Irish Paralympics chief sets eight-medal target from Rio 2016

Ireland’s Paralympic team has been set a target of eight medals from this year’s Games in Brazil.

The Irish team claimed a haul twice that size four years ago in London but Paralympics Ireland chief executive Liam Harbison was keen to recalibrate expectations and explain the rationale behind the reduced number yesterday, after announcing OCS Ireland’s sponsorship of the team and its awards gala.

“The main factor that we are all judged on in performance sport is medals and we can be hypnotised by that,” said Harbison. “That’s why with the 16 we got in London, my concern is that is most people’s first engagement in Paralympic sport but we won four medals in Athens and no golds.