Tokyo Paralympics day two: GB gold rush, wheelchair rugby and more – live! | Sport

Thanks Geoff and hello everyone.

We’re coming towards the end of the second day of action at the Paralympics. What have you made of the event so far?

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Wheelchair rugby: Great Britain are smashing up the Kiwis in the late game, leading 17-5 after the first quarter. Can’t see a comeback from that position. This after the New Zealanders lost to the USA yesterday.

Equestrian: Gold for Sanne Voets and Demantur in the Grade IV dressage. Ridolpho Riskalla gets silver, Manon Claeys bronze.

That goes: Netherlands, Brazil, Belgium.

Swimming: They go top of the table on all measures, and obliterate the world record in the 4x50m relay. This is the race that uses athletes from different ability classes and genders to meet an overall team mixture.

China’s team is Yuan Weiyi (S5), Lu Dong (S5, SM5), Zhang Li (who we met earlier, SB4, S5), and Zheng Tao (S5).

They win over six seconds ahead of Italy, astonishing in a short-course race, and three seconds ahead of the world record. Brazil gets bronze.

And that is the last swimming event of the night.

Swimming: The women’s 100m breaststroke SB8 category brings Ireland into the medal tally with a gold. Ellen Keane holds off New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe for the win, with Adelina Razetdinova grabbing another Russian bronze behind them.

What a moment for Keane. She’s only 26 but has swum at Beijing, London, and Rio, and until now her best was a single bronze medal. She did win this event at the European championships three years ago, but had never finished higher than third at the worlds. Now she’s a Paralympic gold medallist.

Andrei Kalina wins gold for Russia in the men’s equivalent, ahead of Spain’s Oscar Salguero Galisteo and China’s Yang Guanlong.

Six golds each at this stage, equal with China. A three-way tie on gold. China has the most overall medals though, currently 20 to GB’s 16 and Australia’s 14.

Katja Dedekind gets in third in the women’s 100m S13, a big result for the 20 year old, and her best in her short history at major meets.

Gia Pergolini is the winner, breaking her own world record to become the first woman under 1:05. She was out of the medals last night in the butterfly but owns this event. Bronze for Carlotta Gilli, as the Italian pool success keeps coming.

Swimming: This bloke. Gold medal? Of course he did. The Belarussian won six in Rio, five in London, and he’s got his second in two nights here. Last night in the butterfly, tonight in the men’s 100m S13 category.

World record? You betcha. 56.36 tonight, shaving a delicate third of a second off his Rio time.

He’s got the 400 free, the 50 free, and the 200 IM coming up in the next few days, in case you thought he’d be napping. And he won all of those at the 2019 world champs.

Canada’s Nicolas Guy Turbide takes the silver behind Boki, with the Russian Vladimir Sotnikov bronze.

Powerlifting: Gold for David Degtyarev and Kazakhstan, after he lifts an absurd 174 kegs in the men’s -54kg category. France silver, Greece bronze, with Axel Bourlon and Dimitros Bakochristos lifting 165kg.

I’m not sure how they separate those last two medals, given Bourlon had one failed lift and Bakochristos didn’t. Let me know if you know.

Wheelchair fencing: Things didn’t work out for him in the sabre yesterday, but in the men’s épée Category A there’s a gold medal for Great Britain. Gulliver outstabs, outpoints and outpokes Maxim Shaburov 15-9. Silver for Russia.

Swimming: That’s one of the nicest moments of the Games so far. Chantalle Zijderveld and Lisa Kruger win a Netherlands one-two in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB9. Zijderveld gets a world record, too. Keira Stephens gets bronze, and looks overwhelmed by it. Immediately after the race, the three of them gather at one of the lane ropes. They embrace each other in a triplet, and it’s not the cursory post-race hug. They hold on, and they’re laughing, and crying, and all looking completely delighted in what they’ve each achieved. I don’t know the back story, perhaps they train together or have other shared history, but it’s a special thing to see.

In the men’s eqivalent race, Stefano Raimondi gets another Italian gold, with Russia the other medals thanks to Arten Isaev and Dmitri Bartasinskii.

Wheelchair rugby: That was a tough contest, all the way through. The French fought hard, but Australia managed to force a couple of key errors that made the difference in the end. Ryley Batt scored 25 times, his counterpart captain Jonathan Hivernat 29 times.

But Australia stay alive. After a surprise one-try loss to Denmark to open their campaign, that was the concern. And they trailed for much of this match, before getting ahead in the second half.

Australia will play top-placed Japan next in their third and final match in Pool A. France have two losses, having already gone down to Japan.

Wheelchair rugby: Hivernat scores the first try of the night in reverse, showing some skills backing through a congested goal line. But Batt counters it, rolling clear for his 23rd try of the night. The duel between these two has been special.

It’s 45-47.

Wheelchair rugby: Another break in possession! The French are rattled now. They lose possession near the sideline, and Batt pounces on the counter to make it 41-44. Surely that’s enough for Australia to hold onto.

Wheelchair rugby: Australia push out to a two-try break! Ryley Batt, an inspiration as captain, piledrives into a French player and pushes him back across the halfway line. Going back over the line while in possession means a turnover, and Australia double their present lead to make it 41-43. That can be all the difference in a turn and turn about sort of sport like this.

Goalball: Ukraine beat Germany 11-5 in the pool match a bit earlier.

Wheelchair rugby: 41 plays 41 between Australia and France, with under five minutes to go.

Further on the Individual Test Grade II, it qualifies horses and riders for a later event, but also carries medals in its own right. That means that Lee Pearson has won gold and Georgia Wilson bronze, with Pepo Puch taking silver for Austria.

Wheelchair rugby: The Australians’ defence has got super intense in the last few minutes. They block out the French until the shot clock runs down, causing French captain Hivernat to call a timeout with less than a second to go. Which means the clock resets with more time on it when they restart. Can’t say that rule seems reasonable, on the face of it. Australia’s Howe gets sent off for a violation of some kind, for a quick sin-bin. He’s back after one play.

But the French manage to pull the move that Australia did before half time. A try with only a couple of seconds on the clock, denying the oppo time to score. Batt nearly does score after a Hail Mary throw the length of the court, but loses control and tips his chair as he tries to reel it in.

36-36 at the three-quarter break.

Wheelchair basketball: The USA women have swept aside Spain 68-34 in their pool match.

Wheelchair fencing: A bronze for Great Britain after a 15-11 win by Dimitri Coutya. Unfortunately there is no television coverage of the fencing, so we don’t get to bring you any description. A close match though right up until Coutya hit double figures and pulled away. Andrei Pranevich was his opponent, from Belarus.

Swimming: Yet another world record in the pool, this time in the women’s 400m S11 final. Anastasia Pagonis advances her own world record by a second and a half to finish in 4:54:49.

Silver for Netherlands in the race and gold in the men’s, thanks to Liesette Bruinsma and Rogier Dorsman respectively. A bronze in each for China, with Cai Liwen in the women’s and Hua Dongdong in the men’s. Tomita Uchu wins the men’s silver for Japan.

Wheelchair basketball: USA women racing away with this, 53-31 over Spain after three quarters.

Wheelchair rugby: Australia up 25-24 at half time, and some smart tactics seem them delay that 25th try in order to leave only five seconds on the clock for France to try scoring afterwards. France can’t level up before the break.

Goalball: Ukraine leading Germany 5-3 in the men’s match, into the second half.

Wheelchair rugby: After a strong wrestle back and forth, with both teams scoring whenever in possession, Australia finally force a turnover with a couple of minutes to go before half time. They score on the rebound to take the lead 21-20.

Ryley Batt has 11 tries already for Australia. Shae Graham, one of the few women so far to get court time in this mixed sport, has also scored her first try at the Games.

Wheelchair rugby: Quarter time there, Australia trailing France 12-13.

Wheelchair basketball: Half time between the USA and Spain in the women’s pool match. Los Americanos lead 32-20.

Equestrian: Lee Pearson of GB has qualified in top spot from the Grade II dressage event, joining his teammate Georgia Wilson in the freestyle final. Australia’s Victoria Davies misses out by one spot, finishing ninth.

Powerlifting: Gold for Nigeria, as expected, thanks to Latifat Tijani. Her attempt at 117kg fails, but no one else tries to go past her top lift of 107. Cui Zhe silver, Kozdryk bronze.

Swimming: Another Great Britain gold, they’re coming in fast today. Summers-Newton looked just behind world record time but makes up group late in the freestyle leg of the 400m individual medley SM6 category. Her new mark is 2:56:68.

Yelyzaveta Mereshko held that world record, and won gold last night in the S6 50 metre free, but has to settle for silver for Ukraine this time. Germany’s Verena Schott is bronze.

Swimming: Home gold for Suzuki Takayuki in the men’s 100m S4 final. Another silver for Italy via Luigi Beggiato, bronze for Russia’s Roman Zhdanov who won gold in the breaststroke last night.

Then in the SM6 individual medley 200m final, Nelson Crispin Corzo wins Colombia’s first gold in a world record time. Huge swim. Andrei Granichka gets silver for Russia, Jia Hongguang extends China’s overall lead with bronze.

Powerlifting: Tactics ahoy. Justyna Kozdryk of Poland lifts 101kg on her third attempt to go past Cui Zhe. Who then returns the favour by lifting 102, happy to make an effort to lock in silver rather than risk a bigger lift to get into the gold position. Tijani sits there with 107 on her third lift.

Everyone has one more to come, though. Tijani has listed 117 as her target. Wonder if she’ll stay with that, or go more conservative.

Swimming: What a barnstormer for the British swimmer. She was a surprise silver medallist in the women’s S5 200m last night, a race that she was expected to win, but she leaves no doubt about the result in the 100 metres. She already holds the world record in this event, but demolishes it by two full seconds to win in 1:14:39. She hangs on to the side of the pool with a beaming smile that looks like part joy, part relief.

Zhang Li, who out-touched Kearney last night, trails her in for silver in this race, while Monica Boggioni gets bronze. Zhang takes China past Australia on 13 medals so far at these Games. Boggioni has Italy’s seventh medal, all in the pool.

Swimming: A golden double for Francesco Bocciardo. The Italian won the men’s 200m S5 freestyle final yesterday, and backs it up with 100m gold today.

Wang Lichao gets silver for China, Daniel de Faria Dias bronze for Brazil.

Powerlifting: Interesting. Cui Zhe was leading the women’s -45kg final with a lift of 95kg, butLatifat Tijani has blown that out of the water with 105kg, and her next attempt set at 110. Cui Zhe has gone on to lift 100kg and will also attempt the 110 lift. So it’s China battling Nigeria for gold.

Equestrian: Georgia Wilson and Sakura are Great Britain’s first guaranteed qualifiers from the Individual Test to the Individual Freestyle Test. She’s currently second with six riders yet to come. The top eight go through.