It was a great day at the Water Cube today for ParalympicsGB with teenager Eleanor Simmonds becoming Great Britain’s youngest ever individual Paralympic gold medalist. Heather Frederiksen and Louise Watkins also both won silver’s in their events too. And in the Bird’s Nest Shelly Woods took silver in the 5,000m.

Athletics:

Women’s 5000m - T54 Final: London marathon winner Shelly Woods has won Britain’s first medal in the Bird’s nest stadium with a silver in the 5,000m. This is the first of her four events.

It was a drama filled race as six racers were involved in a mass pile up. Woods managed to avoid it and further obstruction when an official walked on to the track to assist the fallers.

“Silver is fantastic, and I am happy with that - it was the biggest race of my life. I feel sorry for the girls who came down, but that happens and it has happened to me before in big races - I was really lucky and managed to avoid everything.”

Sportsister meets paraolympian Shelly Woods

Women’s javelin F42-46: Fourteen year old Hollie Arnold finished eleventh with a top throw of 29.10m.

Women’s 100 - T12: Libby Clegg won both her heat and her semi final with season’s best times and so qualifies for the final feeling confident.

Women’s 100m - T11 Heat: Tracy Hinton finished second in her heat, but her season’s best time of 13.14 seconds was not quick enough to secure her spot in the final.

Boccia:

Zoe Robinson lost her third match 5-2 today against Timo Ollikka of Finland.

Cycling:

500m time-trial (LC1-2/CP4): Sarah Storey finished fifth in the time trial in a personal best time of 38.356 seconds. The former Paralympic swimming champion was pleased with her performance despite missing out on a medal.

“This year I’ve done a PB every time I’ve raced the 500m,” said Storey. “I clocked a 39.4 at the World Championships and then at the European masters in July a 39.1 so I’m really pleased with my time here.”

American Jennifer Schuble won gold. Her time of 40.278 seconds beat Storey’s as her performance was factored due to the level of her disability.

Para-Equestrian Dressage:

Individual championship test grade II : Felicity Coulthard will be disappointed with her sixth place finish in the Individual Championship.

Britain is still leading in the team event at the half way point.

Sailing:

After a delayed start due to lack of wind, Britain’s’ sailors completed the first two of eleven scheduled races.

3-Person Keelboat (Sonar): Hannah Stodel and team mates finished a disappointing ninth in race one, but showed great resilience in race two when having had to go back over the startline after breaking the line early and subsequently reaching the first mark some 30 seconds behind the rest of the fleet, the trio battled their way back through the fleet to score a nail-biting third place. The Brits, who finished sixth at Athens 2004, ended the opening day in sixth place overall with 12 points.

2-Person Keelboat (SKUD18): Paralympics debutants Niki Birrell and Alexandra Rickham, who also won Test Event gold, posted two race fifths to sit fifth on the overall leaderboard with 10 points.

Alexandra Rickham said: “It was certainly a difficult first day of the Paralympics. It seems it is quite normal for us to have a tough first day at every regatta and we usually get better as the event develops. We’ve worked extremely hard to prepare for this event and therefore I don’t expect it to be any different this time. We remain optimistic about the rest of the week.”

Person Keelboat (2.4mR): Helena Lucas scored a 10th in her opening race, but enjoyed better fortunes in race two, holding on to fifth position from start to finish to end the day on 15 points in seventh place overall.

Swimming:

100m final: Thirteen year old Eleanor Simmonds became Great Britain’s youngest ever individual Paralympic gold medalist, after winning the 100m final. An excellent last 25m saw her pip Mirjam de Koning-Peper of Holland at the finish line with a time of 1:18.75. Simmonds had been tipped as one to watch for 2012.

“In the last 25m I just got my head down and went for it. I have dreamed of being a Paralympic medallist but didn’t think it would happen yet,” said Simmonds.

ParalympicsGB team mate Natalie Jones finished fifth.

S8 100m freestyle final: Heather Frederiksen won silver in a time of 1:8.48 despite having misjudged her turn at the 50m stage.

“I had a shocker, I thought I saw the wall but I didn’t and I ended up gliding in,” she said. “But I had to keep hacking towards the finishing line. I’m more of a 400m swimmer than a 100m so to get a medal in something that’s not my main event is brilliant.”

S9 100m freestyle final: A second silver was won by Louise Watkins, who was beaten by South Africa’s Natalie du Toit. Stephanie Millward finished fifth.

S13 women’s 400m freestyle final: Rhiannon Henry and Jenny Coughlin missed out on medals, finishing fifth and seventh respectively.

Table tennis:

Women’s Individual: Cathy Mitton beat France’s Florence Sireau-Gossiaux 3-1, but later lost to Jing Liu of China.

Tennis:

Lucy Shuker beat Kanako Domori of Japan, 6-1 6-3 and is the only women to rpiogress to the next round.

“It was a good solid performance,” said Shuker. “She doesn’t do much with the ball, but gets a lot of them back. That’s the kind of player that wouldn’t bring the best out of me.”

Jordanne Whiley was beaten 2-0 by Arlette Racineux of France.

Louise Hudson, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine