Paralympics Ireland to celebrate medal haul

Paralympics Ireland will hold a celebration today to recognise the outstanding achievements of Darragh McDonald, Jason Smyth, Catherine Walsh, Francine Meehan and Helen Kearney in winning medals over the weekend.

The event will take place at 4pm at the Paralympics Ireland Team Lodge at Duncan House on Stratford High Street in Dublin.

Team Ireland equestrians secured two medals yesterday when Helen Kearney, riding Mister Cool, secured a silver medal in the Individual Championship Test Grade 1a competition with a score of 76.70%.

The result also saw the Irish team take the Bronze medal in the team event in their first time to ever compete in the equestrian event at the Paralympics.

Speaking after the event Kearney said: "I am absolutely thrilled. I felt confident and knew that I had done what I could to prepare. It is an amazing feeling, a dream come true. I saw my family and it inspired me to perform in the competition."

However there was also a team medal to celebrate on which Kearney said: "It is nearly more exciting than my own for the team to achieve a bronze medal."

Walsh and Meehan also made history yesterday by securing Ireland’s first ever Paralympic cycling medal.

The tandem pair took silver in the Women’s Individual Pursuit at the Velodrome.

In the Gold Medal Ride-off the Irish pair clocked a time of 3:36.350 but it was not enough to beat New Zealand’s Phillipa Gray and Laura Thompson who took gold.

On Saturday, Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop won golds in their T13 100m and T37 800m races on the track while in the pool Darragh McDonald equalled that success in the S6 400m.