That’s a wrap PART 1: NSWIS athletes at the Rio Paralympics

That’s a wrap PART 1: NSWIS athletes at the Rio Paralympics

 

Wrap of Archery, Athletics, Boccia, Canoe Sprint, Cycling, Wheelchair Basketball and Wheelchair Rugby

 

The contribution of athletes from the NSWIS to Australia’s wonderful results at the Rio Paralympic Games cannot be understated with our stars contributing to 28 of the nation’s 81 medal haul.

 

Australia won 22 gold, 30 silver and 29 bronze in Rio, with NSWIS athletes making up nine gold, ten silver and nine bronze from that tally.

 

When relays and team events are taken into consideration, 13 gold, 13 silver and ten bronze medals will return to Australia in the kit bags of our NSWIS athletes and that is the cherry on top of dozens of finalists, personal and season best performances.

 

In this two-part series we have a look at the NSWIS highlights for each sport from Rio.

 

Archery

 

The NSWIS had just one athlete in the Paralympic archery competition in Rio and Jonathan Milne made it one archer for one medal after he took home the bronze in the men’s individual compound open.

 

Competing in his first Paralympics, Milne comfortably one his 1/16 and 1/8 elimination rounds before sneaking home by one point in his quarterfinal, only to go down by the same margin in a heartbreaking semi-final loss to eventual gold medallist, American Andre Shelby.

 

In the bronze medal playoff, Milne was brilliant against China’s Xinliang Al, winning 145-142.

 

 

Athletics

 

Rookie cerebral palsy runner James Turner was the NSWIS’s undoubted star of the track and field, making the best Paralympic debut imaginable by crushing the world record on his way to the gold medal in the men’s T36 800m.

 

In just his first year of international athletics, the 20-year-old crossed the line in 2:02.39, a massive seven seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Paul Blake and a further two and a half seconds in front of bronze medallist William Stedman of New Zealand.

 

While Turner was our only gold medallist, veteran Kurt Fearnley signed off from his Paralympic career in style winning silver in the men’s wheelchair marathon, Taylor Doyle was second in the women’s T38 long jump and Madison de Rozario was the runner up in the women’s T53 800m.

 

In the women’s T53/T54 4x400m relay de Rozario was joined on the second step of the podium by NSWIS mates Christie Dawes and Angie Ballard, whilst Ballard also won bronze medals in the T53 100m and 400m.

 

Other NSWIS medallists included Fearnley’s third in the T54 5000m and bronze medals to Jodi Elkington-Jones (T37 long jump and T35-38 4x100m). Erin Cleaver was also part of that sprint relay team.

 

 

Boccia

 

NSWIS player Daniel Michel finished 15^th overall in the mixed individual BC3 boccia competition with the highlight being his first pool match victory over Great Britain’s Jamie McCowan 3-2 in a clash that came down to the final ball throw.

 

It was a dream start for Michel, Australia’s first boccia athlete to qualify for the Paralympic Games since Sydney 2000.

 

In his only other game Michel put up a solid showing before going down 7-2 to Greece’s world number three Grigorios Polychronidis.

 

Canoe – Sprint

 

NSWIS had two paddlers in the canoe sprint events with Colin Sieders finishing the best of the pair, making it through to the final of the men’s KL1 200m before finishing eighth.

 

Dylan Littlehales was tenth in the corresponding men’s KL3 event.

 

Cycling

 

Amanda Reid represented Australia in swimming at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London but was the NSWIS’s only cycling medallist in Rio, having made the switch to the bike a tremendous success in just four short years.

 

Reid was second on the velodrome in the women’s 500m time trial C1-3 event before taking to the road as well where Alexandra Lisney was NSWIS’s best performed athlete, placing fourth in the women’s C4 time trial.

 

Others to finish in the top eight in Rio included Lisney (6^th – C4 3000m individual pursuit and 7^th C4-5 road race), Simone Kennedy (8^th in both the C1-3 3000m individual pursuit and C1-3 road race) and the men’s pair of Matthew Formston and pilot Nicholas Yallouris (5^th in B 4000m individual pursuit and 6^th B 1000m individual time trial).

 

Wheelchair basketball

 

After a promising start in their opening preliminaries the Australian men’s basketball team, the Rollers, with NSWIS veteran Brett Stibners playing a strong roll, were upset in the worst fashion by Great Britain in the quarter finals.

 

It was a crushing loss and the one that got away for the Australians who led 15-11 at quarter time and 31-29 at the main break before the rot set in and they were over powered by the disciplined Brits.

 

Great Britain outscored Australia 23-14 in the third stanza to lead the Rollers by seven, 52-45, heading into the final quarter. The fourth quarter was more of the same with Britain hammering home a 22-6 period for the comprehensive 23-point victory.

 

In their classification game, Australia went down to hosts Brazil 70-69 with Stibners netting 13 points along with three assists and three rebounds.

 

Wheelchair Rugby

 

The performance of Australia’s wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers, was one of the highlights of the entire Games.

 

Taken to overtime by Canada in their final preliminary stage game the Australians then accounted for a plucky Japanese team in the semi-finals before needing double-overtime to score a dramatic one goal win over the USA in the gold medal decider.

 

In an epic where neither team ever held more than a three goal advantage and the scores were locked up at three-quarter time, full time and at the end of the first period of extra time, Australia got home off the back of some stout defence and four goals to Batt in the second overtime period.

 

As he has been all tournament where he was clearly the MVP, Batt was sensational for the Steelers, scoring 27 goals, including the overtime heroics.

 

Helping Batt throughout were fellow NSWIS players Andrew Edmondson, who scored his tournament high five goals when they were needed most in the final, and veteran Cameron Carr.

 

The Steelers’ victory marked the first time any nation had won back-to-back wheelchair rugby Paralympic titles and a world championship in a four-year stretch. Australia also became just the second two-time Paralympic champions since the sport gained full Games status in 2000, joining the US. Both Batt and Carr were in Australia’s winning team four years ago.