Barry so happy to stay cool on night to remember in London

It was a toasty 21 degrees when Orla Barry emerged into a rapidly filling Olympic Stadium on Tuesday evening for the T57/58 final. By the time she left, the great stadium was almost empty again and the thermometer had recorded a precipitous fall.

More than four hours had passed in the meantime and she had spent the last portion of it wrapped up tightly in five layers of green, her mind assaulted by a range of conflicting emotions as she watched one after another competitor enter the cage.

Barry had been the first of 18 competitors to throw in the first round and the third last to return to the cage for the final, all of which meant a three-hour spectating brief in between that must have amounted to a sporting version of Chinese water torture.

Her opening efforts had been average, by her own high standards but enough to place her in first place for half of the evening. Then Algeria’s Nassima Saifi relegated her to second before Stela Eneva of Bulgaria bumped her back to third.

There she stayed for what seemed like an age as, one by one, others tried but failed to replace her in one of the three coveted spots until, finally, she could make for the stands and celebrate bronze with the 70-plus family and friends who had made the trip from Ladysbridge in East Cork.

“It went on longer than any competition I’ve been involved in before,” said Barry, who received her medal yesterday morning. “It was a long wait alright and it does get cold. It gets distracting with everything else going on around the track. The noise and excitement means sometimes your focus drops.

“But maybe the cold helped, most of the girls were from much warmer countries and I’m used to this, being from Ireland. I was fine and they were freezing, so that might’ve helped.”

At one point, Barry’s voice faltered as she spoke, which was perfectly understandable. Four years ago, the 22-year old from Ladysbridge finished fifth in the Beijing Paralympics and she had sacrificed the other strands of her life to build on that.

Her degree from Waterford IT has sat on a shelf gathering dust since 2010, ever since she committed to giving six days a week to her training, but her joy at medalling was clearly tempered by her performance.

Barry’s best throw of 28.12 was her first of six on the evening. It was a decent effort but almost two metres off her best, and her technical difficulties were evidenced by a premature release which saw her find the netting.

“I was lucky, but I’ll take it,” she said. “I didn’t think my throw would be long enough to even get me into the final, but it turned out to be good enough for a bronze medal. I suppose that’s what happens at championships, it’s all about the result.

“I came here to get on the podium and I am going back with a bronze medal. I am absolutely delighted. It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t my best performance. A medal is a medal. It makes up for Beijing.”

Her honesty stretched to an admittance that she was disappointed not to improve on her efforts with her final three throws once Nadia Nedjmedj of Algeria failed to bump her from bronze and the pressure was off but time is on her side. The gold medal was won by Nassima Saifi, also of Algeria, just a few months older than the Irishwoman but most of Barry’s rivals on Wednesday night were almost twice her age or more and her graph is clearly pointed in the right direction.

“I am still learning, I am only 22 and Rio is ahead of me. I’ve gone from fifth to third and, if that trend continues, we’re looking at great stuff.”