Unsettled Dockery crashes out

PARALYMPICS: One of Ireland's premier Paralympians, Patrice Dockery, yesterday crashed out of the women's 5,000 metres T54 in Athens, a track wheelchair event. Just after eight minutes into the 13-minute race, as Dockery was clearly struggling and was in the process of being lapped by the field, she was clipped by the chair of Mexican Ariadne Hernandez, one of a front-six group overtaking the Irish athlete. The two chairs overturned in the crash sending the athletes tumbling to the side of the track, both of their races clearly at an end.

The two initially lay motionless, upturned at the side of the track just on the grass verge as officials bizarrely failed to react. The rest of the group, who continued racing, actually passed the two injured athletes having completed a full lap before an official in a blazer began running from the finish line across the grass in field. It was only then that medical staff finally reacted. Professor John Byrne, the chief medical officer with the Irish team, who was trackside, was prevented from entering the infield by officials.

Dockery then lay on the grass for up to 10 minutes as several medics attended to her. Finally, after the race had long finished, she was stretchered away in a buggy to the medical centre under the stadium.

It is not the first time the 2001 European 5,000 metres gold medallist has crashed in a race. The same thing happened in Sydney four years ago. This time, in a post-race spate of recrimination Dockery was cleared of any blame. It is not that uncommon in wheelchair races for crashes to happen, especially when athletes are passing or jostling for places at the bends.

Initial reaction was that Dockery would be fit enough to take part in her scheduled 1,500 metres semi-final on Thursday.

"She's okay, fine. She went back to the Paralympic village," said a spokesperson at the stadium. It was a disappointing end to the evening, although Dockery was clearly out of sorts in her performance and would not have qualified for the final had the crash not taken place.

"I really don't know much just yet," said performance manager Liam Harbison last night. "I only saw her as she drove past in the buggy but the initial indications are that she is fine."

Conal McNamara , who will be 18 in December, ran the time he expected in the T13 200 metres semi-final but fell marginally outside the qualifying mark for the final. McNamara, a visually impaired athlete from Achill, Co Mayo had a thinner than hoped for preparation for the Games as his Leaving Certificate took precedence for a few brief months before the summer.

Coming into the Olympic Stadium a little under-prepared, McNamara still has his strongest event in front of him, the 400 metres, which he runs on Thursday. Largely due to his short build-up a personal best was an unreal mark to make but the shorter distance introduced the young athlete to the procedure in what is his first Games of this stature.

That should stand to him and afterwards he seemed nonplussed about the performance especially the start, where he was slow out of the blocks. "They held us very long at the start. I don't know why that was and I didn't get going," he said. "But that's around where I wanted to run today. It got me through the whole process and my aim was to run between 23.4 and 23.6. If that was enough to get me into the final, then good."

It wasn't, his fourth place in 23.58 seconds representing a seasonal best but 0.3 seconds away from sneaking into the final and about a half second off his personal best of 23.08 seconds. Giving four to five years away to most of his opponents, McNamara will go into this week's 400 metres semi-final as the World Championship bronze medallist and European Championship silver medallist of 2003. That represents a sound foundation for expectations of a place in the final.

Tom Leahy, who won gold and set a world record in Sydney in the discus, finished seventh in the F32 shot-put final, an event for athletes with cerebral palsy. Leahy, who also won gold in the Boccia event in Seoul in 1988, threw 5.96 metres, down on his seasonal and personal best of 6.48 metres.

IRISH RESULTS

ATHLETICS: P Dockery, T54 5000m Semi-Final - DNF; F Leahy, F32 Shot-put final - 7th, 5.96m; C McNamara, T13 200m semi-final - 4th, 23.58 seconds, DNQ.

FOOTBALL: Group A - Ireland 0, Ukraine 6 (D Dutko, 4 mins; A Tsukanov, 5 mins; T Dutko, 22 mins; V Trushev, 24 mins; V Trushev, 55 mins; D Ponomaryov, 62 mins); Argentina 2, Iran 2.

CYCLING: M Kehoe, B1-3 Individual Pursuit Track - 17th.

JUDO: M Doyle, B3 73kg - withdrew injured; T White B1 81kg - beaten round 1 by C Jonard (Fra).

SWIMMING: C Conway, S9 100m Butterfly - 5th Heat 3, 1:24.37 seconds (PB).

SAILING: F Kinsella, 2.4mR open race 3 - 15th, race 4 - 15th, overall 9th; J Twomey and crew Sonar open race 3 - 10th, race 4 - 3rd, overall 15th.