Paralympics Day 6: Orla Comerford no longer happy being a finalist, she wants a medal
Orla Comerford of Ireland competes in the final of the 100m T13 on day three of the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships. Photo by Sandra Ruhaut/Sportsfile
On the June Sunday at Morton Stadium when Rhasidat Adeleke finally put her name beside the 100m Irish record, there was an equally significant clocking back the field. Not that anyone paid much attention at the time. Rhasidat and her record hogging the spotlight and headlines.
Orla Comerford was eighth across the line in the 100m final at nationals. She crossed the line in under 12 seconds. New ground broken. Her lifetime best elevated. Her medal aspirations for Paris elevated too.
The 26-year-old visually impaired sprinter arrived in Paris as Ireland’s outstanding track hope. Those hopes will be put through an 11-second wringer on an incredibly busy Day Six for the Irish.
Comerford’s 11.90 from Morton Stadium two months ago puts her at the top of the T13 100m field on season’s best times. Only two athletes, Spain’s Tokyo gold medalist Adiaratou Iglesias Forneiro and the woman she beat into second place, Lamiya Valiyeva of Azerbaijan, are in possession of a PB from previous years that is quicker than the Raheny Shamrocks sprinter.
Comerford was in Tokyo with Iglesias Forneiro and Valiyeva. She was in Rio too. She didn’t possess the speed to contend on either occasion. She didn’t even make the final three years ago.
Breaking the 12-second barrier on the same afternoon Rhasidat was breaking records means she will contend here.
“We went off the track and there was a whole bunch of kids with stuff to sign. And I was like, ‘what did I run? Somebody tell me’. Eventually the girls came over and told me my time and I think I screamed,” said Comerford, who has Stargardt’s disease, a degenerative condition that affects her central vision.
“I think it was also a big relief for me. For so long I have chased that sort of time. But for me, I want to run faster times, the 11.7s, 11.8s.
“But you can’t do those times if you don’t break the 12 initially. I feel for me it’s sort of like the opening of the gates. My coach says it’s sort of like opening a pack of Pringles, once you open them that’s it, you’re in, you are not just having one.”
The gates and the pringles box threatened to stay permanently shut during a difficult 2022. Comerford missed the entire season. It was a season that had to be sacrificed to get her hamstrings right. No racing meant no results. No results meant no funding. It was a sacrifice taken with Paris in mind.
“I don’t want to just make the final. Those were great achievements when I was younger, I think having had that experience and being in the position I’m in now, I definitely want to be pushing for a podium. I want to be in the mix.”
Ellen Keane will not be in the mix today. She will not be pushing for a podium. She knows that herself. She herself joked pre-Paris that she won’t be in the SB9 100m backstroke final unless she improves on her entry time by five seconds.
Today is not about contending for Keane. Today is about saying her goodbyes. Her final swim at her fifth Paralympic Games. Her retirement swim. A retirement she is ready for.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Keane wrote that “my heart broke a little with a fourth finish” in last Friday’s SB8 breaststroke final.
“But it’s been put back together thanks to every single person who came to cheer me on, every single person who has gone out of their way to send me a kind message, my teammates and friends in the village who have given me so many lovely hugs.
“Weirdly a gold medal in Tokyo felt an awful lot lonelier than no medal in Paris. Thank you for holding me. C'est la vie.”
Ireland’s other pool medalist from Tokyo, Nicole Turner, will this evening attempt to again climb the podium of the S6 50m butterfly that she was second in three years ago. The 22-year-old Partarlington native is ranked fourth here on entry times.
Ireland’s sole pool finalist yesterday, Deaten Registe, was sixth in the SB14 100m breaststroke final. His 1:07.82 was a new PB.
Elsewhere on Day Five, Shauna Bocquet missed out on qualification to the T54 1,500m final by just one place. Needing to finish among the top six in her heat, Bocquet was seventh in 3:35.26, eight hundredths of a second off the Brazilian athlete in sixth.
In the MS3 table tennis Round of 16, Colin Judge lost in straight sets to four-time Paralympic champion Panfeng Feng of China.
08.37 Barry McClements, Para Swimming S9 100m Backstroke Heat
08.45 Ellen Keane, Para Swimming S9 100m Backstroke Heat
09.15 Dearbhaile Brady, Para Swimming S6 50m Fly Heat
09.15 Nicole Turne,r Para Swimming S6 50m Fly Heat
09.36 Kate Kerr-Horan, Para Equestrian Grade III Individual
10.04 Orla Comerford, Para Athletics T13 100m Heat
10.15 Róisín Ní Riain, Para Swimming SM13 200m IM Heat
10.31 Jessica McKenna, Para Equestrian Grade III Individual
16.08 Michael Murphy, Para Equestrian Grade I Individual
16.37 Barry McClements, Para Swimming S9 100m Backstroke Final*
16.44 Ellen Keane, Para Swimming S9 100m Backstroke Final*
17.05 Dearbhaile Brady, Para Swimming S6 50m Fly Final*
17.05 Nicole Turner, Para Swimming S6 50m Fly Final*
19.04 Róisín Ní Riain, Para Swimming SM13 200m IM Final*
19.13 Orla Comerford, Para Athletics T13 100m Final*
(*pending qualification)
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