Ballard grabs first NSWIS medal of Rio Paralympics

Veteran wheelchair track athlete Angie Ballard has won the first medal for the 46 NSWIS athletes competing at the Rio Paralympics when she claimed the bronze in the women’s T53 wheelchair 100m on the track.

Competing in the first of her five event schedule, five-time Paralympian Ballard delivered the first Australian athletics medal in Rio when she clocked 16.59 for third in the women’s T53 wheelchair 100m behind Chinese pair Lisha Huang (16.28) and Hongzhuan Zhou (16.51).

For Ballard, a dual world champion from Doha 2015, it was a sixth Paralympic medal – three silver and three bronze –  with her sights set on a maiden title when she competes in the 400m, 800m, 1500m and 4x400m relay later in the competition.

The nearest Ballard has come to gold since her debut in Sydney in 2000 is individual silver in the 200m and 400m in London four years ago, and silver in the 4x100m relay in Beijing. Today’s 100m bronze matched the bronze she claimed in the same event in Athens 12 years ago.

Now, Ballard, coached by nine-time Paralympics champion Louise Sauvage, looks to be in the form of her life and staring that historic first gold in the face.

In other NSWIS news at the athletics, Guy Henly was 4th in the men’s F37 discus throw for athletes with cerebral palsy with a huge hurl of 51.97m.

Henly, 29 and an IT administrator, whose physical impairment Right Hemiplegia came as a result of a brain tumor in childhood, is competing at his first Paralympic Games.

NSWIS athletes to take to the athletics competition over the next 24hrs include Australian team co-captain Kurt Fearnley (Men’s 5000m, T54: round 1), Rosemary Little (Women’s 100m, T34: round 1) and Sarah Walsh (Women’s Long Jump, T44: final).