Britney Arendse finishes fourth on final day of Irish action at Paralympics

There were no further medals won by Team Ireland on the last day of action for Irish athletes at the Paralympic Games.
It means Ireland will go home from Paris with six medals – one gold (Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly), three silver (Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly, Katie-George-Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal and Róisin Ní Riain) and two bronze (Róisin Ní Riain and Orla Comerford).
Britney Arendse was the last Irish athlete to compete at these Games and the Cavan powerlifter produced three personal best lifts to finish fourth in the women’s up to 79kg final.
Arendse qualified for the Paralympics with a PB lift of 128kg, but her three lifts on Saturday in Paris were 129kg, 131kg and 133kg.
Han Miaoyu of China claimed gold with a lift of 154kg, which was a new world record, Nigeria’s Bose Omolayo won silver with 145kg and bronze went to Egypt’s Safaa Hassan with a lift of 139kg.
“I’m really happy with that. The plan was for two clean lifts so to get three clean lifts and three personal bests, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I’m really happy with where I have placed,” said Arendse.
“It has been an agonising wait to compete, I was ready a week ago and now I’m ready to spend some time with my family and friends.
“I am hugely grateful to my other Team Ireland athletes, family and friends who are all her today to cheer me on. The noise from the Irish fans in the crowd really encouraged me.”
Earlier on Saturday, Kilkenny’s Mary Fitzgerald finished eighth in the F40 shot put at the Stade de France.
The 24-year-old was ranked fifth ahead of the event after throwing a personal best of 8.87m earlier this season. However, on a damp and overcast day in Paris, Fitzgerald’s best effort in the Stade de France was 7.64m.
“Sometimes you just have those days and today wasn’t my day,” said Fitzgerald afterwards.
“After all the warm-weather training I’ve done the weather was unexpected, but you have to be able to deal with that. I really gave it my best, it just wasn’t to be.”
The gold was won by Lara Baars, of the Netherlands who threw a new Paralympic record of 9:10m. Poland’s silver medal winner Renata Sliwinska was the only other woman to reach nine metres (9m exactly) while Tunisia’s former world champion Raja Jebali took bronze with 8.66m.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Richael Timothy finished 11th in the women’s C1-3 road race in Clichy-sous-Bois. Timothy finished the 56.8km course in a time of 1:48:47. Japan’s Keiko Sugiura won the race in a time of 1:38.48.
Finally, there was a surprise 11th hour call-up for equestrian rider Sarah Slattery on Saturday. Having earned a place as first reserve, Slattery was contacted on Saturday morning after another rider was forced to withdraw following veterinary checks.
The Galway rider grabbed her opportunity and competed in the Grade V Freestyle in Chateau de Versailles, posting the best score of her career (71.795) to finish seventh overall.
“Fairytale is literally the only word for it,” she said. “This is only the second time I’ve ridden freestyle at an international competition and the score was a personal best as well.
“Coming in here my goal was just to make selection for the Irish team and get a top 10. I never dreamed I’d make the freestyle final.”