It has been a fantastic morning at the Paralympic games in Tokyo for Edinburgh and the Lothians with two bronzes secured on the track and in the pool.
An East Lothian paralympian, Maria Lyle, has won team GB their first athletics medal of the Tokyo games after securing a bronze in the women’s 100m - T35.
The athlete took to twitter this morning to express her disbelief at capturing a bronze medal to bring home to Dunbar.
The east coast sprinter's bronze was Team GB’s first athletics medal of the Tokyo Games with the 21 year-old crossing the finish line in a season's best 14.18 seconds to capture the third place spot.
During the first day of track competitions in Japan’s capital, the gold medal went to China's Xia Zhou in 13 secs, with Australian Isis Holt taking silver, 0.13secs off the pace.
Lyle is competing at her second Paralympic Games after previously competing in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and bringing home a silver and two bronze medals.
Maria has spastic diplegic cerebral palsy and had claimed gold at both European and World Championships recently. She will be overjoyed by bringing home a bronze medal to the coastal streets of Dunbar.
On Twitter she said: “Paralympic Bronze Medalist! I can't believe it! Thank you everyone for your support.”
The East Lothian athlete certainly showed that she was impossible to ignore in Tokyo.
Stewart Harris, chief executive of SportScotland, said: “Time and time again Maria has shown she has what it takes to compete on the global stage. She has worked so hard for this and we are delighted for her. Huge congratulations to Maria and her coach and of course everyone who has supported her from both Scottish and British athletics.”
But the good news did not stop there with Edinburgh University swimmer, Stephen Clegg, winning the bronze in the men’s S12 100m backstroke at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
The 25-year-old securing the bronze means that a total of five medals for Scots in the Paralympics GB team so far.
On his performance, Stephen said: “I fell short in Rio, I had some issues going into the Games. I started out as a backstroker & it is a relief to get a Paralympic medal in this event."
Stephen comes from a family of Paralympic athletes, with both older sister Libby and brother James winning medals for ParalympicsGB at London 2012 in athletics and swimming respectively.
At age nine he was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a deteriorating genetic eye condition that affects central vision. His siblings Elizabeth and James are also affected by the condition.
Mike Whittingham, director of high performance at Sportscotland, told STV news: “That was an incredible swim by Stephen to win bronze.
“An absolutely brilliant result and huge congratulations must go to Stephen and everyone who has supported him including the team at Scottish Swimming. He is an inspiration.”
