Paralympic Record For Nicholas, Second Gold for Shabalina and Men’s Class 11 Semi-Finalists Revealed

The 200m medley SM14 was reserved for athletes with intellectual impairment on Wednesday night, the 4th. Of the 16 athletes who qualified for the final, both men and women, Great Britain had 6 athletes.

The event combines the four swimming styles: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and crawl, in that order.

Among the men, the gold medal went to Canadian Nicholas Bennett with a time of 02:06:05. He set a new Paralympic record, which was held by British swimmer Reece Dunn (02:08.02sec), but it was not enough to break his own world record (02:05:97sec).

This was the swimmer’s third medal in this edition of the Games. He had already won silver in the 200m freestyle and gold in the 100m breaststroke, a historic medal for Canada.

The fight for the silver medal was fierce, but British athlete Rhys Darbey, 17, came out on top with a time of 02:08:61sec, and Australian Ricky Betar took the bronze medal (02:08:69sec, a new Oceania record).

When asked if Rhys was satisfied with his performance, he candidly replied, “No, not really. I would want more, probably even a second. Turns out I came third; Rhys is the better man, and he out-touched me, so I can’t complain. It comes down to my training. Props to everyone else who came above me.”

Despite this, he acknowledged his achievement of setting an Oceania record, saying, “Yes, I’m pretty happy with that. I’m sure that comes along with the Australian record as well, so I can’t complain. Three big major achievements.”

Reflecting on his overall experience at the Games, he praised his coach, Harley, stating, “It’s been wonderful. Harley’s done such an amazing job. We’ve worked on IM for the last couple of months for trials. We’ve just agreed to solely focus on IM, and clearly, it’s shown—from our trials to now, it’s like a 4-second PB, so pretty good.”

Among the women, Valeriia Shabalina, a Russian athlete competing under a neutral flag, was the big winner in the event with a time of 02:22:40sec.

British athlete Poppy Maskill won her fourth medal at the Paris Games. She finished the event in 02:23:93 and took the silver medal.

In the French capital, she had already won the gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle mixed S14 relay, gold in the 100m butterfly and silver in the 200m freestyle.

Poppy was pleasantly surprised by her success at the Paralympics, winning four medals so far. When asked if she expected to win so many, she replied, “No, I just thought I’d be happy to get into the finals. It’s my first one, so I was just seeing what happens.”

Reflecting on her recent race, Poppy admitted the breaststroke was tough but pushed through, saying, “I just tried not to die too much.”

Despite winning multiple medals, she confessed, “I’m still nervous as each one is different each time.”

Her favourite medal? “I think either my 100 fly because that was my first world record, my first gold, and my first Paralympic medal. And the team one because that’s like a team medal.”

 The bronze medal went to Japanese swimmer Aira Kinoshita, 18 years old. This was the swimmer’s first medal at the Paralympic Games, as she made her debut in the French capital. She finished the race in 02:25:96sec.

“I’m very happy! After watching the Tokyo Games, I decided to dedicate myself to swimming and trained very hard to be here and get this medal,” Kinoshita told Virtus.

Peter Palos, Kim Gi-Tae, Sam Von Einem and Chen-Po Yen Into the Semifinals in Class 11

The atmosphere at Paris South Arena Sud reached a fever pitch as French favourite Lucas Creange stepped into the stadium, sending the crowd into a frenzy and piling the pressure on his opponent, three-time champion Peter Palos. The intense energy not only affected Palos but also seemed to rattle the other competitors.

Both Creange and Palos came out swinging, launching powerful smashes at each other in a fiercely aggressive match. Despite the home crowd’s overwhelming support for Creange, Palos kept his cool and edged out the first game with a narrow 12-10 victory.

The relentless cheers for Creange only fueled Palos more.

“I knew the crowd would be crazy and against me because I was playing Lucas, and I was prepared for it. Lucas and I have played each other many times before, so he couldn’t throw any surprises at me.” Palos remarked.

With his focus unwavering, Palos maintained his attacking style, winning the next two games 11-8 and 11-6, ultimately securing his place in the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, on another table, old rivals Sam Von Einem from Australia and Takashi Takemori from Japan faced off in a tense showdown. Despite battling nerves, two-time silver medalist Sam emerged victorious, defeating Takemori 3-0 with scores of 11-8, 12-10, and 12-10.

“I was probably more stressed than nervous, to be honest, throughout all the sets, but it started disappearing towards the end,” Sam admitted.

Reflecting on the electric atmosphere, Sam shared,

“We all kind of knew it was going to be noisy with Lucas playing on the next table and the stadium full of French supporters. I just went into my zone and focused on my match. I always prefer to play in front of big crowds, so the atmosphere was great for me.”

As Sam heads into the semi-finals against Kim Gi Tae, he is ready to refine his game plan.

“Having played against Kim Gi before, I know his style, and I’ll be preparing my tactics accordingly tonight for tomorrow’s match,” Sam said, looking ahead to the challenge.

The biggest win came for Chen Po-Yen (TPE) over Belgium’s Florian Von Acker by 3-1.

The seventeen-year-old Chen Po-Yen, who secured his place for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games after emerging as a victor at the 2023 Virtus Global Games Champion, dominated over the Rio 2016 champion from the beginning and won the first two sets by 11-9, 11-7. Florian made a comeback winning the third set by 12-10, but couldn’t shake the Paralympic debutant who won the fourth set by 11-7 and qualified for the semi-finals.

“I am feeling very happy. I have played with Florian twice before and have lost both times so I was a bit nervous but after winning the first match I was ok. I studied his game this time before the match and prepared myself for the match” 

Kim Gi Tae (KOR) took on Thiago Gomes (BRA) for the semi-final qualifying match. The Granada 2022 champion didn’t show mercy on the Brazilian and took him down with a score of 3-1 (11-9.11-9,11-9,11-9).

“I was very nervous and couldn’t play up to my expectations. The crowd cheering for the other player (Lucas) made me very nervous. I couldn’t focus on my game from time to time. But I am happy that I made it to the semi-finals”

NEXT UP: Semi-finals and Finals for Class 11 Men’s and Women’s match