Canberra-based swimmer Ahmed Kelly added to Australia’s impressive tally at the Tokyo Paralympics, as the swim team adding three silver and a pair of bronze medals on Saturday.
Kelly and Rowan Crothers finished second in their respective races while Grant Patterson and Matt Levy claimed bronze medals on a busy Saturday night in the pool.
Then, Australia’s mixed 4x100m freestyle relay S14 team of Ricky Betar, Benjamin Hance, Ruby Storm and Madeleine McTernan rounded out the night by claiming silver behind Great Britain.
Best mates Kelly and Patterson both won their first Paralympic medals in the 150m individual medley SM3 final, finishing second and third behind Mexico’s Jesus Hernandez Hernandez.
Iraq-born Kelly, 29, was at his third Games after competing but not medalling in 2012 and 2016 – and said he would have considered quitting just months earlier if not for coach Yuriy Vdovychenko.
“It took me three goes to get on that dais, we’re finally on it,” Kelly told the Seven Network.
Patterson, who competed at London but missed the team for Rio, earned a special redemption story in his return Paralympics.
“I went to London, made a final, missed out on Rio, and people were saying ‘give it up, you’re banging your head up against a brick wall’ and I just hung in there,” Patterson told the Seven Network.
“That proves no matter how hard it is or what the challenge is you have to overcome, if you stick to it, and be persistent and consistent in your process and training and so on – anything can happen.”
Meanwhile, Crothers, 23, finished second behind Ukrainian Maksym Krypak – who swam a world record time – in the men’s S10 100m freestyle on Saturday evening.
It was Crothers’ second medal, after he bested Krypak to win gold in the S10 50m freestyle on Wednesday night.
“It’s bittersweet and a bit funny as well that pretty much every swim meet that I go to when I race the 50 and 100m freestyle, one race is perfect and great and the other one’s a bit off the mark,” Crothers said.
Fellow Australian Thomas Gallagher finished fifth.
Earlier, Levy claimed his eighth career medal at his fifth Paralympics when he finished third behind Ukrainian Yevhenii Bohodaiko and Colombia’s Nelson Crispin Cordo in the men’s SB6 100m breaststroke.
“This (medal’s) pretty special. The lead-up has been rough for everyone … five-year build-up, COVID, pandemic and all that stuff,” Levy said.
Jasmine Greenwood, 16, came fifth in the women’s 100m freestyle S10 final while Jesse Aungles finished seventh in the men’s 200m individual medley SM8.
AAP
