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Just over two weeks ago, huge crowds packed the La Défense stands for the Olympic Games, creating an electric atmosphere and deafening noise. This morning showed no signs of an Olympic hangover as spectators turned up in droves to replicate the noise shown a fortnight ago.
Nicole Turner entered this evening’s Women’s 50m Freestyle S6 Final as the fifth-fastest qualifier, facing stiff competition from the likes of World Record holder Anna Hontar (Ukraine) and Paralympic Record holder Yuyan Jiang (China), who broke the record twice in one day. Competing in her third Paralympic Games, Turner clocked 35.65 to finish 6th in tonight’s final.
Speaking after the final, the Portarlington native said, “That was tough, I’m not going to lie. It’s the reality of sport. The objective of the meet is to go faster in the final; it didn’t necessarily go my way there, but it’s all a learning curve. This is the reality of sport—not every day is a good day. I think I have to roll with today, see what we can work on, and by tomorrow, forget about it and focus on the next event.
“I always say it’s hard reaching the top, but even harder to stay there. I think when you start winning medals, there’s pressure to stay good. I’m not saying you can’t, but it is just that little bit harder. Like I said this morning, you just have to block out the outside world and focus.
“Sometimes the pressure can be good; this is an event I enjoy. I’m not saying I enjoyed tonight, but I always say it’s like a warm-up for Tuesday (50m Butterfly). Tomorrow, I’ll have to forget about tonight, move on, and give it my all.”
Speaking about the crowd, Turner said, “Thank you to everyone. I know some of my friends are coming over on Tuesday, and even now, the crowd is quite special. It’s hard when you don’t get the result you wanted, and it’s tough for the people back home, but the support is phenomenal.”
The Tokyo silver medallist will now turn her attention to the S6 50m Butterfly next Tuesday, 3rd September.
Róisín Ní Riain took to the La Défense stage tonight for the Women’s 100m Butterfly S13 Final. The Limerick native, competing in her second Paralympic Games, came away from this evening’s final with plenty of positives ahead of a busy schedule, including going quicker than her morning race. On the turn, Ní Riain was in fifth place, eventually finishing fourth with a time of 1:06.04, just .04 of a second off her lifetime best and a little over half a second off a podium place.
Following the final, Ní Riain said, “It was a good swim. Obviously, every time you get in, you’d like to PB. It’s .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.
“I have a straight final tomorrow in the 100m Backstroke. That should be fun, as it’s one of my favourite events. I’ll enjoy that one.”
Speaking about the experience so far, she added, “It’s been really nice so far. It’s very different from Tokyo with the crowd here in Paris. It’s the first time many of my family have attended a major international event, so it’s nice to have them here.”
The attention will now turn to tomorrow night as Ní Riain competes in one of her main events, the 100m Backstroke S13 Final, set to begin at 18:51 (IRL).
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