Cerebral Palsy Sport Ireland

Irish sprinter Jason Smyth set the Bird’s Nest track on fire tonight in Beijing winning 100m (T13 Vision Impaired category) gold in a new Paralympic World record time of 10.62sec. It was two world records in one day for the twenty year old as tonight he broke the 10.81sec mark he set in qualifying this morning by almost two tenths of a second.

The 7-a-side Irish football team drew one a piece (1-1) with rivals; Great Britain today in their final pool match of the tournament. The result was all they needed to secure third in their pool behind the Ukraine and Iran to progress to a classification match against hosts China on Sunday. Should Paul Cassin’s men take that tie they will progress to the play-off for 5th/6th meaning an improved world ranking for this young side.

Following a classification ruling by the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA) Irish Paralympic athlete, Derek Malone, bronze medalist from Athens 2004 (800m T38) has been deemed ineligible to compete in Beijing 2008 (Football 7-a-side tournament).

Irish teenager Micheal McKillop sensationally won gold for Ireland in the 800m (T37 class) at Paralympic Games in Beijing tonight, in a new Paralympic World record time of 1:59.39, shaving a massive 2.74seconds off the existing mark, which he himself set at the World Championships in 2006.

One of Ireland’s most successful Paralympians and Sydney Gold medalist Dave Malone, brought the curtain down on his spectacular swimming career in the Water Cube this morning. Swimming in the second heat of S8 100m backstroke, Malone clocked a time of 1:16.80 to finish in fifth; tenth overall, which was not enough to book a place in the final of the event.

On a day that will be remembered at these Games for the bronze medal winning performance of Gabriel Shelly in the individual Boccia competition, Ireland’s other Paralympians were not to be outdone setting new Irish records in the veldrome, and the Water Cube.

Ireland’s Gay Shelly sensationally won an individual bronze medal in the Boccia* competition (BC1 class) at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games this morning (2.30am Irish time). Carlow based Shelly beat hometown favourite Yi Wang of China 6-2 in front of a packed home crowd, roared on by a vocal Irish contingent.

The Games have finally begun and with last night’s breathtaking opening ceremony committed to memory, Team Ireland got down to business today and hit the ground running. The Irish cyclists posted two national records in Beijing’s Laoshan Veldrome on the opening day at these 13th Paralympic Games.

RTE have committed to extensive coverage of the Irish team’s participation at this year’s Paralympic Games. Following on from the success of the Athens 2004 coverage, RTE have become a rights holder for this year’s Games and will broadcast 6 programmes from Beijing during the Paralympic Games lead by presenter Shane O’Donoghue. The provisional dates […]

The privilege of carrying the Nation’s flag into the Beijing Bird’s Nest Stadium on September 6th for the Paralympic Games has been awarded to Patrice Dockery. A veteran of six Paralympic Games.