Key events
Dave Ellis said after his victory: “It’s absolutely unreal. Tokyo was the complete opposite but so happy I had an awesome race today. You only get a couple of chances in your career to do a Paralympics – you get a lot more nervous and have to do it on the day, so it is so special to pull it off.
“The (organisers) moved it up and all the races are being run today, but we’ve done plenty of heat work and got through the race. It will take a while to sink in. I was thinking back to Tokyo yesterday – this is a much happier feeling.”
Ellis and guide Pollard take gold in the men’s PTVI triathlon, Richter wins women’s PTS4 gold
Paralympics GB’s Dave Ellis and his guide Luke Pollard took glory in the men’s PTVI triathlon, while Megan Richter won the women’s PTS4 gold and Hannah Moore earned the bronze.
Preamble
Welcome! It is day five in Paris. After a golden 24 hours for British athletes, we face another action-packed schedule across the French capital.
Today’s Paralympics daily briefing offers a comprehensive rundown on what is happening.
Coombs’ lead role in badminton After the Games have come to a close the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in northern Paris will become a cultural hub serving the local community, hosting concerts, shows and – less excitingly – “various conferences”. Before Shakespeare or PowerPoint presentations get their chance to reverberate around the 8,000-seat space, it will play host to the rapid pwock thwock of shuttlecocks and today is finals day in badminton. Dan Bethell will be looking to go one step further than his silver medal in the SL3 para-badminton singles in Tokyo. Bethell lost out to India’s Pramad Bhagat in a closely fought final in 2021. Bhagat – the world No1 – is not competing in Paris after receiving an 18-month suspension for three whereabout failures in 12 months. Another Indian, Kumar Nitesh, is Bethell’s final opponent at lunchtime. In the evening session, Krysten Coombs goes for SH6 gold against the home hope Charles Noakes. Coombs took bronze in Tokyo. Away from the court the 33-year‑old has worked at Ikea and also as an actor, appearing in one episode of Game of Thrones, The Witcher and assorted pantomimes.
Robinson ready to tackle Australia ParalympicsGB’s wheelchair rugby team scooped a historic gold in Tokyo in 2021, scoring 14 tries in the 54-49 victory over USA. The sport was known as ‘Murderball’ during its early days and is still known for “noisy contact, frequently punctured tyres and even wheelchairs flipping over”. The Americans gained revenge in Sunday’s semi-final, leaving the British team trying to repeat their group-stage victory over Australia, the world champions, and claim bronze. The 42-year-old former soldier Robinson is ParalympicsGB’s vice-captain in Paris and has a remarkable backstory having only started playing the sport – which combines elements of rugby, handball and basketball and is played with a round rather than oval ball – as part of his rehabilitation after losing both legs when his patrol vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device near Camp Bastion in 2013, on what was his fourth tour of Afghanistan.
Peacock aiming for 100m hat-trick “Can you handle it? Can you handle everyone looking at you? Can you handle a stadium full of people screaming and then doing the job that matters?” Paralympics GB’s Jonnie Peacock attempts to make it a hat-trick of T64 100m gold medals. After sharing the bronze medal in Tokyo in a photo finish, Peacock’s particularly bullish quotes leading into these Games suggest he knows he’ll have to run the race of his life in Saint-Denis in order to defeat the defending champion and world No 1, Italy’s Maxcel Amo Manu. “This is the big one and this is the pressure cooker. I’m not the hunted any more, I am the hunter,” Peacock continued. “Once you’ve got gold, you’re not looking for silvers.” He came through his heat successfully on Sunday but only in third, showing how much he has to do to claim a medal of any colour.
