History continues to be made, and on day seven, it was Kiwi Scott Martlew who made his own addition to the story. Only two weeks ago Martlew was called up to the New Zealand Paralympic team, and as New Zealand’s first ever para-canoeist, he completed the semi-final of the men’s KL3 Para-Canoe event, with a time of 44:28.4, just 1.4 seconds behind the winner Robert Oliver from Great Britain. Para-Canoe has made its Paralympic debut in Rio, and the final event will be on Friday.
New Zealand can also now call officially Sophie Pascoe one of its greatest athletes. Her medal tally of 15 means she has surpassed Eve Rimmer, who held 15 Paralympic medals, eight of them gold. After achieving silver in her last event of the games, taking her up to five medals in Rio, Pascoe holds nine gold and six silver medals, since her debut in 2008 at the Beijing Games.
Host nation Brazil is doing better than ever thanks to their huge home base of support. Brazil paralympians are set to reach their goal of a top-five finish in the medal table. They have already now eclipsed their success in London 2012 by two medals, and now hold 10 golds, 21 silvers and 14 bronze medals, being able to achieve this milestone from their excellent performance at the Olympic Stadium in Rio in track and field.
And in a rather unique honour, two of Singapore’s Paralympians have been immortalised by Lego. The toy brickmakers paid tribute to swimmers Yip Pin Xiu and Theresa Goh in a Facebook post on Tuesday with the two medal winners pictured as mini-figurines, complete with their golds, captioned, “Congratulations to Yip Pin Xiu and Theresa Goh for bringing pride to Singapore! Your accomplishments have inspired us all.”
