Today in a nutshell: it was a brilliant day for Brazil with nine medals including five golds, the heat played havoc with the wheelchair tennis, Britain’s Kadeena Cox retained her title, and there were world and Paralympics records galore.
Tomorrow’s key moments: the Boccia starts, Sophie Hahn will be trying to defend her 100m title, China will no doubt stretch their lead at the top of the medals table, and there are four triathlons to enjoy – or endure if you are actually doing it.
Great Britain’s Kadeena Cox retained her Paralympic women’s C4-5 500m time trial title at the Velodrome, kicking off the first half of what Cox hopes will be another Olympic multisport double. She won the final by more than a second, setting a new world record. Jaco van Gass added another bronze for ParalympicsGB in the men’s C1-3 1000m time trial, finishing third despite setting a world record for his class.
There was also velodrome success for Australia, as Amanda Reid won the first race of the day, the women’s C1-3 500m time trial. Wearing an Indigenous design on her speed suit she claimed Australia’s seventh gold medal of the Tokyo Games with another world record. Reid, who has cerebral palsy and an intellectual impairment, went one better than the silver she won in Rio and said afterwards: “It means everything to me to be a proud Guring-gai and Wemba-Wemba woman and to represent my people back home. I’m hoping I can encourage more Aboriginal disabled athletes to get into sport.”
The athletics programme opened today with a glut of Brazilian medals. Great Britain and Australia were also both quickly on the podium. Australia’s Isis Holt took silver and Britain’s Maria Lyle bronze behind winner Zhou Xia of China in the women’s 100m T35 final. Afterwards Lyle said: “For me it was about going out there and enjoying the experience. To run the time I have, and to enjoy the experience, I am really happy. It was always going to be difficult to challenge for gold and silver.”
The ParalympicsGB day finished on a high as well, with Natasha Baker on Keystone Dawn Chorus taking silver in the grade three dressage at the Equestrian park. Tobias Thorning Jorgensen won gold for Denmark on Jolene Hill. Jorgensen said of the horse: “She’s a real mare and if I don’t ask her first, she gives me the finger and says, ‘You can do something else’. But if I ask her correctly she’ll be there and will go through fire for me.”
Polish track cyclist Marcin Polak, who won a bronze in the men’s B 4000m individual pursuit, has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned blood booster EPO, meaning he cannot ride in the men’s road time trial. Frenchman Alexandre Lloveras finished behind Polak in fourth place in the velodrome on Wednesday.
And it was a chaotic day in the wheelchair tennis, after play was suspended when the wet globe bulb temperatures (WGBT), which measure humidity as well as heat, exceeded limits set for athletes’ safety. With play scheduled to start at 11am it was suspended first until 12.30pm, then 3pm and, finally, 5pm. Play continued on centre court, which has a retractable roof.
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The briefing’s picture of the day
There were nine new Paralympic records set during the archery ranking rounds this morning. The first medals come tomorrow. You can see all of the best pictures from day three in our gallery.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Team USA update
Robert Griswold added a third American gold in the pool to those won yesterday by Anastasia Pagonis and Gia Pergolini. The 24-year-old Griswold has cerebral palsy and won the men’s 100-metre S8 backstroke by four seconds from Inigo Llopis Sanz of Spain, setting a new world record. Jessica Long added a bronze for Team USA in the equivalent race for the women. New Zealand secured their first gold with a victory for Tupou Neiufi in that race.
Before the Games Roxanne Trunnell said of her horse: “I say it lovingly, but Dolton is a little weirdo.” He’s a little weirdo with a gold medal now, after the pair won today’s grade one individual event.
There were mixed fortunes in the goalball for the US though. The women had a mercy 10-0 victory over Egypt, but the men were on the receiving end of an 11-1 mercy defeat to hosts Japan.
Both teams knew they were already through to the semi-finals, but the USA won the wheelchair rugby 50-48 over Great Britain, to give them a psychological edge if they both get through to Sunday’s final. The US will face Australia in their semi-final tomorrow while Great Britain play hosts Japan.
Nick Mayhugh won the first track and field gold for the US in the men’s 100m T37 final. There were also silver medals for Raymond Martin in the men’s 400m T52 and Lex Gillette in the T11 men’s long jump.
🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 ParalympicsGB update
Reece Dunne won gold in the men’s 200m S14 freestyle final, then when asked on live breakfast TV how it felt said it was “fucking amazing”. Oops. There was a silver and bronze medal in the pool for ParalympicsGB for Bethany Firth and Jessica-Jane Applegate. Firth finished within touching distance of winner Valeriia Shabalina of the Russian Paralympic Committee.
Hannah Russell led her S12 100m backstroke from the start and held off the Russian Olympic Committee’s Daria Pikalova to win by 0.32sec and retain the title she won in Rio. She said: “I did struggle with my mental health two years ago so to be able to come back, train absolutely insanely hard this year ... I’m delighted. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. So I had a lot of help from British Swimming, my family, my friends and the support network behind me have been absolutely incredible.”
Craig Clegg also secured a bronze medal today in the men’s S12 100m backstroke, but sadly Tom Hamer, who won two silver medals in Rio, has been forced to withdraw from the Paralympics with a back injury.
Olivia Broome took a bronze medal in the women’s -50kg powerlifting. The 20-year-old from Chorley was making her Paralympics debut.
Ali Jawad couldn’t match his Rio silver medal in the men’s -59kg however. “It’s been the biggest rollercoaster of my life, the last five years,” said Jawad, who was appearing at his fourth successive Games. He faces retirement during to medical issues caused by Crohn’s disease.
Another person disappointed today was David Weir. There will be no chance to add to the 42-year-old’s six Paralympic golds in the men’s 5000m as both he and compatriot Daniel Sidbury failed to progress.
There was another medal in the wheelchair fencing though for ParalympicsGB, as the men’s team of Piers Gilliver, Dimitri Coutya and Oliver Lam-Watson took bronze with a victory over Ukraine after losing to the eventual winners from Russia. China won the women’s team event.
🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺 Australia update
There was a second medal for Australia at the velodrome today aside from Amanda Reid’s, with Alistair Donohoe claiming a silver in the men’s C5 4000m individual pursuit, losing out to France’s Dorian Foulon.
And there was more success in the pool too, as Tiffany Thomas Kane and Katja Dedekind added two bronze medals to Australia’s tally in the women’s 200m individual medley SM7 and women’s 400m freestyle S13 respectively. Afterwards Thomas Kane, who is 20, said: “I didn’t have a clue where I was going into that final 50 and I thought ‘I want a medal in this’, so I really bought it home and man that stung.”
🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵 The hosts and beyond
Japan opened their athletics campaign with a silver and bronze in the men’s 5000m T11 final for athletes with visual impairments. Kenya Karasawa had been tipped for gold, but had to settle for second behind Brazil’s Yeltsin Jacques. Shinya Wada was third.
Brazil won the first two golds in the Olympic stadium, as Silvania Costa de Oliveira added the women’s T11 long jump. Brazil then won gold and bronze in the evening session in the men’s 100m T47 final, with Petrucio Ferreira dos Santos retaining the title he won he Rio.
And then Brazilian Wallace Santos set a new world record in the seated shot put of 12.63m, leaving previous world record holder and Rio gold medallist Ruzhdi Ruzhdi of Bulgaria in second.
There was also a successful morning for Colombia, with a gold and bronze in the men’s F38 javelin and a silver in the women’s F41 shot put for Mayerli Buitrago Ariza.
Azerbaijan got off to a great start in the judo, winning the first two gold medals with Shahana Hajiyeva in the women’s -48kg B2, and Vugar Shirinli in the men’s -60kg. That’s been enough to push them into the top ten in the day three emoji table.
The sitting volleyball began today, but Japan failed to get off to the dream start they’d hoped for. Both their men’s and women’s teams lost their opening pool games. Sato Tomoki won Japan’s second gold medal at Tokyo 2020 with a new Paralympic record in the men’s 400m T51.
Did you know?
Tokyo becomes the first city to host the Paralympics twice, in 1964 and in 2021. However Innsbruck in Austria hosted two consecutive Winter Paralympics in 1984 and 1988.
Key events for Saturday 28 August
All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Sydney, subtract eight hours for Sheffield, 13 hours for New York and 16 hours for San Francisco.
🌟If you only watch one thing: 6.30am and 8.30am Triathlon – veterans of the Olympics will know that these early Triathlon starts in Tokyo make this a great bedtime treat in the UK, with the danger that slips into a Paralympics all-nighter. Saturday features four races. The men’s PTS4 and women’s PTS2 go first, a minute apart, and then at 8.30am the men’s and women’s PTVI races for those with visual impairments start, also a minute apart 🥇
9am-7.36pm Archery – there are qualifying rounds all day tomorrow, but we get to our first medals at 7.16pm with the mixed team W1 bronze and gold contests 🥇
9am-11.18am and 5pm-7.47pm Swimming – there’s another 14 finals in the second session, which concludes with the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay S14 final 🥇
9am-3pm and 4.30pm-9.30pm Table Tennis – we get the first medals, with 42 semi-finals in the morning session guaranteeing a bronze for whoever loses. Yes, I said 42. This is not some kind of Douglas Adams in-joke. The afternoon session then has five gold medal finals 🥇
9.30am-12.50pm and 7pm-9.49pm Athletics – there are 16 gold medals available on Saturday in a packed stadium programme 🥇
9.30am-2.20pm and 4pm-8.50pm Boccia – this gets under way on Saturday with a whole range of individual pool matches.
10am-12.50pm Track cycling – after some qualifying races the medals today come in the men’s B 1000m time trial, the women’s B 3000m individual pursuit and the mixed C1-5 750m team sprint 🥇
11am-6.30pm Powerlifting – four competitions throughout the day, with the medals in the men’s -72kg and -80kg topping and tailing the women’s -61kg and -67kg 🥇
2.15pm and 5.30pm Wheelchair rugby – the mixed competition reaches the semi-final stage
4pm-6.40pm Judo – the medal bouts on Saturday come in the women’s -57kg and -63kg and men’s -73kg and -81kg 🥇
5.30pm-8pm Wheelchair fencing – after a day of competition, by 5.30pm it is time for the medal bouts of the men’s and women’s foil individual in both category A and category B.
??am-??pm Wheelchair tennis – after today’s heat debacle, I’ve genuinely got no idea what time the tennis will start or end, and currently on the Paralympics schedule there are still some TBDs in the match listings which suggest an 11am start. So, there will be some wheelchair tennis at some point is all I can say with any confidence.
As it stands
Here’s how the emoji table stood at 11.30pm Tokyo time. China have streaked away already, haven’t they? It’s all about the tussle between Great Britain, Not Russia, Australia and the US for second from hereon in. But what a day for Brazil – five gold medals.
1 🇨🇳 China 🥇 20 🥈 11 🥉 14 total: 45
2 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🥇 9 🥈 10 🥉 9 total: 28
3 ◻️ Not Russia 🥇 9🥈 7 🥉 10 total: 26
4 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 7 🥈 4 🥉 8 total: 19
5 🇺🇸 USA 🥇 6 🥈 5 🥉 1 total: 12
6 🇧🇷 Brazil 🥇 6 🥈 4 🥉 7 total: 17
7 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 5 🥈 4 🥉 3 total: 12
8 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 4 🥈 5 🥉 4 total: 13
9 🇺🇦 Ukraine 🥇 3 🥈 13 🥉 6 total: 22
10 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan 🥇 3 🥈 0 🥉 2 total: 5
Useful links
Interactive medal table | Full results service | Paralympic Games classification guide
Get in touch
Jamie McKay got in touch with me before the Games to flag up boccia as something to watch. That begins tomorrow. He’d written about it and describes it as “designed specifically for athletes with disabilities or for those who were unable to pay a standard came of boules, such as children or the elderly. Initially created for those with cerebral palsy, it was designed to test muscle control, accuracy and coordination. It is now played by athletes with many disabilities, as well as those with none.” There will be no shortage of it to watch tomorrow – just the mere 48 preliminary match-ups in the individual contests.
And apologies again if you were hoping to read about a particular medal or contest that interested you today and I’ve missed it. There were 44 medal events across 15 sports today – and there will be even more tomorrow. Don’t forget we have the complete results here. It will be a late one for me tonight as I’m intending to stay up and watch those triathlons. You can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com, and I’ll see you, possibly a bit bleary-eyed tomorrow. And still wondering how Tobias Thorning Jorgensen’s horse can give him “the finger”. It’s got hooves, man. You should know that.
The last word
I was bullied when I started attending school. I started studying, I got to high school and the same thing happened to me. But a friend told me ‘let’s go to the gym’. My friend always encouraged me to go. So I went. – Herbert Aceituno, one of El Salvador’s flag-bearers at the opening ceremony, who today won bronze in the 59kg powerlifting, his nation’s first ever Paralympics medal.
