Paralympics 2024

Paralympics Day 5: Irish in action and best of the rest as Colin Judge takes on Paralympic table tennis champion Feng Panfeng

Para triathlon is like a whistle-stop tour of some of Paris’s most famous attractions

Ireland's Colin Judge during a Para table tennis training session at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. Photograph: Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images
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Gordon Manning in Paris
Mon Sept 02 2024 - 06:00
Irish in Action

(All times Irish and subject to change)

  • 9.37am: Deaten Registe (Para Swimming, SB14 100m Breaststroke Heat)
  • 10.43am: Shauna Bocquet (Para Athletics, T54 1,500m Heat)
  • 11.05am: Chloe MacCombe & Catherine Sands (guide) (Para Triathlon, PTVI)
  • 11.05am: Judith MacCombe & Eimear Nicholls (guide) (Para Triathlon, PTVI)
  • 11.40am: Cassie Cava (Para Triathlon, PTS4)
  • 12.45pm: Colin Judge (Para Table Tennis, Round of last 16)
  • 5.13pm: Deaten Registe (Para Swimming, SB14 100m Breaststroke Heat – subject to qualification)

Colin Judge has been handed the toughest draw possible as he takes on four-time Paralympic table tennis champion Feng Panfeng at the South Paris Arena on Monday.

Judge got a bye in the round of 32 but the draw has not been kind to him for the round of 16 as he must overcome the Chinese table tennis star to avoid elimination. Panfeng claimed the gold medal in the Class 3 discipline in Beijing (2008), London (2012), Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2021). He is the top ranked player in the competition.

Judge finds himself in Class 3 after a reclassification placed the Dubliner in a more difficult category. “I was classified into Class 2 at 12 or 13 and presumed it was something that was never going to change,” said Judge at the Team Ireland announcement before departing for Paris. “But after eight or nine years I won the European Championships in 2017 and I was reclassified into Class 3 and that was really tough.

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“The hardest thing is I have to compete against athletes that are much physically stronger and I have had to change my game completely. But the most positive way I can look at it is I’m a much better player because of it. No matter how I am measured I know I’m a much better player than I ever would have been had I stayed in Class 2. I do enjoy competing in Class 3, it’s a big challenge and it’s the biggest class in Para table tennis.

“I suppose disability is a really difficult thing to quantify. I think I’m quite unique in Para table tennis, I was born with one arm and no legs so there wouldn’t be any athlete at the top level competing with one arm and no legs. I fell through the cracks a little, I was classified into Class 2 and they were even looking at Class 1 for me for a while when I was younger. I’m in Class 3 now and I think the biggest disadvantage that I have is not being able to move the chair.”

Ireland’s best chance on day five of adding a third medal in these Games is likely to be in the triathlon where the MacCombe sisters Chloe and Judith and Cassie Cava will be in action – should the event go ahead at the second time of asking.

Worth a watch: Para Triathlon

The event, which is divided into six classification for men and five for women, was added at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, and has proved an absolute hit.

The course takes in some of the best of Paris – the swim sets off from the ornate Pont Alexandre III bridge, the athletes will travel up the iconic Champs-Élysées during the cycle and the run will bring them along the Quai d’Orsay. It’s like a whistle-stop tour of some of Paris’s greatest hits.

And two athletes worth watching out for are Jetze Plat, competing for the Netherlands in the PTWC event, and USA’s Allysa Seely in the PTS2. They each won gold at both the Rio and Tokyo Games, so let’s see if they can do the hat-trick.