Patrick O’Leary makes a little bit of Paralympic history

Ireland’s Patrick O’Leary has made Irish Paralympic history by qualifying for tomorrow’s KL3 canoeing final in Rio. It is the first time the sport has been included in the Games.

After finishing third in his heat in a time of 45.97 seconds at the Lagoa stadium, he eclipsed that mark in the semi-final by a second and a half to earn a place on Thursday’s final, which takes place at 2.10pm, Irish time.

O’Leary said” “It feels absolutely brilliant. I was coming in ranked seventh and if I hadn’t made a final I would have been really disappointed even though there’s eight places in the final but the guys out there really threw it up to us and the guys behind me were in my sights all the way.

“It was a bit hard to race twice in such a short time, normally we’d do heats in the morning and the semi-finals in the evening and final the following day, but because it’s a compressed programme we only had an hour.

“It does tire you out but we would do it 20 minutes apart in training so we were prepared for it. It’s great to get through and I’ll get a good rest now and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

“The Factor 60 is great for me (it was 35 degrees). I traditionally wear a bandana on my head but I couldn’t get the bandana past the apparel police so I’ve had to wear a baseball hat backwards on my head, which is not my normal look but there you go.

“It’s about performance for me now. You are actually racing yourself. Whatever happens to the others happens. If there’s guys in front of me they deserve it as they’ve done the work, because I know how bloody hard I’ve worked to get here so if they’re ahead of me fair dues. All I can do is go as hard as I can. There’s no pressure on me.

“I’m going in ranked seventh, that was my ranking coming in here and my ranking on today’s performances. There’s a couple of guys within spitting distance of me so hopefully I can knock one or two of them off and then we’ll see what comes.”