Round up from Day 3 by Chris Ratcliffe
The whole team is now in Japan following the safe arrival of our Swimmers yesterday. Whilst the swimmers got themselves acclimatised we saw action from Cycling Tennis and Women’s football.
Waldo Moolman had a positive start in the Men’s cycling sprint where is made it through to the elimination stage as the last group of 16 riders only to face the eventual Gold Medallist from the USA. Talking to Team Manager and UK Deaf Sport Chair, Nick Brookes, he said it was a great performance from Waldo who should be proud of his efforts and sets a positive tone for the next few days for cycling where Oliver Pritchard will be racing later tomorrow in the points race.
As for tennis, it was a strong start from Esah Hayat and Lewis Fletcher in the men’s doubles, taking on the Australian pair wining 6-0, 6-1. Unfortunately for Peter Willcox and Charlie Denton they were unable to follow suit losing to a strong pair from Chinese Taipei. Tomorrow we will be back to singles with Esah and Pete competing in the second round and Charlie playing in the consolation singles.
Our gallant Women’s Football Team faced a difficult day losing to Japan 6-0 who showed passion and desire to win the game. Coach, Mark Gill admitted that that our team didn’t turn up to the same level as Japan. Mark stressed it was not over yet, and this call was backed by Emma Brown who although admitted it was a tough one to take, Japan deserve credit for the way they played the game who were well organised. Yet she stressed that it is not over yet and although the next match against the USA will be tough the girls were keeping their heads up and remained focused.
Tomorrow, we see our Golfers start their competition and we see the Men’s football team take on Iran. All being well we will see a repeat of Melbourne 2005 with a win to take us to the next stage of the competition.
