Sport

South-East women ready for Tokyo Paralympics

South-East women ready for Tokyo Paralympics

Kevin Galvin

The 16th Paralympic Games begin in Tokyo today.

Jordan Lee and Brittney Arendse carry the Irish flag for the opening ceremony at noon, however like the Olympics, all of the events will be taking place behind closed doors.

The South-East have two representatives in this edition of the games, one in the athletics events and one in the equestrian.

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Clonmel's Rosemary Gaffney will become one of the oldest athletes to make their debut in either the Olympics or Paralympics, when she competes in the Individual Test, Freestyle Classification: Grade IV tomorrow, one of the first events of the games to get underway.

Gaffney was Ireland's reserve rider for London 2012 and Rio 2016, and suffered a major injury in 2014, braking 40 bones in her leg.

The Course Director of Kildalton Equine College in Kilkenny could potentially be taking a medal home for her country on Thursday afternoon.

While another Kilkenny woman will have to wait to the penultimate day of the competition to see if she can deliver an unbelievable performance and take home a medal from the games.

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Mary Fitzgerald's throw of 8.12 metres in the shot putt at the Munster IWA Championships in Templemore Tipperary currently puts her fourth in the world rankings heading into the Olympics.

UCC student Fitzgerald is in flying form, having won bronze at the European Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland in June.

Her F40 shot putt event medals on September 4th, the day before the Closing Ceremony.

And you can hear our chat with Mary below, as part of our spotlight on the Tokyo Olympics.

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