(NEWS 1130 – VANCOUVER) – Canadians proceed to win medals at this yr’s Paralympics in Tokyo, with 20-year-old runner Zachary Gingras taking dwelling a bronze within the Males’s T38 400 Metres this week. As of Aug. 31, Canada has a complete of 13 medals to date — together with one gold, seven silvers, and 5 bronzes.
The win marked Gingras’ private greatest, a aim he labored in the direction of whereas learning pc science on the College of Victoria. On the 2019 world championships, he completed in eighth place and says it “means a lot” to have improved considerably since then.
“It’s been a tricky 18 months for everybody, so to come back out right here and carry out the way in which I did is sweet to indicate that each one my laborious work paid off,” mentioned Gingras. “I simply tried to run it like my heats. I went in relaxed and tried to not let the second get to me an excessive amount of. I acquired out quick and stored that very same tempo.”
Silvers and bronzes are already going to athletes throughout classes
Kate O’Brien from Calgary loved her Paralympic debut, ending in second within the ladies’s C4 500-metre time trial. Solely a yr after she competed within the Rio Olympics, she acquired right into a catastrophic bike crash that left her unable to stroll, however she persevered and thrived. And O’Brien is simply one of many Canadians inspiring audiences on the 2021 Paralympics.
Marissa Papaconstantinou from Toronto completed in fifth place within the ladies’s T64 200 Metres however hit two new private bests alongside the way in which. There have been no wins for Canada in ladies’s wheelchair basketball after they misplaced to the U.S. within the quarterfinals.
“I didn’t see us ending up dropping. However I believe nerves might need performed an element within the begin, after which it was simply simple issues that we simply didn’t learn correctly like boxing out,” mentioned Arinn Younger (Authorized, AB), Canada’s main scorer in ladies’s wheelchair basketball with 11 factors.
“We weren’t taking our time on our layups; we have been speeding lots of our pictures. Ultimately, that’s just about what value us.”
In para-cycling, Keely Shaw from Midale, Saskatchewan, made the very best rating, narrowly lacking third place, however Kate Obrien from Calgary, Alberta, didn’t end.
Ross Wilson from Sherwood Park, AB got here in seventh within the males’s C1 highway time trial and Joey Desjardins from Hawkesbury, Ontario, got here in eleventh. Charles Moreau from Victoria, Quebec, positioned twelfth and Alex Hyndman from Morpeth, ON, positioned sixteenth — each of them participated within the Paralympics for the primary time.
From Quebec Metropolis, QC, Marie-Eve Croteau got here in sixth, adopted by Shelley Gautier from Niagara Falls, ON, in eighth within the womens’ T1-2 biking occasion. Within the ladies’s 100 Metre freestyle S7, Sabrina Duchesne from Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures in Q.C. got here sixth, breaking her earlier file.
“Being sixth on the earth within the 100 Metre free is basically superb,” she mentioned.
The boys’s 200 Metre particular person medley SM14 went nicely for Nicholas Bennett from Parksville, BC, after he superior to the ultimate and completed in eighth. Whereas different Canadians swam, they didn’t advance to the finals.
One other medal went to Priscilla Gagne, an athlete with a visible impairment known as retinitis pigmentosa, who took silver within the judo ladies’s 52-kilogram class. She additionally carried the Canadian flag on the opening ceremonies.
