Paralympics 2021 LIVE updates Australias Steelers vow to rebound IOC boss Bachs Tokyo return criticised

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CYCLING TRACK - Finals from 3pm AEST
Australia have a couple of big gold medal chances in the men’s C3 3000m individual pursuit. Darren Hicks and Nicholas David will be vying for the top couple of spots in what should be a thrilling contest.

POWERLIFTING - Finals from midday AEST
Although Australia doesn’t have anyone competing in powerlifting, it’ll be one to watch. It’s effectively who can bench press the most in a sport that is open to athletes with a physical impairment.

TABLE TENNIS
Australia’s table tennis players continue their campaign. Flag bearer Dani Di Toro continues her run in a seventh Paralympics, while Melissa Tapper, who has represented Australia in two Olympics - Rio and Tokyo - gets down to business.

SWIMMING - From 6pm AEST
After a brilliant day one, Australia don’t have as many gold medal hopes in the pool but their best chance is Keira Stephens in the SB9 100m breaststroke. Katja Dedekind (S13 100m backstroke) and Timothy Disken (SB8 100m breaststroke) are also ones to keep an eye out for. There are 14 finals.

WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL - Australian women (10am AEST) and men (3.45pm AEST)
The Gliders (women) and Rollers (men) are in action on day two. Australia’s men finished sixth at Rio 2016, while the Gliders are looking to bounce back with a bang after missing qualification five years ago.

Here’s one of the athletes who personifies what the Paralympics are all about - Egyptian table tennis player Ibrahim Hamato. He’s back for a second games after, in many ways, stealing the show in Rio five years ago.

Read a little bit more about Hamato, who lost both his arms after a train accident when he was 10 years old.

Competing in the 3000m individual pursuit (C2 category), Australian Darren Hicks has finished behind Frenchman Alexandre Leaute, who claimed the gold.

Australia’s para-cyclist Darren Hicks will push for gold in the men’s 3000m individual pursuit (C2) at the velodrome after an unexpected turn of events.

The opportunity came up for Hicks (instead of a chance to ride for bronze) after Belgium’s Edwoud Vromant was disqualified following a world record mark.

It will be Hicks versus Frenchman Alexandre Leaute for gold or silver in the main race.

Coming up shortly ....

A brief return visit to Tokyo by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach to view the Paralympic Games has been widely criticised in Japan but defended by organisers.

Bach, who spent about a month in Japan for the recently-completed Olympics, returned the day before Tuesday’s Paralympic opening ceremony and then departed about 24 hours later after attending some events and handing out medals at the swimming venue.

Organisers said he followed all the pandemic protocols.

“President Bach was here at our invitation,” International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence said. “His activity plan had been approved by the Japanese government. The IPC and the IOC have a very close working relationship. The Paralympic Games wouldn’t be the size or scale that it is today if it wasn’t for the support that we get (and) for the relationship we have with the IOC.”

Thomas Bach at a swimming medal ceremony on Wednesday.Credit:Getty Images

Bach was photographed walking around the famous Ginza shopping area after the Olympics ended. He was wearing a mask, but Japanese media questioned why he was touring the city when athletes were told not to.

“Right now, the government is requesting people to telework and (Bach) is coming back just for that,” Dr. Shigeru Omi, a medial adviser for the government, said this week.

“When the government is making those requests to the people, why is the Olympic leader, President Bach, coming all the way to Tokyo?” Omi asked. “Anyone with normal, common sense should be able to think that he has already come once and even visited Ginza.”

Bach did not return to Rio de Janeiro to attend the 2016 Paralympic opening ceremony. He said he missed the ceremony to attend the funeral of former West Germany president Walter Scheel.

AP

Australia’s men’s wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers, suffered a shock 54-53 defeat to Denmark on the opening day, a result that left them “gutted”. In a sign of their dominance, it was Australia’s first loss in Paralympic competition since 2008.

Team captain Ryley Batt admits the team was showing “a bit of rust” after zero competition during COVID-19 times.

“I have never seen them play like that before,” Batt told Channel Seven about their Danish opponents on Wednesday.

“They were well-drilled, they were just on point, I think maybe a little bit of pressure got to us, a lack of game time in these pressure situations.

“The last time we were in a pressure situation was the end of 2019, back here in Japan. You can train as hard as you want, you can prepare as much as you want, but without that high-intensity, high-pressure situations, it’s very hard to replicate a game (atmosphere).

Ryley Batt comes up against Denmark’s Sebastian Frederikson.Credit:Getty Images

“We’ll come back today stronger than ever. We understand what we’ve done wrong.”

That immediate chance to improve their campaign happens against France from 6.30pm AEST.

Australia will be without Mick Ozanne due to illness. Paralympics Australia said the 34-year-old has a UTI infection, reasonably common among people with higher level spinal cord injuries, which Ozanne does.

PA said the Steelers player had been tested and re-tested by team medical staff for COVID-19 and all results have been negative.

Plenty of eyes will be on Australia’s Dylan Alcott over the next week or so

News just in ...

Australia’s para-cyclist Darren Hicks will ride for gold in the men’s 3000m individual pursuit (C2) at the velodrome after a dramatic turn of events.

The opportunity came up for Hicks (instead of gunning for bronze) after Belgium’s Edwoud Vromant was disqualified following a world record mark.

It will be Hicks versus Frenchman Alexandre Leaute for gold or silver.

That’s two wins now from two hit-outs for Japan’s women’s basketball team ...

Australia’s 179-strong team in Tokyo is littered with medal chances but the table tennis crew, spearheaded by a former Chinese competitor who lost his arm in a bear attack as a child, could spring more than a little surprise.

The story of Ma Lin, a naturalised Australian and one of the greats of para table tennis, is both eye-catching and uplifting.

Already with four gold medals to his name from three previous Paralympics, Ma is one of three former Chinese athletes who are now wearing Australia’s green and gold at a Paralympics for the first time.

Australia’s former Chinese competitors: Yang Qian, Ma Lin and Lei Lina.Credit:Justin McManus

Aged just five, Ma lost his right arm after being bitten by a bear at a zoo near his home in provincial China in the mid 1990s.

With his quiet demeanour, Ma said he was left “numb” by the encounter.

“There was a fence, but there was still some space to put your hand,” he said through an interpreter.

READ MORE

A foreign participant in the Paralympic Games in Japan has been hospitalised with non-severe symptoms of COVID-19, Kyodo News said on Thursday, citing the Games’ organising committee.

It is the first hospitalisation of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which opened on Tuesday.

Hospitals in Japan treating COVID-19 patients have usually reserved beds for people showing severe symptoms.

The national government and the Tokyo Metropolitan government appealed on Monday to hospitals in the capital to accept more COVID-19 patients.

Less than 10 per cent of coronavirus patients are hospitalised in Tokyo, and the low level of admissions has added to public frustration with the government’s COVID-19 response, undermining voter support for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

Reuters

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