Paralympics Day 6: Irish in action and best of the rest as Ellen Keane takes to the pool one last time for Team Ireland

8am: Kate Kerr-Horan & Jessica McKenna – Para Equestrian Grade III individual event
8.38am: Barry McClements – Para Swimming S9 100m backstroke, heats
8.46am: Ellen Keane – Para Swimming S9 100m backstroke, heats
9.15am: Dearbhaile Brady & Nicole Turner – Para Swimming S6 50m butterfly, heats
10.15am: Róisín Ní Riain – Para Swimming SM13 200m individual medley, heats
10.04am: Orla Comerford – Para Athletics T13 100m, round one
12.45pm: Michael Murphy – Para Equestrian Grade I individual event
*4.37pm: Barry McClements – Para Swimming S9 100m backstroke final
*4.44pm: Ellen Keane – Para Swimming S9 100m backstroke final
*5.05pm: Dearbhaile Brady & Nicole Turner – Para Swimming S6 50m butterfly final
*7.04pm: Róisín Ní Riain – Para Swimming SM13 200m individual medley final
*7.13pm: Orla Comerford – Para Athletics T13 100m final
*Depending on qualification
Day six in Paris will be an emotional one as we bid farewell to a trailblazer of Irish sport.
Tuesday will see five-time Paralympian Ellen Keane compete one last time for Team Ireland as she takes to the pool for the S9 100m backstroke. It’s not the Clontarf swimmers preferred event – she finished an agonising fourth in the SB8 100m breaststroke last week – but regardless of how the 29-year-old fares, it gives us one last chance to bid her adieu. She’ll be in lane one in the event’s second heat during the morning session at La Défense Arena, and if her time is in the top eight she’ll be back for the final in the late afternoon.
In addition to Keane’s swansong, it’s a busy day in the pool for Team Ireland, with Barry McClements, Nicole Turner, Dearbhaile Brady and Róisín Ní Riain all taking to the blocks. Newtownards’ McClements is first up, swimming in heat two of the S9 100m backstroke. After Keane’s heat shortly before 9am, Turner and Brady will swim side by side in heat one of the S6 50m butterfly, placed in lanes five and six respectively, before Ní Riain returns to the pool following her silver medal in the S13 100m backstroke on Friday. This time around, the Limerick woman is in the second heat of the SM13 200m individual medley.
In each event, the eight fastest finishers from the heats will qualify for the finals, all of which will take place during Tuesday’s evening session.
In Versailles, three of Ireland’s four-strong Para Equestrian team will compete in the individual events across two gradings. Michael Murphy and Cleverboy will be 14th out of the field of 22 in the Grade I event, while we’ve two riders – Kate Kerr-Horan on Lykkebo’s Don Akino and Jessica McKenna with Daidoff 188 – in the Grade III event, taking to the ring fifth and 10th respectively. The Para Equestrian events see the top eight finishers proceed to the individual freestyle event.
And then our lone athlete for the day at Stade de France for the Para Athletics will be Orla Comerford. The Dubliner will run in the second heat of the T13 100m heats in the morning, with the top three from each of the two heats and the two fastest finishers otherwise making the evening’s final. After narrowly missing out on a medal at last year’s Para Athletics World Championships, we can be bold enough to dream that a podium-finish may just be on the cards.
Para Equestrian: As with the Olympics, the Para Equestrian events are being staged at the breathtaking Château de Versailles and get under way on Tuesday.
The event follows the same format as dressage, with riders and their horses having to complete a prescribed series of movements, such as walk, trot and canter.
The second part of the event, for which the field is narrowed down to eight riders, is freestyle, so each athlete and their horse complete their own unique routine, set to their chosen music, which they have choreographed.
Grade I-III events are staged in a slightly smaller arena that IV and V, and the skills are performed at different speeds depending on the grade, while Grades IV and V also include lateral skills.