Composed McNamara graduates to silver

PARALYMPICS: The picture Conall McNamara painted last night at the Olympic Stadium was as haunting an image as it was impressive. A teenage 400-metre runner keeping his head when most of the rest of the field had scattered from the blocks, spooked toward the first bend. McNamara, in a serenely controlled run, found his stride and slowly reeled them all in but for one, the American Royal Mitchell, who, in winning the gold medal, ran fractionally outside the Paralympic record.

Soon after, with McNamara cheering from the back of the stadium, the laid-back John McCarthy from Dunmanway threw Ireland to a second silver medal, his 9.57 metres in the F32/51 discus final a personal best and an Irish record. Three centimetres more and the 30-year-old would have had gold.

At 17 years of age, McNamara, from Achill, was more than three years younger than the next-youngest finalist in the T13 400m field, an event for visually impaired athletes, and the way he won his silver medal suggests he will have little difficulty improving his time of 50.62 seconds in the years ahead.

"I feel I ran a very controlled race. I had rehearsed it in my head and I knew I had a chance. I knew Mitchell would go out fast and he did. I didn't think the Canadian would go out fast too but I just tried to ignore that and there were a few novices in that race," said the now teenage veteran.

Novices? "I think they were wildcards. So I ignored all that too. I just kept to my plan and it worked out just exactly the way I wanted it to."

The only doubt that had occurred to the youngster was whether the time he spent doing his Leaving Certificate and help his father, Michael, get elected to the Belmullet/Achill council had eaten into his strength. As it went, he's in the University of Limerick now and his father is a councillor.

"The American passed me very early. I knew he'd go off very quick and then die a bit. There was the thought but I said no. He's stronger than me. I'd die more and I could lose a lot more than he's going to lose. The way I ran the race is the way I wanted to do it.

"After my 200m disappointment, it was good to run a personal best. I had been working on that 400m harder than I had been working on the 200m so I knew there was a p.b. in me.

"Pity now I hadn't run a few more 400m races. The oul Leaving Cert made a mess of it. I'm pretty sure I could have run under 50 seconds.

"Anyway not to worry. The Leaving was a bit of a distraction all right but at the same time my dad was going for local elections . . . so I didn't do a whole lot of study like. But I had to stop for two weeks to make it look like I'd done a bit of study."

Don't we know.

McCarthy, a pleasantly reticent Corkman, arrived in, half of him embarrassed by the fuss and the rest of him shocked by what he just achieved. Having landed his last throw, he had to sit it out for seven competitors to finish their round. Although only two of those were possible medallists, a silver for Ireland had never really been contemplated.

In his pre-games predictions, where the entire Irish team were asked to state their objectives for Athens, McCarthy had put down sixth place. Just four out, he will delight in the fact his technique with the discus was more accurate last night.

"I was throwing good distances in training but I didn't think that I would do it on the night," he modestly admitted afterwards. "My training has been going up and down and I have a bit of an injury, something wrong with my shoulder bone, and I wasn't doing as much training over the last two or three weeks. But luckily it came right. The gold. So close. But really I was hoping for a bronze. I really wasn't expecting a silver medal. I'm delighted."

McCarthy, a wheelchair athlete, put out his long one early in the six-throw routine, which gives the athletes three consecutive turns, a break and another three throws. The reasons are logistical as it takes time to get the athletes in and out of the fixed throwing chair.

At the half-way stage the Irishman was joint leader, the Czech winner also making the distance with his third effort. While McCarthy didn't improve Beles threw 9.77 metres with his last to claim the gold.

"Now I'll just meet up with family and have a few drinks," said McCarthy as he left the stadium. Another good judgement call.