Rachael Thom­spon-King

Akeem Stew­art broke the javelin F43 world record twice on his way to cop­ping gold on the sec­ond day of the Para ath­let­ics com­pe­ti­tion, to win T&T's first medal of the Par­a­lympics in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, yes­ter­day.

Stew­art tossed the ap­pa­ra­tus 57.23 me­tres with his first at­tempt in the Men's F42/43/44 Javelin fi­nals at the Olympic Sta­di­um, im­prov­ing on the pre­vi­ous record of 54.77 which he set at the Par­a­lympics Ath­let­ics Cham­pi­onships in Do­ha, Qatar, last year. This throw had put him in first place which he main­tained for the en­tire com­pe­ti­tion.

The 24-year-old, with his coach Wade Franklyn giv­ing in­struc­tions from in the stands, then went even fur­ther in the sixth and fi­nal at­tempt, throw­ing a phe­nom­e­nal 57.32m to ce­ment his spot on the podi­um.

Stew­art's clos­est chal­lenger was Cana­di­an Al­is­ter Mc­Queen (F44), who end­ed with a sil­ver medal with a best of ef­fort of 55.56m. Bronze went to the New Zealan­der Ro­ry Mc­Sweeney (54.99m).

Co­in­ci­den­tal­ly, Stew­art's first (57.23), sec­ond (56.64), third (56.84) and fifth (55.77) throws were al­so enough to win gold. In round four, he mea­sured 53.94 me­tres.

Fol­low­ing his his­toric per­for­mance, pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC), Bri­an Lewis, re­joiced in the achieve­ment of the ath­lete of Carn­bee, To­ba­go.

"Con­grat­u­la­tions to Akeem Stew­art on his tremen­dous world record break­ing Rio 2016 Par­a­lympic Javelin Gold medal. To Akeem, his coach Wade Franklin, his fam­i­ly, THA.

"Well done. A sig­nif­i­cant mo­ment for the T&T Par­a­lympic Move­ment and sport in T&T. Rio 2016 will hear the T&T an­them.

"Awe­some! Con­grats Akeem."

Stew­art is the na­tion­al record hold­er in the men's shot put and won sil­ver (dis­cus) and bronze (shot put) in the boys Un­der-20 di­vi­sion at the 2011 Carif­ta Games. He was fourth in the men's shot put at the 2013 CAC Se­nior Cham­pi­onships in Mex­i­co and al­so com­pet­ed at the 2011 Pan Amer­i­can Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships.

Chef de mis­sion Judy Beck­les quick­ly post­ed on face­book af­ter his gold win­ning dis­play. She said, "Just can't help lov­ing this young man. Feel­ing like a proud ma­ma. Con­grat­u­la­tions Akeem. Thank you."

Ear­li­er at the Olympic Aquat­ics Sta­di­um, lo­cal swim­mer Shan­ntol Ince touched the wall in 5:31.06 to place third in the first heat of the women's 400 me­tres S9 freestyle event. Her time placed her 17th on the qual­i­fi­ca­tion stand­ing not good enough as on­ly the eight fastest times ad­vanced to the fi­nal.

Win­ning the heat was Ash­leigh Mc­Connell of Aus­tralia in 5:16.28 and sec­ond was Japan's Yu­ki Mor­ishi­ta in 5:28.86. Nei­ther swim­mers pro­gressed as their times were not quick enough.

Ince's next event is on Mon­day, where she will line up in the 100m S9 freestyle. The fol­low­ing day she is ex­pect­ed to hit the wa­ter in the 50m freestyle and her fi­nal swim will be in the 100m but­ter­fly on Thurs­day.

T&T's oth­er ath­lete at the world event is Nyoshia Cain and she is com­pet­ing in ath­let­ics. Cain opens on Wednes­day in the women's T44 200m.

Par­a­lympics Sched­ule

Ath­let­ics

Akeem Stew­art

Yes­ter­day: Men's Dis­cus Throw - F43/44

Nyoshia Cain

Wednes­day: Women's 200m - T43/44

Sep­tem­ber 17: Women's 100m - T43/44

Swim­ming

Shan­ntol Ince

Mon­day: Women's 100m Freestyle - S9

Tues­day: Women's 50m Freestyle - S9

Thurs­day: Women's 100m But­ter­fly - S9