Rollers have tough start to Paralympic campaign after para-swimmers begin medal haul on day one

So that’s it for day one, as Paris has got back into the swing of competition after a couple of weeks off.

It’s been a big day with world records falling at the cycling track and a range of winners — from the host nation’s Ugo Didier to Australia’s own Thomas Gallagher — at the Paralympic pool.

The atmosphere at the venues has been pumping, and as night falls on the City of Light, the projection of Zakia Khudadadi on the Paris skyline is a perfect celebration of the athletes’ stories at these Games.

We’ll be back later today to bring you day two of competition, with the start of athletics in the main stadium, plus swimming, track cycling and a host of other events.

In the meantime, on behalf of everyone who has brought you day one’s blog, I’m Andrew McGarry thanking you for joining us. I wish you a very good morning! 

We have a story summarising the medal tally and Australia’s position at the end of day one of competition at the Paralympics.

You can check out the details below:

In wheelchair rugby, Australia’s Steelers got off to a difficult start, losing 58-55 to Great Britain in their opening game.

Led by Ryley Batt and skipper Chris Bond, the Aussies had difficulties in game management and were forced to use a lot of their time outs early thanks to fierce British defence in the key.

The Steelers, who are ranked number one in the world and finished fourth in Tokyo, were neck and neck with the reigning gold medallists until GB pulled away at the start of the third quarter.

It means Australia now has little room for failure with wins against hosts France and Denmark needed to guarantee their qualification for the medal matches.

You can read more in our story below:

At the para-badminton competition, one of New Zealand’s 25 athletes, Wojtek Czyz, came up against British player Daniel Bethell in the group stage.

Czyz lost two sets to nil to the man from Great Britain, but he had some heavy duty support in the stands. Alongside his wife Elena Brambilla Czyz, a former Italian high jump champion, was his good mate — and former Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool football coach — Jurgen Klopp.

Czyz was a footballer who had signed terms with German side Fortuna Cologne in 2001 before incurring a serious injury that led to the amputation of his leg.

Since then he became a Paralympic athlete, competing in three Games for Germany in athletics in Athens, Beijing and London, winning seven medals — including four golds — in sprinting events and long jump.

He also has set word records in free diving in his classification, and spent five years sailing around the world, and setting up a project to provide prosthetics to people in need.

After that busy time out, he is back representing New Zealand in para-badminton.

“We met, very funnily, before I joined Liverpool, in 2015, at the harbour in Lisbon. I had a holiday and he was playing frisbee,” Klopp said.

“It’s kind of destiny, stuff like that. But the life of an athlete that is not in the big sports is a challenge, and when we could help, we tried to help and support.”

Klopp has been seen around the Paralympics as he takes a sabbatical after leaving Liverpool earlier this year..

“If I had time in the past, I would have shown up earlier but it is the first time in my life that I can come here. A nice part of this is that my good friend Wojtek is part of the Paralympics, so we can combine the two things.

“The stories behind (Paralympic) athletes are always special and the one of my friend here is super special. That’s the only difference really. That’s what I love about sports, that it can change the world. Sometimes only for a moment and sometimes forever.

“In the Paralympic movement, there are obviously more hurdles to overcome (than at the Olympic Games), to show the young people and everyone what is possible. Whatever life has put in the hands for you, it is how you deal with it (that matters).”

Czyz’s next group match in his SL3 class is tomorrow morning Australian time against Ukraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkov. 

As we are at the end of the competition day in Paris, it’s time to look back through some of the big events for those of you just waking up / tuning in.

The swimming program kicked off at La Défense Arena and Australia has a successful start to proceedings.

The main event came in the men’s 50m butterfly S10 final, where Thomas Gallagher touched first in 23.40 seconds, taking gold ahead of Brazil’s Phelipe Melo Rodrigues in 23.54. Rowan Crothers won the bronze medal for Australia, finishing in 23.79.

In the first event of the night, Australia’s Brenden Hall — who had carried the flag less than 24 hours earlier in the Place de la Concorde — took bronze in the men’s 400m freestyle S9 final, behind French gold medallist Ugo Didier and Italy’s Simone Barlaam. Hall passed teammate Tim Hodge in the final lap, with Hodge finishing fourth.

In the women’s 400m freestyle S9 final, Australia’s Lakeisha Patterson finished with the silver medal, as the reigning world champion was beaten by Hungary’s Zsofia Konkoly.

Ben Hance finished fourth in the men’s 100m butterfly S14 final, Paige Leonhardt came seventh in the final of the women’s 100m butterfly S14 and  Alexa Leary came sixth in the women’s 50m freestyle S10 final. 

We saw history made overnight at the Paralympics, with para-taekwondo athlete Zakia Khudadadi winning the first-ever medal for the Refugee Paralympic Team.

Khudadadi made her Paralympics debut in Tokyo days after she was helped to flee from Taliban-controlled Kabul.

She secured her place on the podium in Paris when her opponent, Naoual Laarif of Morocco, withdrew ahead of their bronze contest in the K44-47kg category.

Khudadadi lost her quarterfinal bout but then won a repechage against Turkiye’s Nurcihan Ekinci 9-1 to advance to the bronze medal match.

The 25-year-old, who was granted asylum by France, was cheered on like a local throughout the day by the Grand Palais crowd and by her coach, Haby Niare, who took a taekwondo silver medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

“This medal is fantastic for me but also for all the women in Afghanistan and all the refugees,” she said in impeccable French.

“We’re not giving up for equality and freedom in my country.”

Khudadadi was already looking ahead to the next Games in Los Angeles where she said she intended to win gold.

She follows the success of Cameroon-born boxer Cindy Ngamba, who won the first ever medal for the Refugee Olympic Team in Paris.

— including reporting from Reuters

The Rollers kept coming till the end, but once the lead was out to double digits, the Dutch were able to run out the clock.

Mendel op den Orth finished with a game-leading 26 points, and he is clearly going to pose problems for every side the Dutch face in Paris.

Bill Latham was top-scorer for Australia with 16 points.

To use some footy terminology, the Rollers will need to produce four-quarter efforts in their remaining group matches, as they were outplayed in the second half today.

There’s no rest for the Aussies, their next match is against Spain at 8:45pm AEST tonight.

It’s not just the Aussies going for threes now!

The Dutch had pushed ahead, and Quinten Zantinge nailed one from beyond the arc to put them six points up.

The Aussies came back, but then baskets including another from Mendel Op den Orth pushed the lead out to 10 points.

It’s been a brilliant second half display from the Dutch.

It’s a hard task from here for the Rollers.   

The Dutch pulled clear to 40-35, forcing Australian coach Brad Ness to call a time out to regroup.

The Rollers missed a couple of chances, but Quinten Zantinge made it  a seven-point lead before Jaylen Brown hit a vital basket.

Tristan Knowles landed a big three with 20 seconds left, but Mendel Op den Orth showed nerves of steel to score inside the final second of play to maintain a four-point lead going into the final quarter.

The Aussies will not have an easy task to get past the Dutch, and if they are to do it, you sense they will have to keep landing big shots from downtown.

The Netherlands have had a strong start to the second half, and have had the Rollers under pressure.

Back-to-back baskets put them in front, 34-31, but the Rollers have fought back thanks to a brilliant three-point splash from Tom O’Neill Thorne.

Now it’s back to a back and forth contest.

With three minutes left in the third quarter, the Dutch lead 38-35.

Thank you to Mick Doyle for his excellent overnight run, I’m here to bring things home for day one of competition.

The Aussies are narrowly ahead at the main break, 30-28.

I reckon they need to find a way to stop Mendel Op den Orth, who has 14 points already.

The rollers have a better spread of scoring with Bill Latham, Tristan Knowles and Tom O’Neill-Thorne all contributing steadily.

It is anyone’s game as we head to half-time.

There are just two points separating Australia and the Netherlands, 30-28.

Both sides threatened to break the game open in the second quarter but were pegged back.

Statistically, Australia is fairing better in most categories, but it is a tight game.

My dear friend Andrew McGarry will bring you the news and information of the second half, as he steps into the ABC Sport blogging chair to see our day one from Paris.

Hello Mel.

Thanks for joining me on the ABC Sport live blog.

Yes. ABC Sport will be providing live digital coverage each day of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

We hope you join us for all of them.

It is quarter-time between Australia and the Netherlands, with the green and gold leading 16-12.

It was a back-and-forth quarter, with each side enjoying periods of momentum.

Bill Latham and Tom O’Neill-Thorne lead the scoring with six points a piece.

Over to Boccia.

Australia’s Jamieson Leeson has been defeated in her opening match by Sunhee Kang of the Republic of Korea.

Lesson went down 6-1.

The Rollers are on the court.

Australia’s men’s wheelchair basketball team begin their Paralympic campaign against the Netherlands.

Australia has a rich history in this event — gold medal winners in Atlanta 1996 and Beijing 2008.

The Rollers will be hoping this year’s medal quest gets off to a winning start.

Bad news for Nathan Pellisier and Li Na Lei.

The Aussies were defeated 3-2 in a close round of 16 clash, in the mixed doubles XD17.

They clawed their way back to send the matching into a deciding game, but the Croatian pair of Borna Zohil and Mirjana Lucic have come out on top.

The para-archery has concluded for the day.

Here is how our Aussies are seeded for the knockout rounds which begin tomorrow:

• Women’s individual compound: Ameera Lee (22nd) and Melissa-Anne Tanner (23rd)
• Men’s individual recurve: Taymon Kenton-Smith (23rd)
• Men’s individual compound: Jonathon Milne (10th) and Patrick French (21st)
• Women’s individual recurve: Amanda Jennings (16th)