Key events
Kadeena Cox comes off her bike at the first corner!
Cox takes a deep breath and off she goes, a wobbly start putting her under pressure … and she comes off her bike before the first turn. Oh man, that is not good to see, but she’ll get another go I think…
Here comes Kadeena…
Oooh, Patouillet is outside the leader at halfway but she’s an endurance rider so you’d expect her to come on strong at the end … and she does! She leads with 36.7 so, with two riders to come, has guaranteed herself a bronze medal at worst.
It’s Marie Patouillet, the local favourite, to go next…
Next to go, Kate O’Brien of Canada, looking to better Li’s time, and she’s almost half a second inside it after the first lap. And she sets a new fastest time of 36.873. One more rider, then it’s Cox…
The time trial final is under way, Nicole Murray of NZ setting an opening time of 37.425, but as I type, Li Xiaoui of China betters it with 37.187.
I’ve no idea what’ll happen if she wins, but I’m in bits already.
“How did you feel the first time you picked up a gold medal?” asks Joe Wicks, interviewing Cox for Channel 4; “Oh, I cried like a baby,” she replies, before explaining that cycling is a pretty middle-class endeavour and she wants to “change the face” of it. She’s awesome.
Cox’s C4-5 classification is to include people with lower limb impairments or issues with lower limb functionality; Cox, who competed as an able-bodied athlete when she was younger, has MS.
Ah, and we now cross to the velodrome where Cox will contest the first gold medal of the Games. It’s hot outside but it’s roasting in there, because the higher the temperature, the faster the track.
It’s been a long schlep for her to get here, as recorded in Tanya Aldred’s piece to which I linked earlier.
The 33-year-old, who ripped up the record book by winning gold in Rio on the athletics track and in the velodrome, tore a calf muscle last winter and then sustained an achilles injury. She recovered to successfully defend her C4 500m time trial title at the Para Cycling Track World Championships in March but picked up another calf tear in training six weeks ago.
Back to Kadeena Cox, here’s an older piece giving us an insight into her life.
Look who’s at the badminton! He looks about 30 years younger than at the end of the last football season.
Yup, USA saw off Canada 51-48 in the wheelchair rugby, but this is just the phoney war. There’s plenty of mileage in this tournament yet.
Back in the rugby, USA now lead Canada 51-47, with 26.8s to go; this is probably over as a contest, but Canada have sent a message.
And here he is, looking good to win a fourth consecutive gold.
Email! “ParalympicsGB’s David Smith – resplendent in his red and blue fauxhawk – overcame his opponent D’Oliveira 5-3 in their Boccia BC1 round-robin,” advises Chris Page. “Having raced into a 3-0 lead, D’Oliveira pegged him back to 3-2 before Smith extended his lead. Really tense stuff!!”
Thanks for that, would love to watch it but we’re limited by what’s being shown.
Coming up later is the final of the men’s B 4000m individual pursuit. Going for GB are Steve Bate and his pilot, Chris Latham – they face Tristan Bangma and BOS Patrick of Netherlands in the gold-medal match at 4.13pm.
Back to the wheelchair basketball, USA now lead Canada 42-39 with 4.56 left in the fourth. Tahis is shaping up to be a decent finish.
I love these so much. The first shot, in particular, is sensational.
The women’s wheelchair basketball is over and it’s been a good start for GB, who walloped Spain 69-34. But can they improve on their seventh-placed finish from Tokyo?
Talking of world records, this morning Daphne Schrager obliterated her own in in the C3 cycling, but Wang Xiaomei of China beat even that; the pair go head-to-head in the final a couple of hours from now.
Cox’s final is up at 2.50pm BST – she qualified for it in second place, but Caroline Groot of the Netherlands, who was fastest, set a new world record in the process.
Earlier today, by the way, GB men dealt Germany a right tousing, beating them 76-55 in their first Group A game.
Back to the basketball, GB women are giving Spain a right going-over, up 66-33 in the fourth quarter.
Wheelchair rugby, of course, began life as “Murderball” – a name it shares with a game we played as kids. Two teams, two goals, one ball: get it into the other side’s however you’re able to.
Earlier today, GB began their defence of the mixed wheelchair rugby competition, beating Australia – the world no 1 side – 58-55. It’d be no great surprise to see these two meet again for the gold, but USA will have something to say about that.
Also going on:
In the wheelchair basketball, GB women lead their pool match against Spain 48-25 in the third quarter; in the men’s, USA lead Canada 16-14 in the second.
Some morning images from around Paris …
Preamble
Morning all and welcome to the Paralympics 2024 – day one!
As you might expect, awaiting us is a ludicrous amount of wondrous sport and we’re under way quickly.
Kadeena Cox, winner of golds in both cycling and athletics at the Rio Games, looks to retain her 500m time trial title – though her build-up has been hampered by injury and illness, while Daphne Schrager goes for gold in the C1-3 individual pursuit.
Then, in the pool we’ve got Tully Kearney seeking to retain her S5 100m freestyle crown with Suzanna Hext also contending; Olivia Newman-Baronius, Poppy Maskill and William Ellard all go in the S14 butterfly; and Spain’s Teresa Perales, who has 27 Paralympic medals, will look to make the S2 100m backstroke final at the age of 48.
Then, this evening, we’ve got the men’s T11 long jump along with Petrucio Ferreira of Brazil, the world’s fastest Paralympic runner, aiming to once again win T47 100m gold. On y va!
