Irish shot putter Mary Fitzgerald says her thoughts have already turned to the LA Paralympics in 2028 after finishing eighth in the F40 final..
The Kilkenny athlete finished sixth in her first games in Tokyo in 2021, and a best distance of 7.64m in Paris meant that she was unable to match that here.
Gold went to Lara Baars of the Netherlands with a massive throw of 9.10m, a long way forward on the 8.75m that secured gold for Poland’s Renata Sliwinska in Tokyo.
“I think a bronze medal required something like seven meters back in Rio (2016) and to look at where the results are today just shows how much the competition and event is improving,” Fitzgerald told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
“You just have to work to be up with those girls.
“Look, I’m happy I made the top eight, lots of work to do, but I’m proud.”
Fitzgerald was unable to trouble her PB of 8.87m with throws of 7.49m, 7.64m, 7.34m, 7.45m, 7.09m and 7.24.
The 25-year-old said that was a disappointing outcome, but she was proud of her efforts as she got to throw in front of a Paralympic crowd for the first time, given that her first Games were behind closed doors.
“A good bit off my PB, I would definitely would have liked to have thrown further, but I gave my best on the day and that’s all you can do,” she said of her performance.
“It started to rain there during the second round so not ideal. I’m sort of used to it being Irish but it’s never ideal being a shot-putter.
“There’s definitely stuff we can improve on, my coach and I and my whole team.
“But I’m very grateful, like all members of my team whether it’s my coach Paul Wilson, my S&C coach Jim Flanagan, Ciara, my sports psych, they’ve been so supportive, including my family as well who were today as well as some friends.”
“I do hope to be in LA, I do consider myself quite young.”
Elsewhere, Richael Timothy closed off Team Ireland’s para cycling events, finishing in 11th place in the Women’s C1-3 Road Race.
Timothy put in a strong performance on the 56.8km course in Clichy-sous-Bois, crossing the finish line with a time of 1:48:47, just over three minutes away from the top 10.
Japan’s Keiko Sugiura took gold in a time of 1:38.48.
“It was just so hard, any bit of an incline at all with the one-sided injury, is just so hard,” she said, speaking to RTÉ Sport afterwards.
“My goal was just stay on them for as long as I could, so I kind of had to chase back after both of the hills, three or four times, and I just couldn’t keep doing it. I did nearly two laps on my own, I didn’t want to give up.”
Timothy admitted her frustration at not being able to seriously challenge the medal positions.
“I’m just not at the level I need to be at to be aiming for medals, so I just did the best I could and hopefully that’s good enough for now.
“I think I’ll do it next year, and then I’ll see how I’m fixed. A few things I need to change going forward, I’m just so slow in comparison to the team.
On camp, you’re just getting your ass handed to you every time, so I think we just need more people of my standard as opposed to people with four legs.”
