Paralympics Day 2 live updates: Ellen Keane qualifies for tonight’s 100m Breaststroke Paralympic final

8.0: Kerrie Leonard v Jiamin Zhou (Chn) (W2 Individual Compound Open Round of 16). Leonard lost 140-135.
9.50: Katie O’Brien & Tiarnán O’Donnell (Para Rowing – PR2 mixed double sculls, heat one). Finished fourth in heat and go into Repechage
10.22: Ellen Keane (Para Swimming – SB8 100m breaststroke, heat two). Dead heat with Brock Whiston for first place in Heat 2 and qualifies for tonight’s final.
10.30: Ronan Grimes (Para Cycling Track – C4-5 1000m time trial qualifying). Finished in eighth place narrowly missing out on the final.
10.50: Shauna Bocquet (Para Athletics – T54 5000m round one, heat two). Finished fourth and qualified for the final.
12.58: Josephine Healion with pilot Linda Kelly, Katie George Dunlevy with pilot Eve McCrystal (Para Cycling Track – B 1000m time trial qualifying)
*15.34: Josephine Healion/Linda Kelly & Katie George Dunlevy/Eve McCrystal (Para Cycling Track – B 1000m time trial final)
18.51: Róisín Ní Riain (Para Swimming – S13 100m backstroke final)
19.21: Ellen Keane (Para Swimming – SB8 100m breaststroke final)
But first it is Josephine Healion and her sighted pilot Linda Kelly in the 1000m time trial qualifying, and they have set a time of 1:10.808 which puts the Irish tandem top of the leaderboard for now. Six fastest will qualifying for the final.
Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal have been amongst the most successful Para Athletes ever to have represented Ireland having medalled consistently at World and Paralympic Games since 2014.
Dunlevy is based in Crawley, West Sussex and has a background in rowing, she has a visual impairment. McCrystal is one of Ireland’s best cyclists having won multiple individual titles. Here’s how good they are.
Honours
Paralympics Rio 2016 Gold Women’s 1km Time Trial B
Paralympics Rio 2016 Silver Women’s Road Race B
2021 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championships Tandem Time Trial Silver Medal
2021 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championships Road Race Silver Medal
2020 UCI Para Cycling Track World Championship Tandem Pursuit Silver Medal
2019 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championship Time Trial Gold Medal
2019 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championship Road Race Gold Medal
2018 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championship Time Trial Gold Medal
2018 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championship Road Race Gold Medal
2018 UCI Para Cycling Track World Championship 3km Pursuit Bronze Medal
2017 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championship Time Trial (B) Gold Medal
2017 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championship Road Race (B) Gold Medal
2015 UCI Para Cycling Track World Championship 3km Pursuit (B) Bronze Medal
2014 UCI Para Cycling Road World Championship Road Race (B) Silver Medal
Next for Ireland it’s a brace of tandem bikes, Josephine Healion with pilot Linda Kelly and Katie-George Dunlevy with pilot Eve McCrystal compete in the women’s B 1,000m time trial later in the day. The six fastest riders in the qualifiers will proceed to this afternoon’s final.
Ireland’s Ronan Grimes speaks to RTE’s Darren Frehill.
Ireland’s Shauna Bocquet on her Paralympic debut has made the T54 5000m final after finishing fourth in her heat at the Stade de France. She was in a breakaway group that stayed away.
Gordon Manning spoke to Ellen Keane after she qualified for tonight’s final. “I am just delighted, it was so exciting to get out there. Even seeing the girls race yesterday, I am sharing with Nicole Turner, seeing her get excited, I was delighted I wasn’t racing yesterday, but it really put me in the mood today.
“When I walk out for races, I have my headphones on, but just before I walked out, I pulled them back so I could hear the crowd and I could see the crowd. All of my friends and family, there is like 30 of them, they are all gathered together.
You gave then a wave. “That’s when you know you are in the faster end of the pack. You can kind of do those things, and I take it for granted a little bit, this is the last time I do it, so I may as well do it now if I am going to do it at all.
“I am really happy with it. It is 1:24. It is not as fast as I can go. I know I can go faster tonight. Had a little bit of fun with it. Was really in the moment. So really excited for tonight.”
Katie O’Brien from Galway and Tiarnán O’Donnell from Limerick finished fourth of five boats in their thunderstorm delayed heat of the PR2 mixed double sculls at Vaires-sur-Marne Stadium. They were over a minute behind the Chinese winners. The top two qualify for the final with the Irish pair set for the Repechage.
Ireland’s Ronan Grimes finishes eighth with only the top six going through to this afternoon’s final. It was a brave effort and the Galway native was in that top six until the final heat.
Grimes is on the bubble to make the final, sixth place with the final heat to come. Reigning Paralympic champion and world silver medallist in the heat.
Grimes fifth fastest overall. Two heats left. Squeaky time.
Grimes down to fourth with three more heats remaining. Top six qualify for the final.
Ireland’s Shauna Bocquet will make her Paralympic debut at the Stade de France shortly. The heats of the T54 5000m Bocquet will be in the second of the two heats. That second race will be around 11.10.
Grimes is now down to third fastest with about half the field gone.
Ronan Grimes in his second Paralympic Games recorded a time of 1.06.41 in the men’s C4-5 1,000m time trial qualifying round and is the early leader. The top six riders will qualify for this afternoon’s final and ride for medals.
Here is how Keane qualified for the final.
Spain’s Anastasiya Dmytriv Dmytriv posted the fastest time in winning heat one in 1:22.91 with Keane and Whiston recording a time of 1.24.59.
Keane in a dead heat for first place with England’s world record holder Brock Whiston and qualifies for tonight’s final. A broad smile and a big wave from the Irish woman. She will get a chance to defend her Paralympic title that she won in Tokyo in tonight’s final (7.21pm).
Keane leads after 50 metres.
Ellen Keane is racing.
Right it’s nearly time for Ellen Keane. A little over 10 minutes or so to be semi-precise.
Who’d have thought, a thunderstorm in Paris. Still it’s a chance to use this.
The cycling velodrome will be a focus for much of the morning as three Irish athletes will take to the track. Ronan Grimes, the Galway native, who found his way to Para-Cycling by an unorthodox root through the government’s Cycle to Work scheme, is back for his second Paralympic Games and will be in action in the men’s C4-5 1,000m time trial qualifying round.
Josephine Healion with pilot Linda Kelly and Katie-George Dunlevy with her longtime cycling buddy Eve McCrystal – they have more precious medal than most Irish athletes – compete in the women’s B 1,000m time trial later in the day. In each event, the six fastest riders in the qualifiers will proceed to the afternoon’s final.
Róisín Ní Riain has another chance at a medal after finishing an agonising fourth in Thursday’s S13 100m butterfly final. She wasn’t too despondent. “It was a good swim, obviously every time you get in, you’d like to PB. I was .04 off my PB so it’s probably as close as you can get. I’d definitely like to have been faster tonight but for day one it’s a good start and hopefully I can build on that for the rest of the week.”
The Limerick native on the experience so far: “It’s been really nice so far, it’s very different to Tokyo with having the crowd in Paris. It’s a lot of my families first time at a major international, so it’s nice to have them here.”
A transition year student at Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh when she made her Paralympic debut in Tokyo as the youngest member of Team Ireland, she will compete in one of her stronger disciplines the S13 100m backstroke final (18.51) tonight.
Our man is Paris, the suave, sophisticated, man about town, Gordon Manning will have to learn the art of bi and tri location but it’s well within the compass of someone who has travelled the GAA’s highways and byways. Prior to departing for the French capital he caught up with one of Ireland’s medal hopefuls, Ellen Keane.
[ Ellen Keane hoping to reprise her success from TokyoOpens in new window ]
Hello, good morning and welcome to the Irish Times blog. John O’Sullivan here and I will be taking you through the day’s events from the Paralympics in Paris. Irish medal hopefuls will be in the pool on the cycling track while also featuring in the disciplines of rowing and archery. Ireland’s golden girl from Tokyo, the effervescent Ellen Keane will take to the pool at 10.22 in the SB8 100m Breaststroke heats in a bid to qualify for tonight’s final (7.21pm), the first step to retaining her Paralympic crown.
Kerrie Leonard was first into action in the round of 16 elimination tie in the para-archery W2 individual compound open event. The Meath woman placed 21st in yesterday’s ranking round, scoring a season best of 653. She faced Rio gold medallist, China’s Zhou Jiamin who qualified 12th.
Leonard was level 82-82 after the third end of the contest, but her Chinese opponent finished the stronger moving into a 111-109 lead after end four before pulling away further in the fifth end to win 140-135.
Next up in an Irish context is para rowing, a sport to which Ireland returns as Muireann Duffy explains. “Ending the hiatus will be two westerners – Katie O’Brien from Galway and Tiarnán O’Donnell from Limerick. The duo will compete in the first heat of the PR2 mixed double sculls at Vaires-sur-Marne Stadium, with the first two finishers qualifying directly for Sunday’s A final.”