Ní Riain stands every chance of adding to medal haul and equaling exceptional feat

The Limerick teenager finished fourth in the SB13 100m breaststroke at the 2022 and 2023 World championships.

Ireland’s Roisin Ni Riain celebrates winning a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley. Picture: ©INPHO/Tom Maher

Only once in Paralympic history has an Irish female swimmer climbed the podium three times at the one Games. A remarkable feat, and so an understandably rare feat.

Mairead Berry brought home to Dublin one gold and two silver from Sydney 24 years ago. Those were her third Games. She’d medaled at Atlanta and Barcelona four and eight years previous. A Games veteran even if her 25-year-old age belied that status.

19-year-old Roísín Ní Riain did not medal at her one previous Games. She is no Games veteran. And yet here she stands, poised to match Berry’s three trips onto the podium at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre.

The Limerick teenager has her final outing at La Défense today. Two of her first three events wound up on the podium. The other ended one place off the podium.

One place off the podium is where Ní Riain finished in today’s event, the SB13 100m breaststroke, at the 2022 and 2023 World championships.

Her entry time for Thursday morning’s heat has her ranked third overall. And given her breaststroke form when securing silver in the 200m individual medley - hers was the sole sub-44-second breaststroke split in the pool - Ní Riain stands every chance of adding to her Paris collection and matching Berry’s remarkable feat.

Meanwhile, away from the gold-medal winning exploits of Katie-George and Linda Kelly on Day Seven, there was a fifth-place finish from Eve McCrystal and Josephine Healion in the same event.

Damien Vereker and his pilot Mitchell McLaughlin finished seventh in their B time trial class in 36:31.09, almost two and a half minutes slower than the gold-medal winning Dutch pair.

Ronan Grimes was eighth in the C4 time trial, while Richael Timothy was down in 12th in the C1-3 category.

“The road race on Friday is our main event so it was good to get out today and get a look at the course,” remarked McLaughlin, his sentiment shared by Timothy.

At the Stade de France, Shauna Bocquet was fifth in her T54 100m heat and outside the qualifying places. She missed out on a final lane by 0.10 of a second.

Fellow Galway woman Sarah Slattery became the third Irish Para dressage rider to agonisingly miss out a place in the Freestyle finals by just one place.

The 34-year-old from Tynagh and her 16-year-old bay mare Savona produced a brilliant test to score 68.401% for ninth in the Individual Grade V. That was just one place and 1.6% short of making the top eight who will contest Saturday’s decider.