ParalympicsGB enjoy another golden day

Accuracy and precision were the skills of the day as Stephen McGuire, Jodie Grinham and Nathan Macqueen struck a double gold at the Paralympics.

McGuire held his nerve to win a brilliant boccia title while Grinham, who is seven months pregnant, and Macqueen topped the podium in the mixed team archery.

This was McGuire’s fourth appearance at the Games and, after defeats in three semi-finals, he dominated Colombia’s Edilson Chica Chica to win a tactical battle and live up to his ‘Mr Strategy’ nickname.

There’s a lot of great sport in Paris at the moment but perhaps you’ll find the beating heart of these Games at the end of Metro Line 8 in the slightly tatty south-west of the city.

Boccia is a sport unique to the Paralympics played by athletes with a disability affecting locomotor function. It’s a game of control, accuracy and tactics and McGuire loves outthinking rivals.

“All through my career I’ve loved strategic games, my team-mates don’t play me at chess anymore because they can’t beat me,” he said.

“Any sport where I can think a few moves ahead I love. My whole game is about tactics, my power is not the best, so I love getting the strategy right.

“I’ve played this sport for 20 years and I’ve been in every possible final, apart from the Paralympics, I’ve never even been to the podium.

“I was starting to feel this event was getting away from me, two fourths in London, another fourth in Rio, I didn’t even make the semis in Tokyo, it just shows why you should never five up.”

Grinham, a bronze medallist in her individual event, and Macqueen won their gold the hard way, needing a string of perfect tens to beat their Iranian rivals in a tense final on the Esplanade des Invalides.

“It’s pure relief. This is my third Games and I hadn’t medalled, so was starting to get desperate,” said Macqueen, 33, who was paralysed in a motorbike accident when he was 18.

“We are both parents now and there is a lot of sacrifice being a high-performance athlete, being away from your children. They are the hardest bits but this has made it all worth it, I can give my wee boy a medal.

“We’ve known each other for almost a decade. We have just got a good bond. I can tell what Jodie’s thinking most of the time which is a bit worrying. We’ve just got a good bond. We know each other’s thinking and we’ve got each other’s back.”

Megan Richter admitted her shock was off the scale after claiming a surprise triathlon gold while team-mate Dave Ellis earned redemption from his Tokyo heartache to win his race.

Ellis was the red-hot favourite three years ago but suffered a mechanical issue and didn’t finish, not even leaving the Games with a participation certificate.

“It was a tough couple of years after Tokyo but it feels a bit unreal now,” he said.

“You don’t know how many Paralympic races you’ll get in your career, so that added extra nerves and it just feels special to have pulled it off.”

Richter is a former international swimmer, and a world medallist in 2019, who made the switch to triathlon just a few years ago.

She was not considered among Great Britain’s medal contenders in Paris but capitalised on the absence of favourite, American Kelly Elmlinger, to seize her chance.

“Did that really just happen?” she asked. “I could feel my legs starting to go but I knew I needed to get to the end. I was out with a stress fracture last year but I went all in full time a few months ago and races started going well at the start of the year. Things just came together and I’m so happy, the timing has been perfect.

“Since I was little this was all that I dreamed about, looking up to people like Ellie Simmonds and wanting to be just like her.”

Great Britain also won two swimming gold medals in 15 magical minutes at La Defense Arena. After five days in the pool, ParalympicsGB have banked 18 medals, 13 of them gold.

Ellie Challis and Louise Fiddes both upgraded their silvers from Tokyo to win the women’s S3 50m backstroke and S14m 100m breaststroke titles respectively. They are close mates and Fiddes admitted being inspired by watching Challis’s race, just moments before she walked into the arena.

“If she can do it, I can do it,” she said.

“There were so many years when I felt like my dream was slipping away. Only in this year, I started getting back to it.”

Dan Bethell was nothing short of devastated after he was forced to settle for silver at Paris 2024.

The Brit fell to Kumar Nitesh of India 21-14, 18-21, 23-21 in an enthralling 80 minutes on the badminton court to clinch his second silver in as many Paralympic appearances.

Elsewhere, ParalympicsGB finished fourth in the wheelchair rugby competition after a narrow 50-48 defeat to Australia.