Hicks was originally slated to ride for the bronze medal.

But Belgium’s Ewoud Vromat was disqualified for failing to maintain contact with his bike saddle, so Hicks was promoted to the gold medal race.

“I’m not entirely happy with my ride, I’d like to have executed a bit better (in the final),” he said.

“I was very happy with my qualifying ride, that was about as much as I had to give.

“In the second ride (the final), half of it was executed perfectly, the other half I was a little bit buggered.”

Bronze-medallist Nicholas said: “Obviously, I’m disappointed not to be on the top spot but I did a PB (personal best) and I gave it all I had over the two races. I couldn’t have done any more.”

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In the pool, Kiera Stephens won bronze in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB9 and Katja Dedekind won bronze in the women’s 100m backstroke S13.

“I am ecstatic with that swim,” Stephens said. “It’s a personal best time for me; I’ve been working really hard in training, doing some good times. Just to do that race makes everything so worth it.”

Dedekind said: “All I know is that I got a good time and a bronze medal. Obviously I don’t know all the splits and stuff, but I think that was probably the best race that I could have put forward this week.”

In wheelchair rugby, the Steelers got back on the winners list with a 50-48 victory over France.

After a shock loss to Denmark on Wednesday, the team needed to win the last two pool matches to guarantee their spot in the next round.

“We played terrible yesterday,” captain Ryley Batt said. “We weren’t ourselves and we were pretty embarrassed with how we played.

“[The win over France] was great for our confidence. We’re happy with that win but we’ve got to fight even harder tomorrow against Japan.”

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At Para-table tennis, Ma Lin and Li Na Lei were dominant again while Rebecca Julian qualified for the quarter-finals for the first time – at her third Paralympics. Ma started off his day delivering a precision-like performance to topple world No.6 Mohamed Kalem (ITA) in straight sets. He doubled up later in the day, defeating Chee (MAS) with another convincing 3-0 effort to make it three wins from three matches.

Li Na Lei also kept her perfect record, taking her third win 3-1 in a superb comeback, after conceding the first game to Kim (KOR).

In women’s basketball, the Gliders have an uphill battle ahead of them to make the quarter-finals after going down to Germany 77-58. Australia was punished for a poor first half, conceding 19 unanswered points at Musashino Forest Sports Plaza.

On the other hand the Rollers, the men’s team, got off to a winning start with a comprehensive 81-39 win over Iran.

“That was probably as impressive a first half as I’ve seen from us for a little while,” Head Coach Craig Friday said.

“Our scout was spot on so credit to the assistant coaches and the guys who executed it, which is what we needed to do. I thought we played with good aggression, but also controlled aggression.”

In the Para-equestrian, Victoria Davies finished ninth in the Grade II, Sharon Jarvis 10th in Grade IV and Amelia White 8th in Grade V.

Don’t miss all the Day 3 action on Seven and 7 Plus.