TOKYO 2020 PARALYMPICS DAILY RECAP: DAY FIVE

TOKYO, Japan — Team USA easily had it’s biggest day of competition so far on Sunday, and with it came highs and lows. Let’s get to the recap:

We start off with swimming where in the pool three-time Paralympian Mckenzie Coan grabbed gold in the women’s 400m freestyle S7 race Sunday night at the Tokyo Aquatics Center. Her time of 5:05.84 earned her another Paralympic gold in the event after previously winning the race at Rio 2016. It is Coan’s fifth medal of her career. First-time Paralympian Julia Gaffney earned her first Paralympic medal by capturing the bronze in the 400 freestyle S7. Gaffney’s time of 5:11.89 secured her spot on the podium. 

First-time Paralympian Jamal Hill earned a spot on the podium with a bronze-medal finish in the men’s 50m freestyle S9. Hill claimed his first Paralympic medal with a time of 25.19. Also getting Bronze is fan favorite Three-time Paralympian Evan Austin, who collected his first Paralympic medal, a bronze, with his performance in the men’s 400m freestyle S7 on Sunday. Austin swam a mark of 4:38.95.

On the track it came down to the wire, but in the 400m T54 there would be no Thai, but U.S. gold! Daniel Romanchuk celebrated a gold medal finish after posting a time of 45.72 in the race narrowly beating Athiwat Paeng-Nuea from Thailand (45.73) by just hundredths of a second.

Meanwhile six-time Paralympian Tatiyana McFadden is acquiring medals like it’s going out of style. She earned silver with a time of 1:43.16 in the Women’s 800m T54. Getting the bronze medal was Susannah Scaroni (1:44.43) Switzerland’s Manuela Schaer took gold (1:42.81) and broke McFadden’s Paralympic record (1:44.73) that she set at the Rio Games. 

Jaleen Roberts managed a silver medal in the long jump T37 with a mark of 4.65 in her Paralympic debut. On the men’s side of the long jump T47, Roderick Townsend broke his own world record with an impressive jump of 2.15 meters to claim back-to-back Paralympic championships. Fellow Team USA athlete Dallas Wise made his mark in his Paralympic debut after tying for a silver medal at 2.06 meters alongside India’s Nishad Kumar.

Nine-time Paralympic medalist Raymond Martin won the silver medal, clocking a time of 3:29.72 for a new American record in the men’s 1500m T52 on Sunday night, The six-time Paralympic champion collected his second silver medal of the Tokyo Games.

He may only be a 19 -year-old teenager, but Noah Malone can book it! Malone won silver in the men’s 100m T12 with a time of 10.66 that was only beat by Norway’s Salum Ageze Kashafali with a new world record of 10.43. Malone is competing in his first Paralympic Games and already broke the American record in the event during prelims (10.55) to advance to the finale.

Over at Judo in the Nippon Budokan, Ben Goodrich won his first Paralympic medal in a close championship battle where he fell to rival Christopher Skelley of Great Britain in the 100kg B2 division during the Sunday evening session. Goodrich benefited from a bye in the round of 16 and went on to defeat Russia’s Anatolii Shevchenko and Brazil’s Antonio Tenorio Da Silva in the semifinals on his way to becoming a Paralympic silver medalist.

The United States won silver in the Para-rowing PR3 mixed coxed four behind an amazing team effort from Allie Reilly (bow), Danielle Hansen (seat 2), Charley Nordin (seat 3), John Tanguay (stroke) and Karen Petrik (coxswain) that clocked in at 7:20.13 on Sunday at the Sea Forest Waterway. Team USA only trailed Great Britain at 7:09.08 and held an impressive lead over their next closest competitor as France finished third (7:27.04).

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

Kendall Gretsch pulled off an incredible photo-finish victory clocking in at 1:06:25 while Australian’s Lauren Parker, the reigning world champion, took silver at 1:06:26 in the women’s paratriathlon PTWC2 on Sunday morning at the Odaiba Marine Park. Grace Norman won a silver medal in paratriathlon PTS5 with a time of 1:05:27 to celebrate Team USA’s fifth paratriathlon medal of the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. 

Gretsch jumped out of the water in sixth place and made a comeback in the bike where she ranked second in the pack up until the final stretch where she was neck-and-neck with Parker to become the Paralympic champion by one-tenth of a second. Gretsch becomes just the fifth American to win gold at both summer and winter Paralympic Games after making her Paralympic debut at the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 where she won the 6km biathlon race, which marked the first women’s biathlon medal for the United States at the either the Olympics or Paralympics.

The USA men’s wheelchair basketball team find the win again after loosing against Great Britain. The Americans beat the Aussies 66-38 with spectacular performances of Jacob Williams and Steve Serio who scored 24 and 15 points respectively. 

After losing against China, team USA Women’s Basketball Team win an easy match against Algeria 62-21. This match represented the best occasion for the coach to give more space to some of the rookies for them to get more experience and confidence before they need to play important matches. 

The Para-equestrian team earned the team bronze medal at Equestrian Park. The trio of Roxanne Trunnell, Rebecca Hart and Kate Shoemaker finished third with a score of 224.352, just behind the Netherlands and Great Britain to earn the first team medal for the U.S. at a Paralympic Games.

And in a stunning defeat, The United States Wheelchair Rugby team is going home with a silver medal after the team of Great Britain grabbed the gold by winning the two team’s matchup by a score of 49-54. Josh Wheeler led the Americans with 21 tries. Chuck Aoki had 18.

That’s all for now, have a great day and see you tomorrow!