– Rob Shaw wins opener in wheelchair tennis, Mel Pemble fourth in Para cycling
– Women’s wheelchair basketball team claims first victory
Following the third day of competition, the Paris 2024 Canadian Paralympic Team holds six medals – two silver and four bronze – thanks to two second place finishes by Para swimmers Nicholas Bennett and Tess Routliffe.
MEDALS WON ON AUGUST 31
SILVER – Nicholas Bennett, Para Swimming, men’s 200m freestyle S14
SILVER – Tess Routliffe, Para Swimming, women’s 200m individual medley SM7
OVERALL MEDAL TOTAL
GOLD – 0
SILVER – 2
BRONZE – 4
TOTAL – 6
RESULTS SUMMARY
Para Swimming
Nicholas Bennett and Tess Routliffe both claimed silver medals in the pool Saturday evening.
Bennett captured silver in the men’s 200m freestyle S14 for his first Paralympic medal. Competing in his second Paralympic Games at the age of 20, he raced to the podium with a time of 1:53.61.
“This is something we’ve been working towards since I was a little kid, just to get to this level,” said Bennett. “But being on the podium is a highlight across this long road.”
For Routliffe, it is her second Paralympic medal after also earning silver in the same event back at Rio 2016. After missing Tokyo 2020 with injury, she is now back on the podium, finishing the women’s 200m individual medley SM7 final in 2:57.17. In the same race, teammate Danielle Dorris was sixth.
“I think it’s more about maxing out my potential and unfortunately tonight I wasn’t able to fully max out what I think I’m capable of,” said Routliffe. “But I’m ecstatic to be back here, I’m doing what I love again, there’s nothing else to describe that feeling and I’m just happy to be back.”
In the morning heats, Reid Maxwell did not advance out of the men’s 100m backstroke S8 heats. The 16-year-old was racing in his first-ever Paralympic Games.
Para Cycling Track
Mel Pemble, a 2018 Paralympian in Para alpine skiing in her first event at a summer Paralympic Games, finished fourth in the women’s C1-3 500m time trial. She is a new world record holder in her C3 classification though, securing the mark earlier in qualifying with a time of 38.512 seconds.
“It’s pretty cool to come here and realize I’m at my second Games,” said Pemble. “It felt more real coming into these Games with medal potential.”
“The world record is going to make that fourth place sting a little less in the end, but I think it’s going to take a little while for me to get over that. I’m very happy with my times, I got a personal best by a second which is more than could hope for, but it would have been amazing to win a medal, it just wasn’t in the cards this year.”
Para Athletics
Five athletes competed in finals at Stade de France on Saturday.
In the men’s T54 5000m, 11-time Paralympic medallist Brent Lakatos was seventh with a time of 10:56.73. Less than two seconds separated the top eight in a thrilling race.
“I’m extremely proud of the whole race,” said Lakatos. “I executed the plan absolutely perfectly that we came up with. It was just a little bit at the end, maybe it’s the injury, maybe it’s the race, I don’t know, but it was really fun to be part of that. I’m really proud of the way I handled the whole race, I didn’t make any mistakes, so I’m so proud of myself for that.”
Ashlyn Renneberg, in her debut Paralympic appearance at the age of 19, was seventh in the women’s F13 javelin with a best throw of 30.93 metres.
“I ranked top seven so that right there is an accomplishment in itself because I think I was ranked 10th or ninth coming in, so at least I moved up a bit and that was already a win,” said Renneberg.
In other results, Guillaume Ouellet was fifth in the men’s T13 5000m and first-time Paralympian Keegan Gaunt was ninth in the women’s T13 1500m. Rounding out the day was Amanda Rummery, fifth in the women’s T47 400m final in her maiden Paralympic final.
Boccia
In the women’s BC4 quarterfinals, Alison Levine lost 3-2 to rival Leidy Chica Chica of Colombia in a close-fought duel. Tied 2-2 heading into the final end, Levine just came up short against the world No. 1.
“I have zero regrets,” said Levine. “I think that’s the experience of it being my third Paralympics. There is the slogan going around that we’re not participating, we’re competing, and that’re true. But don’t forget the fact of what it takes to get here, you can’t just show up to the Paralympics, you have to earn it.”
Earlier in the day, Iulian Ciobanu wrapped up his individual tournament in the men’s BC4 category with a victory, defeating Stephen McGuire of Great Britain 4-2 to finish with a preliminary record of 2-1. He unfortunately just missed out on the quarterfinals.
Both Levine and Ciobanu will return to the court later in the Games for the BC4 pairs competition.
Sitting Volleyball
Against the toughest opponent in their pool, the Canadian women’s team dropped a 3-1 decision to Brazil. The squad is now 1-1 with a game remaining in the round-robin.
“Definitely still working on the process,” said team captain Danielle Ellis. “This game, as much as every game matters, every point matters, and every ball that we’re touching matters. For us it’s working on the process, getting to that medal match and being good in those final two games.”
Wheelchair Rugby
Canada fell 50-46 in a tight game against Japan to finish wheelchair rugby preliminary play with a record of 1-2. The team will now regroup for the placing playoff games, with hopes of being able to match its fifth-place finish from Tokyo 2020.
“The Japanese team is extremely deliberate in their transitions, very strong, very quick, so we had to work really hard to get what we wanted,” said team member Eric Rodrigues. “They managed to take us out of our game plan a little bit and came out on top.”
Wheelchair Basketball
Canada notched a win and a loss against Great Britain in wheelchair basketball action, with the women posting a 63-54 victory before the men dropped an 88-58 decision.
For the women, it was their first win of Paris 2024. They are now 1-1 with a game remaining. Against the Brits, Arinn Young scored 26 points and Cindy Ouellet added 19 to lead the team in scoring.
“That was huge for us,” said team member Tara Llanes. “GB is such a good team, and we just played friendlies against them a month ago. That was huge. We had a really big game from everyone: Arinn Young, Cindy Ouellet, Rosalie Lalonde – everybody.
“I think the important thing was to keep the foot on the gas – that was our big thing: throw the first punch and keep punching.”
The men’s team’s record now sits at 1-1 following their loss to a strong British squad. Nine players scored for Canada, led by Colin Higgins with 14 points and Patrick Anderson with 11.
Wheelchair Tennis
In his second Games appearance, Rob Shaw secured his first Paralympic match victory, ousting Brazilian Ymanitu Silva 6-2, 6-1 to advance in the wheelchair tennis quad singles quarterfinals. He will next take on world No. 2 Niels Vink on Monday.
“I think I was able to overcome a lot of nerves and tightness to hit the ball really well,” said Shaw. “So I didn’t feel that great the whole match, but I think it looked good to my coach, it looked good to me off my racquet, but I’ll have to do a better job next match of not letting those nerves impact my physical body as much.”
Para Rowing
Jacob Wassermann was fourth in his PR1 men’s single sculls repechage race and will now compete in the B final.
Para Badminton
Yuka Chokyu closed out her Paris 2024 with a straight-sets loss to Thailand’s Sujirat Pookkham in the Para badminton women’s WH1 singles tournament. She will not advance out of the group stage.
CLICK HERE for the complete results on Saturday August 31.
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