Tokyo Paralympics – Day 8: David Smith wins boccia gold

The gold rush for ParalympicsGB came to a temporary halt on day eight, with only a single win for David Smith in the boccia, but it was still an exciting one that saw nine more medals added to the tally.

In the BC1 individual boccia final, Smith trailed Chew Wei Lun of Malaysia 2-0 after the first of four ends, but he put in a powerhouse performance to come back and win 4-2, picking up GB’s 30^th gold of Tokyo 2020 in the process. Smith did well under pressure, especially given the fact that his opponent had won all five of his matches on the way to the final, and claimed his third gold medal in the event – his fifth Paralympic medal in total, making him he nation’s most successful athlete in the sport. Unfortunately, GB failed to pick up another medal as Scott McCowan lost 6-1 in the bronze medal match to Australia’s Daniel Michel in the BC3 category.

In the pool, Becky Redfern took silver in the SB13 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:14.10. She led halfway in the event, but Germany’s Elena Krawzow made a late surge and finished 0.64 ahead of the British swimmer, while the USA’s Colleen Young took the bronze.

In the T53 100m, wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn took bronze with a time of 16.53, behind China’s Gao Fang and Zhou Hongzhuan with gold and silver respectively. There was also a bronze in the archery, as Victoria Rumary succeeded in the women’s W1 event, and two bronzes in the table tennis – one for the class 4-5 team of Sue Bailey and Megan Shackleton, and the class 8 team of Ross Wilson, Aaron McKibbin and Billy Shilton. Will Bailey and Paul Karabardak reached the table tennis class 6-7 final, guaranteeing at least a silver. At least one other British medal is guaranteed in the wheelchair tennis, as both Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewitt reached the men’s singles semi-finals.

The GB’s men’s wheelchair basketball team mounted an impressive comeback, coming from 42-32 down, to beat Canada 66-52 and reach the semi-finals. The team already has the European and world titles, and they hope to add a Paralympic gold to their collection – if they defeat hosts Japan in the next match on Friday, they will be guaranteed at least a silver medal. In the badminton, Daniel Bethell became the first player to represent Britain, beating Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara 21-11 21-7 in the men’s singles SL3 class.

The German long jumper Markus Rehm won his third successive title in the T64 long jump, while the Netherland’s Jetze Plat won his third gold medal of the Games in the H4 road race. There was also another medal for veteran Paralympian Heinz Frei of Switzerland, who won his 27^th medal with silver in the H3 time trial.

Medal table:

1. China

Gold (68), Silver (43), Bronze (36), Total (147)

2. Russian Paralympic Committee

Gold (32), Silver (20), Bronze (37), Total (89)

3. Great Britain

Gold (30), Silver (24), Bronze (32), Total (86)

4. USA

Gold (25), Silver (27), Bronze (20), Total (72)

5. The Netherlands

Gold (19), Silver (10), Bronze (10), Total (39)