Good evening!

Tomorrow Armand Duplantis and Karsten Warholm will face off in an exhibition 100m sprint in Zurich.

If those names mean nothing to you, Duplantis is the world record holder and double Olympic champion for men’s pole vault and Warholm is the world record holder and Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion for the men’s 400m hurdles.

Who wins? A champion vaulter or 400m hurdler? For some reason, I’m massively invested.

P.S Tune into the Paralympics right now to see reigning gold-medallist Darren Hicks racing in the men’s C2 road cycling time trial!

Paris ‘24: Medal tally

Paris ‘24: Tonight’s top moments

Wednesday 4th September (All times are in AEST)

🚴‍♂️ 4:00pm: Para Cycling, Road: Time Trial (Medal Event 🥇)
Seven Aussies are racing in the time trial, and we are off to a strong start with Meg Lemon winning silver and Alana Forster winning bronze so far. The last Aussie racing is Alistair Donohoe, who will take off at 9:51pm.

🏊‍♂️ 5:37pm: Para Swimming (Heats)
Jenna Jones will swim in the heat of the Women’s 100m Freestyle S12 at 5:37pm. Ricky Betar is set to race in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley SM14 at 5:45pm and Paige Leonhardt in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley SM14 at 5:54pm. Callum Simpson will contest the heats of the Men’s 400m Freestyle S8 at 6:05pm and Ella Jones will do the same in the Women’s 400m Freestyle S8 at 6:20pm. Grant ‘Scooter’ Patterson is back in the pool for the Men’s 50m Breastroke SB2 at 6:37pm. Chloe Osborn and Holly Warn are racing in the Women’s 100m Freestyle S7 at 7:04pm. Finally, Alexa Leary, Lucky Patterson, and Emily Beecroft will set a marker down in the Women’s 100m Freestyle at 7:12pm.

🏃‍♂️ 6:00pm: Para Athletics (Rounds and Finals 🥇)
26-year-old Luke Bailey is racing in Round 1 of the Men’s 100m T54 at 7:52pm. Mali Lovell and Abby Craswell are racing in Round 1 of the Women’s 100m T36 Round 1 at 8:26pm. Lovell is looking to add to her tally after winning bronze in the 200m and Craswell is making her debut.

🏹 8:54pm: Para Archery, Men’s Individual Recurve Open (1/16 Elimination)
Taymon Kenton-Smith, at his second Paralympics, takes on China’s Gan Jun in an elimination round for a spot in the final eight.

🏐 9:40pm: Boccia, Mixed Pairs BC3 (Quarter-Final)
The world’s no.1 ranked team of Jamieson Leeson and Daniel Michel won two from two in the pool stages. They take on South Korea in the quarter-final at 9:40pm.

🏓 9:45pm: Table Tennis, Women’s Singles WS10 (Gold Medal Match🥇)
Qian Yang is playing Poland’s Natalia Partyka for the gold medal. Yang is the favourite, having already picked up a gold medal in Paris in the women’s doubles WD20 event. Later, Australia’s Samuel Von Einem takes on Japan’s Takemori Takeshi in the Men’s Singles MS11 quarter-final at 1:00am.

Thursday 5th September

🏊‍♂️ 1:30am: Para Swimming (Finals 🥇)
Expect to see some of the Aussies from the morning session racing in these finals later on.

🏃‍♂️ 3:00am: Para Athletics (Finals 🥇)
Rosemary Little and Sarah Clifton-Bligh will go for gold in the final of the Women’s Shot Put F32 Final.

Paris ‘24: The headlines

In case you missed it…

🏃‍♂️Australian James Turner successfully defended his Olympic title in the Men’s 400m T36. Turner ran a 51.54 to set a new world record, bettering the record he set five years ago. The win marks Australia’s first track medal at this year’s Paralympics. The 28-year-old now turns his attention to the 100m, where he won silver in Tokyo.

⚽ Brazil continued their undefeated record in blind football at the Paralympics, downing China to advance to the semi-finals where they’ll face Argentina. Brazil’s team has not lost a game at the Paralympics since the sport was introduced at Athens in 2004. France also advanced and will play Colombia.

🏊‍♂️ Australia picked up two more bronze medals in the pool on Day 6. Rachael Watson won a bronze medal in the Women’s 100m Freestyle S3 and Alex Saffy won bronze in the Men’s 100m Butterfly S10. 18-year-old Saffy was emotional poolside following the race, saying: “I really questioned if everything in this sport was worth it for me, because I’ve doubted it a lot. That medal is such a relief. It’s crazy, it was three years of training for this and I’m very emotional, I’m just glad it’s over.”

🏀 The Rollers (Australia’s wheelchair basketball team) lost their quarter-final 84-64 to Great Britain. The result ends their hopes of a medal in Paris. Ben Fox starred for the Brits with a 93% shooting rate and 26 points. Four-time Paralympian Jannik Blair said the team were “gutted”, although “It’s a somewhat familiar position for us.” The Rollers will now play for places five to eight with their first game tonight against Spain at 6:30pm.

Paris ‘24: What we’re talking about

Heartbreak for Jaryd Clifford following disqualification and narrow fourth-place

While Australia sits in 8th on the medal tally and our Paralympians have won 32 medals so far, one para-athlete who will be rueing his missed opportunities in Paris is Jaryd Clifford.

Clifford’s close calls 

Clifford came agonisingly close to winning a bronze medal in the 1500m T13 on Day 6. The 25-year-old was pipped by neutral Paralympic athlete Anton Kuliatin by 0.01 seconds and finished fourth.

The result only compounded Clifford’s Paris 2024 heartache. Three days ago he believed he had a bronze medal firmly in his grasp after finishing third in the 5000m T13. However, Clifford was disqualified from the race for dropping the tether attached to his guide, Matt Clarke, one metre before the line. The T13 is a classification for visually impaired athletes who are permitted to use a guide if they wish. A guide runs alongside the athlete with both holding onto a tether. 

It’s not all bad for Clifford though. Competing at his third Paralympics, he is a decorated three-time medallist from Tokyo (two silver, one bronze) and has aspirations to race at Los Angeles 2028 and a home games at Brisbane 2032. 

What he said

Regarding his results in Paris: “The emotions? It’s almost so ridiculous that it’s funny. I get DQ’d in the last metre (5000m) and 0.01 from a medal here. I don’t know… It’s crazy that it’s three years of work and the last metre defines all of that. It’s pretty brutal and I’m shattered.” 

On his future aspirations: "I'll be in Brisbane, I'm not even capping it there, I love running so I'm just going to keep going. I hope one day I can come in here and be stoked, but it's starting to feel like déjà vu a little bit."

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Anything but Paris ‘24

🎾The Americans are running hot at the U.S. Open, with three players in the semi-finals of the singles draws. In the men’s draw, twelfth seed Taylor Fritz upset German fourth seed Alexander Zverev and 20th seed Francis Tiafoe advanced in a walkover when ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov retired due to injury midway through the fourth set. Fritz and Tiafoe will now face off in the first all-American semi-final at any slam since 2005 on Saturday. In the women’s draw thirteenth seed Emma Navarro got the better of former world no.2 Paula Badosa, from Spain, in two sets. 

🎾 Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell have advanced to the semi-finals of the U.S. Open in the men’s doubles draw after defeating the no.1 seeded pairing in straight sets. Thompson and Purcell are seeking their first grand slam title as a pair after coming agonisingly close and failing to capitalise on three match points at Wimbledon earlier this year. They will play the 13th-seed American pair of Jackson Withrow and Nathaniel Lammons on Friday.

🚴‍♂️Spaniard Marc Soler won Stage 16 of La Vuelta while Australian Ben O’Connor’s lead over Slovenian cyclist Primož Roglič in the general classification has been reduced to just 5 seconds. Remarkably, the sprint classification (green jersey) and mountains classification (polka-dot jersey) are also currently held by Australians Kaden Groves and Jay Vine respectively. 

🏃‍♂️Ugandan Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei is in hospital being treated for severe burns after her boyfriend allegedly set her on fire. The 33-year-old, who competed in Paris last month, was allegedly attacked at her home in Western Kenya.

🏉 Former NRL player James Maloney has been sacked from his role as the North Queensland Cowboys assistant coach after he was charged with drink driving. Cowboys general manager Micheal Luck said: "The only thing I will say is that James has left our employment and it was a fairly amicable departure". It is a blow to the team with the last round before finals this week.

A message from our sponsor

Cheer on Paralympians

Deakin University has four students currently in Paris competing in the 2024 Paralympics. These four students have done an exceptional job of balancing their rigorous training schedules whilst thinking about life after sport.

Alex Viney: Alex is a para-rower currently studying a Master of Business (Sport Management) and will compete in the PR3 Mixed Cox Four event in Paris. This is her second Paralympics after coming fourth in the same event in Tokyo.

Liam Twomey: Liam is a para-triathlete who is currently studying a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science at Deakin. He will be competing in the Triathlon (PTS4) event. This is Liam’s first Paralympics. He came 6th at the 2023 World Championships and will have his eye on the podium in Paris.

Nathan Pellissier: Nathan is a para-table tennis player currently studying a Master of Professional Accounting and Finance and will be competing in the Mixed Doubles XD17 and Men’s Doubles MD18 events. Nathan will be looking to go one better at his second Paralympics in Paris after winning silver in Tokyo.

Sam McIntosh: Sam is a para-athlete and Bachelor of Health Sciences student. In Paris, he will compete in the 400m and 100m T52 events. Sam is a veteran of the Australian Paralympic team competing at his fourth games in Paris and chasing his first medal.

Think beyond the field. Study sport at Deakin.

Looking forward…(All times are AEST)

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