Thanks for reading everyone. Lots to enjoy on day one and we’ll be back again tomorrow.
Wheelchair basketball: And that’s it. In the final action of day one, Spain score a 63-53 victory over Korea thanks to a dominant final quarter (22-13).
If you want day-by-listings of every event at the Paralympics, click away on this.
Great picture here from today’s Goalball action. The team sport is designed for athletes with a vision impairment. The ball has bells embedded in it and can be hurled at speeds up to 60mph. The players all wear blackout masks.
Still in progress: We’re nearly done for the day in Tokyo but there is still a Wheelchair Basketball match taking place. Spain currently lead Korea 63-52 in the fourth quarter.
From the ParalympicsGB twitter account. Current Followers: 234.9K.
What a first day in Tokyo 😍
— ParalympicsGB (@ParalympicsGB) August 25, 2021
🥇🥈🥈🥈🥈🥉#ImpossibleToIgnore pic.twitter.com/WhUx1gTYRy
Medal count: It’s early days for the ParalympicsGB team but they will certainly have the two previous Games in mind.
Last time in Rio, Great Britain secured 147 medals (64 gold, 39 silver and 44 bronze).
In London, they won 120 medals (34 gold, 43 silver and 43 bronze).
Here’s the current medal table.
Wheelchair Rugby: Some thrilling games today. If you missed it earlier, Denmark pipped Australia 54-53 before Great Britain edged Canada 50-47. In today’s final match, the drama continued with Japan seeing off France 53-51.
Goalball: In the final game of the day, United States beat Brazil 6-4.
Here’s Greg Wood’s report on how ParalympicsGB fared in the pool on day one.
A few extra quotes from Tully Kearney after her silver medal.
To add some context, the 24-year-old had to withdraw from Rio 2016 because of injury. She was reclassified a year later due to the progression of her generalised dystonia, a neurological movement disorder that causes uncontrollable muscle spasms.
Here’s what she told told Channel 4:
There was a question mark over whether I’d ever get to a Paralympic Games and the fact that I’ve been able to race and come away with a medal is crazy.
I thought after Rio, the Paralympics wouldn’t be possible, I wouldn’t be able to swim any more, so this is obviously a massive deal and it’s all down to the amazing support staff, the amazing team – I just swam.
I’ve not had that much training, I’ve been dealing with injuries and things; I was nervous my fitness wouldn’t be good enough to swim 200 so to go that close was pretty impressive and I’ve got to be pleased with that.
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This is a great listen from the Guardian’s ‘Today in Focus’ series. I challenge anyone to hear Sophie Carrigill’s story and not be absolutely drawn in and inspired by her infectious positivity. Wheelchair basketball is always one of the Paralympics’ great watches.
Some great snaps here in our day one picture gallery from Tokyo.
Jonnie Peacock, one of ParalympicsGB’s star names, says he’s peaking at the right time ahead of his bid to win a third T64 100m title after taking gold in London 2012 and Rio 2016.
Peacock had a hamstring injury earlier in the season but believes he’s in great shape again.
Speaking to Channel 4 he says it’s a “quick track” and the world record could go. He faces some strong opposition, with Germany’s Felix Streng a slight favourite to take victory. The final is scheduled for Monday.
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If you missed it earlier, here’s Paul McInnes reporting from the Izu Velodrome on how Sarah Storey won her 15th (15th!!) Paralympic gold and broke her own world record in the process. Oh, and she’s not stopping there.
Tully Kearney sounds a little reflective after being interviewed following her silver medal swim in the 200m freestyle S5 event. It was so close to a gold but she signs off by saying “got to be pleased with that” so onwards to the next race. Here’s her back story.
Completing a lifelong dream ✨🇬🇧
— C4 Paralympics (@C4Paralympics) August 25, 2021
Learn more about @TullyKearney who competes in the S5 200m freestyle final, coming soon on @Channel4...#Tokyo2020 #C4Paralympics pic.twitter.com/zhjbHK5YIA
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Thanks my friend. A great start for the Australians. Geoff’s a happy man although I’d like to get his view on Ian Botham becoming UK trade ambassador to Australia. Here’s Marina Hyde’s take.
Your day in review - as of 8:30pm Tokyo time
That’s it for me. So what did we see today?
- Six golds for Australia: Paige Greco and Emily Petricola at the velodrome, and four in the pool. Ben Popham, Lakeisha Patterson, Will Martin and Rowan Crothers. A silver and three bronze in swimming too.
- Gold for Dame Sarah Storey, to add another storey to her tower of medals. Plus four silver for Great Britain between the bike and the pool, and a bronze for Toni Shaw.
- Four gold and two bronze for China in the fencing, and one gold in the pool. Plus a silver at the cycling track.
- Team USA women going down in the wheelchair basketball to the Dutch.
It’s been a big one. See you for more tomorrow. David Tindall is your pilot for the next stretch.
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Teo Teng Kiat emails in. “That’s Pin Xiu’s fourth Paralympic gold. Tears of joy as she sang our anthem too. Absolute legend for Singapore sport!”
If you’re Australian, peep that medal tally. Six gold, ten total, top of the pops on either measure on the first day of competition.
Gold for Australia in the 100 freestyle!
Swimming: Ben Popham wins the men’s 100m freestyle S8 category. He has a bad start, he has a bad turn, but he has more ability to crank up the horsepower in the straight. He’s third or fourth coming out of the turn, then he puts the Yamaha down out the back of the Speedos and races to the touch! He’s weeping in the pool. A good place to do it, easy to clean up.
Swimming: One more race in the pool tonight.
An upset in the 200 freestyle!
Swimming: Well! Tully Kearney, as locked on a gold medal chance as you could find, gets caught in the last few metres. She qualified fastest, a second and a half quicker than second place, seven seconds quicker than the rest. But Zhang Li ploughs through the last 50 as Kearney starts to tire, and beats her to the wall with a half stroke on her final approach. Remarkable finish. Gold to China, silver to Great Britain, bronze to Italy’s Monica Boggioni.
This is the 200m freestyle S5 event, the classification that includes swimmers who have the majority use of their arms and hands, but limited or no use of their legs. Kearney has to rely on her arm speed, and you could see her strokes starting to fade through the final lap.
In the men’s final of the same event, Francesco Bocciardo takes gold for Italy in a Games record time of 2:26:76. Silver goes to Spain via Antoni Bertran Ponce, bronze to Brazil via Daniel de Faria Dias.
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Table tennis: Australia’s Jake Ballestrino has lost his first group match in Class 7 to Egypt’s Sayed Mohammed Youssef. GB’s Megan Shackleston has just started her match against China’s Zhou Ying.
Gold in the wheelchair fencing
Four golds today, and it’s a Chinese sweep. In women’s sabre Category B, Tan Shumei. In Category A, Bian Jing. In men’s sabre Category B, Feng Yanke. And in Category A, Li Hao. Should be quite the party in their quarters tonight.
Rowan Crothers is now receiving his gold medal for the 50 freestyle. Go you good thing. Singing lustily, looking very emotional. I think we saw some tears in the eyes.
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Swimming: In the 100m butterfly S13 finals, both the men’s and women’s gold medallists set new Paralympic records without getting the world mark. Ihar Boki, the Belarussian champion, takes the men’s medal ahead of Ukrainian Oleksii Virchenko and Islam Aslanov from Uzbekistan.
In the women’s race, Italy goes gold-silver with Carlotta Gilli and Alessia Berra, with Russia’s Daria Pikalova in third.
Goalball: And that’s what happens! A penalty is called against Australia. Horsburgh has to defend it on her own. She can’t keep it out, and at a scoreline of 11-1, we have what is called a ‘mercy’: where the game gets called complete. With about six minutes left on the clock.
That was quite the thrashing for Australia. Didn’t score from open play. Scored once from a penalty. A lot of flat shots that were easily stopped. Two or three decent shots that almost sneaked through the defence, and one off the crossbar. But it was popgun compared to Israel’s shooting, which constantly got good bounce and backspin to get over or past defenders even when they did make contact with the ball.
Lihi Ben David scored six times for the winners, she was impressive with her spin shots doing most of the damage.
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Goalball: Israel up 10-1 over Australia in the women’s match, one goal away from it being called off early.
Table tennis: Australian paddle-wielder Samuel Philip Einem won a set against Asano Takashi but loses his first group match 3-1.
Goalball: At half time, 7-1 in the Israel-Australia women’s match.
Swimming: Gold for Anastasiia Gontar (Russia) in the women’s S9 50 metre freestyle, ahead of Chantelle Zijderveld (Netherlands) and Aurelie Rivard (Canada). Zara Mulloolly finishes seventh for Great Britain.
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Goalball: Just as we post that, Australia scores! A penalty for an incorrect throw, meaning only one defender is allowed to face the attacker on the subsequent shot. Meica Jayne Horsburgh rolls it in.
Goalball: The Australian women’s team in strife against Israel, 8-0 down before half time. If the margin gets to 10 then the game gets called off immediately.
Gold for Australia in the 50 free
Swimming: Rowan Crothers charges home in the men’s 50m S10 category. Five hundredths of a second outside the world record. Maksym Krypak and Phelipe Melo Rodrigues are on his shoulder the whole way, in the lanes either side, but the Ukrainian settles for silver and the Brazilian for bronze.
Goalball: If you’re not familiar with it, this is the three-player team sport for blind athletes. All players wear eye shades so that they’re equally unsighted. They try to protect a goal that stretches the length of the court by listening for bells embedded in the match ball. Then they serve to try to score.
Israel get off to a flyer, 3-0 up early after two mistakes in defence and one penalty shot given away by the Australian women.
Swimming: Down to the 50 metres free, first in the S6 category. In the women’s sprint final, it’s a three-way battle all the way to the wall. The Ukrainians take gold and bronze, Yelyzaveta Mereshko and Anna Hontar. USA’s Elizabeth Marks is the silver filling in the sandwich, just 0.04 from a win in what is not typically her event.
In the men’s SB3, the Russian Roman Zdhanov breaks the world record with 46.49 seconds. Spaniard Miguel Luque silver, Japan’s Suzuki Takayuki bronze.
Table tennis: Yang Qian wins a five-setter for Australia, coming back from 2-1 down after winning the first. Her first group match.
Wheelchair basketball: Great Britain win 50-47, strategically pausing before scoring late to deny Canada enough time to score again going the other way.
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Wheelchair basketball: Canada close within two tries after a sneaky steal, but they’re running out of time to close that final gap.
Wheelchair basketball: Great Britain up 41-38 against Canada with five minutes left. Both teams scoring freely.
“Did you know that Trischa Zorn, the most decorated Paralympian in history, won nearly twice as many medals as Michael Phelps (the most decorated Olympian in history)?” emails in Kurt Perleberg. “Trischa Zorn won 57 medals from Arnhem 1980 to Athens 2004, and Michael Phelps won 28 medals from Athens 2004 to Rio 2016.”
Zorn was also a swimmer, in just about every event, and was blind from birth. I’ll add that 41 of Zorn’s medals were gold.
Wheelchair basketball: Japan have absolutely demolished Australia in this women’s pool match, 47 to 73.
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Ruby Storm is a great name, by the way. Sounds like a powerful cartoon horse with a rainbow mane. Or a crystal in a new-age shop. Or a Command and Conquer sequel.
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Wheelchair rugby! We’ve got the close one. Great Britain 32, Canada 29, as the big blokes smash into each other in collision chairs. What a sport. Third quarter, three minutes to go.
World record and gold for Shabalina
Swimming: Her own record goes, as she wins the women’s 100m S14 butterfly by a distance! The two Australians take silver and bronze, Paige Leonhardt and then Ruby Storm, who closed out the race really well. She’s in tears of happiness, is Storm. To give you a sense of the dominance, Leonhardt in second place was a good two seconds behind Shabalina, in a two-lap race.
The men’s 100m S14 gold goes to Brazil’s Gabriel Bandeira in a boilover, ahead of the favourite and world record holder Reece Dunn of Great Britain. Benjamin Hance takes the bronze for Australia.
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Table tennis: Australia’s Melissa Tapper has beaten Lin Tzu Yu in their Class 10 group match. Another Australian, Yang Qian, is up one set to nil against China’s Zhao Xiaojing.
Susan Bailey of GB has lost to Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia.
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Wheelchair basketball: Third quarter, Japan leading Australia 46-37 in the women’s match.
Now it’s Lakeisha Patterson’s turn. Singing the Australian anthem behind her mask as she stands on the dais, before waving her bunch of flowers to the crowd. Once she’s allowed to take off her mask briefly for photos, she’s beaming.
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Swimming: In the women’s 100m backstroke S2 final, Yip Pin Xiu takes gold for Singapore. Yamada Miyuki picks up silver for Japan, Fabiola Ramirez bronze for Mexico, after trailing as far back as fifth earlier in the race.
Here’s the medal ceremony for the men’s 400m, and Will Martin has his moment on the podium as the Australian anthem plays.
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Swimming: The men’s 100m backstroke finals are swum, in the S1 and S2 categories. Iyad Shalabi takes out the S1 gold for Israel, with Anton Kol silver for Ukraine and Francesco Bettella bronze for Italy.
In the S2, gold goes to Alberto Abarza of Chile, ahead of Brazil’s Gabriel dos Santos Araujo and Russia’s Vladimir Danilenko.
Wheelchair basketball: Half time between Japan and Australia’s women, the hosts leading 34 to 28.
Until someone tells me otherwise, I’m going to assume from voice alone that the commentator on the world swimming feed is Kristen Schall. It makes me happy.
A gold 400 double for Australia
Swimming: Lakeisha Patterson holds on! By eight hundredths of a second, in the women’s 400m S9! She goes out hard early, over a body length ahead by the 200 metre mark. Perhaps thinking that she doesn’t have the closing speed of Hungary’s Zsofia Konkoly and and GB’s Toni Shaw. They do start making ground in the last 100, and are looking to strike in the last 50, but Patterson gives it everything she’s got. It looks to me like Konkoly is about to catch her in the last 30, and perhaps even shades ahead, but Patterson finds something extra to hold ground. They stroke for the wall at the same time, and Patterson touches first.
Shaw gets bronze, Australia’s Ellie Cole is fourth.
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Gold and bronze for Australia!
Swimming: But not for the world record holder and gold medallist from the last two games, Brenden Hall. He slips to fourth and can’t find any way to rally in the last 100 metres. The winner instead is Will Martin! He is ahead of world record time into the last 30 metres before falling just behind it late. But he went out strongly and led the whole way. A powerful swim.
4:10:25, it’s a Paralympic Games record in the 400m S9.
Ugo Didier of France hung onto Martin for silver, while teenage Australian Alexander Tuckfield keeps ahead of Hall for bronze.
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Swimming: The men’s 400m S9 final is underway! Three Australians in the field. Or more accurately, in the pool.
Swimming: The bell tolls 5pm in Tokyo, and this is now pretty much a swimming blog for the next three hours. I’ll try to keep half an eye on other things, but there are a lot of medals up for grabs on night one in the pool. Or is this night two? I don’t know who decides these things.
Wheelchair fencing: The placements for the gold medal matches have been decided.
Men’s sabre, category A:
Artem Manko (Ukraine)
Li Hao (China)
Men’s sabre, category B:
Adrian Castro (Poland)
Feng Yanke (China)
Women’s sabre, category A:
Nino Tibilashvili (Georgia)
Bian Jing (China)
Women’s sabre, category B:
Olena Fedota (Ukraine)
Tan Shumei (China)
Table tennis: Australia’s Joel Coughlan is up in the men’s Class 10 group matches, having just lost the first set to Montenegro’s Filip Radovic.
If you haven’t caught it yet, here is Paul’s take on the opening ceremony.
Wheelchair basketball: Canada blew away Great Britain late in the fourth quarter. It ends 54-73 in the Group A match. GB will play Australia, Germany, and Japan next. Although four of the five teams in each pool make the quarters, so there’s no great pressure yet.
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Thanks Emma. Can’t keep me away. What is on tonight, I hear you ask? Bloody well stacks, is my regionally specific answer.
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Swimming - well, all of it. Or that’s how it feels. Gold up for grabs from 5pm local time in the:
400m freestyle S9, men and women
100m backstroke S1, men
100m backstroke S2, men and women
100m butterfly S14, men and women
50m breaststroke SB3, men
50m freestyle S6, women
50m freestyle S10, men and women
100m butterfly S13, men and women
200m freestyle S5, men and women
100m freestyle S8, men - Wheelchair basketball - Australia and Japan in the women’s pool match at 5pm.
- 5:30pm for goalball between Germany and Turkey’s men, and wheelchair rugby between Great Britain and Canada.
- Goalball at 7:30pm between Australia and Israel’s women
- Wheelchair rugby at 8pm between France and Japan
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Goalball at 8:30 between Brazil and the USA, and wheelchair basketball between Korea and Spain.
While we are on the topic of wheelchair basketball, Kieran Pender has written a piece on one of Australia’s men’s players, Jannik Blair, about his backstory and his new customised carbon fibre wheelchair seat.
I’m handing you over to Geoff now, who didn’t get enough of the action earlier and is back for more.
Wheelchair basketball: It’s three-quarter-time and Canada’s lead has blown out to 45-39. They won that quarter 19-10, and the Brits have work to do to make up the difference.
Here is the medal table as it stands, for those who enjoy a bit of AUS/GBR rivalry:
Wheelchair basketball: Team GB’s women are ahead 29-26 leading into the third term of their opening Group A match against Canada. It has been a pretty evenly matched encounter but Kathleen Dandeneau has been the star with a 15-point haul for Canada.
Wheelchair rugby: Well well well, Paralympics newbies Denmark have beaten Australia. It was tied at 53-53 with 15 seconds on the clock and Sebastian Frederiksen used the time efficiently to score and inch ahead 54-53. Ryley Batt wheeled away up the other end of the court with his eyes on the target but concedes a turnover after the ball is ruled out of bounds. What can the Danes do in 2.7 seconds? What can anybody do in 2.7 seconds? In truth they don’t need to do anything but hold onto the ball until the whistle goes. Major upset.
Some more detail on Storey’s insane achievement:
Wheelchair rugby: Denmark’s men have the upper hand over Australia, leading 47-46 with just under four minutes to place.
Bangma wins men's B 4,000m individual pursuit gold
Track cycling: Sensational ride from Tristan Bangma, the Dutch rising star who has just dethroned British defending champion Stephen Bate in the tandem race for visually impaired athletes. Bangma started comfortably in front and overlapped just after the 3,000m mark. Pole Marcin Polak claimed bronze by 0.276 seconds from Frenchman Alexandre Lloveras.
Here is a report on Australia’s golden start:
Storey wins women's C5 3,000m individual pursuit gold
Track cycling: Sarah Storey has cleaned up in a Team GB one-two, overlapping compatriot Crystal Lane-Wright. It is Storey’s 15th Paralympic gold across two different sports and eight Games. If that’s not enough to intimidate Lane-Wright nothing is. France’s Marie Patouillet won her bronze medal race against Kiwi Nicole Murray.
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Wheelchair rugby: At half-time Australia have pulled ahead 25-23. Captain Ryley Batt, playing at his fifth Paralympics, scored the last two tries to take his haul to 13. That tops the output of Denmark’s Sebastian Frederiksen on 11. The disability class of both players is 3.5.
For the uninitiated, players are given an official classification depending on their level of functional ability, rated from 0.5 to 3.5 with 0.5 being the most severe. Generally, the higher-rated players have more speed and mobility and so fill attacking roles. Four players are on the court for each time and the total points of those four players cannot exceed 8.5.
Wheelchair rugby: The Danes have thrown down the gauntlet to Australia, matching them goal for goal partly thanks to some brutally on-point defence. As the clock ticks down to the end of the second quarter the score stands at 21-21.
Medal ceremonies are under way at the velodrome, which is pretty spesh. Even without a crowd it feels as if there is a vibe watching on TV. I’m sure it’s all real noise.
And amusingly, Channel Seven has just shown the medal table. On day one. After two events. Unsurprisingly, Australia have two gold medals and sit top. Stop the count.
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Greco has spoken to Seven and she’s pretty emotional.
“Sorry,” she saays through tears. “I’m just so happy. Can’t believe we did it. It was a good race. Yeah. I still can’t believe it. I can’t thank the team at AusCycling [enough], my coach, their support is amazing. My family and friends, wouldn’t be here without them.”
Petricola wins women's C4 3,000m individual pursuit
The Australian’s lead blew out to seven seconds at the 2,000m mark and she rolled her soon thereafter.
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Emily Petricola is going for Australia’s second gold in as many attempts in her gold medal race against the US’s Shawn Morelli. As it stands at the 1,000m mark is she a second and a half in the lead.
Meg Lemon has just missed out on bronze in the women’s C4 3000m individual pursuit to Canadian Keely Shaw, who comfortably accounted for her Australian counterpart.
Someone was watching:
GOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!
— Kurt Fearnley (@kurtfearnley) August 25, 2021
Paige Greco dominates for Australia for our first Gold Medal in the #Tokyo2020 #Paralympics
World Record to boot!!!!
It’s gold gold gold for Australia! That world record is the seventh (seventh!) on the track today and the second set by Greco. Probably the most remarkable element of Greco’s performance in that race is that her first 250m or so were near-identical to her last race.
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Paige Greco wins women's C1-3 3,000m individual pursuit
The Australian has finished in an astonishing 3:50.815.
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Greco, who posted a new world record earlier in qualifying, was quicker at the 1,000m mark than then. In other words, this is QUICK. Wang slightly off the pace.
Paige Greco takes some deep breaths as she and Wang Xiaomei start clean out of the gate.
Schindler has done it, and she’s clearly pumped about it. Brown was dangling the carrot towards the end there and she has bettered her heat time with a 3:55.120 here. Brown finishes in 4:01.523. Gold medal race coming up.
Germany’s Denise Schindler is ahead in the women’s C1 3000m Individual Pursuit bronze medal match-up against American Clara Brown.
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I’ve dallied in changing the byline on this blog and thus been moonlighting as one Geoff Lemon for the past half an hour. I am now officially Emma, and my details can be found above for any questions, concerns or gems of wisdom. Track cycling about to get under way so I’m going to hang out at the Izu Velodrome for a bit.
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Here’s that story on the possible Covid cluster in the athletes’ village:
If the Kiwi readers out there need some more rugby to take your minds of the, erm, rugby, Australia are due to play Denmark in half an hour. Wheelchair rugby – for me at least – is one of the highlights of the Paralympics. It might be because it was unofficially called “murderball” back in the day, soon after the game was invented in Canada in the ‘70s. Not a bad nickname considering the mix of basketball, football and ice hockey and the copious collisions.
Some handy background reading on Australia’s early gold medal hopes who are due to compete in not too long:
Australia has the chance to snare the first two gold medals of the Tokyo Paralympics after Paige Greco and Emily Petricola posted new cycling world records to qualify for their respective finals.
Greco will race for gold at the Izu Velodrome on Wednesday afternoon after smashing her own world record in the women’s C3 individual 3000m pursuit.
Her time of 3 minutes 52.283 seconds topped qualifying, and improved on her previous record of 4:00.206 by almost eight seconds.
More importantly, her red-hot start to the Paralympics has set up a gold medal showdown against China’s Xiaomei Wang, who qualified second with a time of 3:55.781.
Petricola also bettered her own world record when she posted a time of 3:38.061 in the women’s C4 individual 3000m pursuit.
Her time saw her claim pole position in qualifying, and she’ll race off for gold against American Shawn Morelli (3:46.842) later in the day.
Fellow Australian Meg Lemon was fourth fastest in 3:49.043 in the C4 class and will race off for bronze against Canadian Keely Shaw.
The cycling finals will be the first gold medals handed out at the Paralympics, meaning success for Greco and Petricola would propel Australia to the top of the standings.
Australia finished fifth overall at the past two Paralympic Games.
Thanks Geoff. I will indeed travel with you. To the track, for sure. But first, to other destinations yonder in the Paralympics field of dreams. But before that, and because Tokyo 2020 isn’t really Tokyo 2020 without a Covid scare, this from the Guardian’s man on the ground Paul MacInnes:
Two more athletes have tested positive for Covid 19 in the Paralympic village, with officials awaiting information to confirm if a cluster of infection has broken out.
The news comes as ParalympicsGB confirmed a member of their coaching staff, part of the wheelchair tennis team, has been confirmed as having the virus and is now in isolation.
Daily results published by the Tokyo Paralympics organising committee found that 16 positive cases had been recorded amongst the extensive testing programme. Five of those individuals were in the Village, where athletes, coaching and support staff are supposed to be within a Covid secure bubble.
The rest of the positive results were found amongst contractors and games personnel, while one member of the media tested positive.
Tokyo 2020 spokesperson Masa Takaya said the results would now be referred to specialists.
“It seems that those with the positive cases come from different sports and different countries”, he told Inside the Games. “Whether or not there is a cluster should come from the advice from the specialists. We will continue to listen to the advice and try to provide accurate information to the media.”
ParalympicsGB said that a staff member had tested positive for the virus before arriving at the village after testing negative upon arrival in Japan and at a training camp.
The GB chef de mission, Penny Briscoe, said “we fully respect and continue to adhere” to the Tokyo 2020 Covid protocols. British officials are now tracing the individual’s recent contacts.
ParalympicsGB also confirmed that a member of the table tennis team, David Wetherill, has been deselected for breaching his team’s code of conduct. The organising body said they would be providing no further information while an arbitration process was conducted.
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That’s enough from me. Cycling medals start in about 40 minutes, and there’s plenty more coming as well. Emma Kemp will travel with you for the next wee while. Away with you.
Wheelchair rugby: USA won 63-35 over New Zealand. One day of national weeping has been scheduled in the Shaky Isles.
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Cycling: Yet another world record at the track: Netherlands’ Ned Bangma in the men’s B 4000m individual pursuit, in 3:59:47. Another record busted by over four seconds, and he’s the first man under four minutes in this race. He’ll race for gold against GB’s Stephen Bate.
Marcin Polak and Alexandre Lloveras, of Poland and France, race for bronze.
Table tennis: Great Britain’s Ross Wilson also had a win first up, while Australia’s Lisa Daniela di Toro did not. Wilson beat Clement Berthier, who if you hadn’t guessed is French. The picador for di Toro was Sandra Mikolascheck of Germany.
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Table tennis: Aaron McKibbin won the Ashes of Table Tennis 3-0, in tribute to the scoreline achieved most recently by Alastair Cook’s men in 2013.
Wheelchair fencing: On Brit-watch, Gemma Collis McCann is out of the women’s sabre after losing her four pool matches.
Cycling: In the men’s individual pursuit 4000m B, for vision-impaired riders, Great Britain’s Neil Fachie is already out of the medal reckoning in fifth spot and James Ball failed to finish. Stephen Bate, the Paralympic record holder, is yet to ride.
Wheelchair basketball: A volley of shots from Netherlands near the end: de Rooij, Beijer, Kramer, Visser, all sinking two-pointers before Visser lands a couple of uncontested free throws after an unsportsmanlike foul is called against the USA. The Americans score on the buzzer but the final margin is suddenly 68-58 to the Dutch. Way to close it out.
Wheelchair basketball: The Dutch are going to win. They’re up by eight.
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Wheelchair basketball: A couple of missed threes from the USA and they keep turning the ball over to Netherlands who clear defensively. Kramer scores again for the Dutch and they’re up by six! Three minutes left, Kramer misses her subsequent free throw but clears up her own rebound. No score results, Ryan scores for USA to close it to 60-56.
Wheelchair basketball: Netherlands up 58-54 after sinking a couple of twos.
Wheelchair basketball: The Dutch won’t go away! 54-54 at a timeout in the fourth, six minutes left.
Paul MacInnes on Sarah Storey: “Her tongue was hanging out on that last lap, so she was feeling it, but the pace was serious from start to finish. Looks like gold medal number one of the games for her could well be incoming...”
Add it to the pile. She’s got more gold than Smaug.
Wheelchair rugby: USA leading 29-17 over New Zealand as half time arrives.
World record and a chance at gold for Sarah Storey!
The Great Dame does the job at the age of 43. She rides 327:807, beating her own world record by more than four seconds. Huge advances on the records today, both at the drome and in the pool. She’ll ride off against Crystal Lane-Wright for gold, which means...
Great Britain is guaranteed a gold medal. One way or the other. That should make some of you lot in the Isles happy.
Riding for bronze will be France and New Zealand, the Rainbow Warrior match-up, with Marie Patouillet against Nicole Murray.
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Table tennis: Nathan Pellissier and Aaron McKibbin are starting off, Australia v Great Britain, in what many are called the Ashes of Table Tennis.
Cycling: Dame Sarah Story is up next at the velodrome.
Wheelchair basketball: A close one in the women’s game, the USA leading 36-34 against Netherlands.
Wheelchair rugby: USA leading New Zealand 16-10 in the men’s game, second period. It’s been intense.
Ode to a Lemon
Pablo Neruda
Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love’s
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree’s yellow
emerges,the lemons
move down
from the tree’s planetarium
Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it-
bazaarsfor the light and the
barbarous gold.
We open
the halves
of a miracle,
and a clotting of acids
brims
into the starry
divisions:
creation’s
original juices,
irreducible, changeless,
alive:
so the freshness lives on
in a lemon,
in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,
the proportions, arcane and acerb.
Cutting the lemon
the knife
leaves a little cathedral:
alcoves unguessed by the eye
that open acidulous glass
to the light; topazes
riding the droplets,
altars,aromatic facades.
So, while the hand
holds the cut of the lemon,
half a world
on a trencher,
the gold of the universe
wells
to your touch:
a cup yellow
with miracles,
a breast and a nipple
perfuming the earth;
a flashing made fruitage,
the diminutive fire of a planet.
Cycling: I was glad to see an Australian rider named Meg Lemon on the card. She’s qualified to ride for bronze in the C4 individual pursuit against Canada’s Keely Shaw, with Petricola tackling USA’s Shawn Morelli for gold.
But then the commentators kept pronouncing her as Meg Le Mon. I hope that’s just their error. Because, mate. If you want to say it like that, put a space in it.
Lemons stand proud, acerbic, full of zest.
Paul MacInnes is the Guardian’s reporter at the velodrome.
“What we are seeing is some incredible cycling here in Izu. Emily Petricola just became the fifth female rider in four classifications to set a world record today. The 41-year-old, who has multiple sclerosis, took a whole six seconds off her own record that she set just last year. Five records in a morning is not normal: I asked Paige Greco and she confirmed it. The question all us Brits are asking is: will Sarah Storey be next?”
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“I misread your first missive and thought it said NZ v Aus in the wheelchair rugby. Huge grudge match!” writes Joe Barnes. “What is wheelchair rugby? I bet those athletes are as hard as nails, is it a bit brutal?”
It is. For endurance as well as collisions. It’s honesty more like NFL then rugby, in that players can pass forward and score in an endzone. It’s played on a basketball style court with a round ball. Players throw passes on the full or on the bounce to teammates, and can race around with the ball on their laps. Someone has to roll through the endzone or catch it in the endzone to score. Collisions are allowed, through players don’t grab each other’s bodies or chairs.
Goalball: The Russians beat Canada 5-1 in the first game of the women’s comp.
Wheelchair rugby: Look away, New Zealanders: the USA leads New Zealand 6-3. Trailing America in any form of rugby must be mortifying.
That’s all of the swimming until the finals begin at 17:00 hours Tokyo time.
Swimming: Ben Popham qualifies fastest for Australia in the men’s 100m S8 third heat, swimming 58.95. Only three other swimmers across the heats dip under one minute.
Wheelchair basketball: The Dutch are hanging in there with the States near the end of the first quarter, 12-14.
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Swimming: Antoni Bertran Ponce qualifies first for Spain in the men’s 200m freestyle S5. Great Britain get a double in the women’s equivalent: Susanna Hext in one heat and Tully Kearney in the other.
Wheelchair fencing: There is no television coverage of this event, for a reason that I don’t know. Literally zero. Not on any of the streams, and it’s listed on the Games site as being untelevised. Which means that I can’t tell you much, as there are a million bouts being held today. They’re all part of a pool round, where each fencer fights a range of opponents, so if you’re following someone in particular check here.
Another world record at the drome
Cycling: Another one down! Emily Petricola in the women’s C4 individual pursuit burns around in 3:38:061, breaking her own record by over six seconds. The Australian women are having a good time on the track.
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Wheelchair basketball: Algeria got towelled up by China in the opening women’s match, going down 25 to 74. Ouch. Netherlands USA up next.
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Cycling: So in the women’s C1-C3 individual pursuit, Paige Greco and Wang Xiaomei will race for gold later in the day. At 13:52 Tokyo time to be precise. Germany and the USA will race for bronze, via Denise Schindler and Clara Brown.
Swimming: For Australia, Ahmed Kelly sneaks into the final for the men’s 50m SB3. Rowan Crowthers qualifies first for the men’s 50m S10, with Thomas Gallagher also through. Keira Stephens misses out in the women’s equivalent, as does Kirralee Hayes in the women’s 100m butterfly S13.
Elizabeth Marks of the USA qualifies fastest in the women’s 50m S6. Ihar Boki of Belarus leads the men’s 100m butterly S13.
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Paige Greco takes her world record back
Cycling: As anticipated! She carves it down to 3:52:283 around the velodrome. Between she and Wang, they’ve taken nearly eight seconds off the previous world record today.
Speaking of records...
Men’s 100m butterfly S14: And speaking of them changing hands quickly - Australia’s Liam Schluter sets a new Paralymic record in the first heat, swimming 58.38 in the fly. He then watches three swimmers beat it in the very next heat. Then five more swimmers go past it in the third! Jesus, are they swimming in water or rocket fuel? The sixth swimmer in the third heat ties Schluter’s time (I’m not sure who’s ahead if we go deep into the decimals.)
So poor old Liam breaks the record in heat one, then doesn’t make the final.
Reece Dunn of Great Britain now holds the new, many-times-changed Paralympic record of 55.99. He already has the world record mark of 54.56, so he probably has more in the tank for the final. Australia gets Ricky Betar and Benjamin Hance into that final too.
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Table tennis: Rebecca Julian has just completed her first match, representing Australia. One for cricket lovers: her cousin is Australia’s most entertaining player with the bat, Glenn Maxwell. Her first match is a clinical loss to Ukraine’s Maryna Lytovchenko, but she’ll be back. No one gets mad if you play a switch hit in table tennis.
World record in the individual pursuit
Cycling: We saw a lot of world records fall at the velodrome during the Olympics, often just a few minutes apart. The women’s C1-C3 individual pursuit (held over 3000 metres has a new mark: Wang Xiaomei of China has become the first woman get get below four minutes, and has smashed past it with 3:55:781. On her qualifying lap.
The twist: she takes the record from Australia’s Paige Greco, who set it in 2019, and is due to race shortly.
Table tennis: Koyo wins! Gets enough space to really lay into his forehand on a couple of occasions, which Facey Thompson can’t handle, and that gets Koyo another match point. This time he takes it. But these are group matches, there is no elimination as yet.
Table tennis: Koyo gets out to a 10-7 lead, but Facey Thompson saves three match point and gets back to 10-all!
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Table tennis: Ashley Facey Thompson playing out a cracker with Iwabuchi Koyo. They’re 5-4 in the fifth set.
Women’s 100m butterfly S14: Valeriia Shabalina, the Russian world record holder, wins her heat. No surprise, but Australia’s Paige Leonhardt got the best start off the blocks and led Shabalina past the turn. Just that Shabalina’s burst of closing speed was unstoppable. They both qualify faster than Chan Yui Lam of China in heat one. GBR’s Jessica-Jane Applegate qualifies second in that heat, along with her compatriot Louise Fiddes and Australia’s Ruby Storm as the third-placed swimmers in each. Moemi Kinoshita (Japan) and Cheung Ho Ying (China) round out the eight.
Table tennis: Australia’s Ma Lin, the four-time winner of gold, has breezed past Great Britain’s Joshua Stacey in straight sets. Ashley Facey Thompson has levelled his match 1-1.
Goalball: Brazil win the opening men’s match 11-2, against a strong Lithuanian side.
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Women’s 100m backstroke S2: Only nine competitors across the two heats in this event, and the top eight qualify. Katarina Draganov-Cordas of Serbia is the swimmer to drop out.
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Men’s 100m backstroke S2: Vladimir Danilenko qualifies fastest for Russia, a split second faster than the other heat led by Chile’s Alberto Abarza.
Table tennis: Australia’s Lina Lei has won her opening match against Brazil’s Jennyfer Marques Parinos in straight sets. Great Britain’s Ashley Facey Thompson is trailing Japan’s Iwabuchi Koyo and has just lost the first set.
Goalball: Brazil are bossing this opening men’s match, leading 7-1 at a timeout in the second period.
Women’s 400m freestyle S9: Fastest qualifier here is the Hungarian swimmer Zsofia Konkoly, with Toni Shaw of Great Britain not far behind. The other heat goes slower, with an Australian one-two of Ellie Cole and Lakeisha Patterson. Cole goes out hard in the first two laps and holds a lead, with Patterson happy to hang behind. The eight fastest swimmers will go through.
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Men’s 400m freestyle S9: Australia’s Alexander Tuckfield qualifies fastest for the final, with compatriots William Martin and world-record holder, Brenden Hall qualifying from the other heat. Simone Barlaam of Italy wins that second heat, about three seconds slower than the first.
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What is on today?
Plenty. Times are as per Tokyo, which is GMT+9. Add one more hour for Australia, minus 8 hours for the UK, scan from there for your timezone of choice.
9am - Swimming. Heats for freestyle ranging from 50m to 400m, the 100m butterfly and 100m breaststroke. The medals start from 5pm.
9am - Goalball. Brazil and Lithuania in the men’s comp start the first of seven games today.
9am - Wheelchair fencing. Preliminary bouts have just begun and run through straight into the quarterfinals. The semis and finals start from 15:30.
9am - Table tennis. A whole stack of singles matches happening through the next six hours.
10am - Wheelchair basketball. Algeria play China in the women’s group B match. Netherlands USA at 11:15. Great Britain and Canada at 14:25. Australia and Japan at 17:00. The men’s match between Spain and Korea is at 20:30.
10am - Track cycling. Qualifying for the individual pursuit categories starts here. The medal races start from 13:45.
11:30 - Wheelchair rugby. USA and New Zealand first up in the mixed preliminaries. Australia Denmark at 14:00, Great Britain Canada at 17:30, Japan France at 20:00.
Preamble
Good indistinct time greeting to you all. We are, as Whoopi Goldberg may once have said, back in the habit.*
* The line does not appear in the film Sister Act II: Back in the Habit, but is solely a wordplay-based tagline to add to the film’s title.
The habit of liveblogging many sports at once, that is. The Olympics have settled into the recent past, a euphoric afterglow, but now we can have a euphoric present-glow of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, to be held in 2021 by numerical agreement.
What is on today? Plenty. Track cycling, swimming, basketball, fencing, table tennis, goalball, rugby... details on the way.
