Ellen Keane has won gold for Ireland at the Tokyo Paralympics.
The 26-year-old swimmer from Clontarf was victorious in the SB8 100m breaststroke, beating New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe.
The athlete won in a time of 1:19.93, her personal best.
#ParaSwimming | MEDAL ALERT
Ellen Keane WINS GOLD in the SB8 100 Breaststroke!
1st place finish with a time of 1:19.93 for Ellen Keane 🥇#TeamIreland | #TheNextLevel pic.twitter.com/31fdW3f5z4
— Paralympics Ireland (@ParalympicsIRE) August 26, 2021
Speaking to RTÉ Sport after her win, Ellen admitted: “I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet.”
“When I dove in my goggles filled up with water but I think that was maybe a good thing because I couldn’t see where the girls were around me.”
“Just on the turn I saw Sophie a little bit but I just had a gameplan in mind and I stuck to that.”
This is Ireland’s first gold medal of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
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Taking to Twitter to celebrate Ellen’s win, Irish boxing star Katie Taylor wrote: “Amazing! 🥇🇮🇪”
Leo Varadkar tweeted: “Congratulations @keane_ellen on incredible win doing the country proud #TeamIreland #Tokyo2020 #ParaSwimming.”
Amazing! 🥇🇮🇪 https://t.co/QuY56Z1CJ1
— Katie Taylor (@KatieTaylor) August 26, 2021
Congratulations @keane_ellen on incredible win doing the country proud #TeamIreland #Tokyo2020 #ParaSwimming @ParalympicsIRE
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) August 26, 2021
🔥 Ellen Keane – Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Gold Medallist
Ellen Keane stepped up and turned that Rio 2016 Bronze into Gold with a phenomenal SB8 100m Breaststroke Finals swim of 1:19.93 – her first time under 1:21.00 🤯
Just sensational! #TheNextLevel pic.twitter.com/FkRGW8nUiI
— Swim Ireland (@swimireland) August 26, 2021
Ellen Keane is a national treasure… #Paralympics #TeamIreland
— That guy AGAIN!!! (@manunitedrebel) August 26, 2021
🇮🇪 There’s the Irish tricolour raised high in Tokyo.
🥇 Well done, Ellen Keane. All those years of hard work paying off.#TeamIreland #Paralympics pic.twitter.com/iMoNzEUw5P
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) August 26, 2021
