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IBS ATHLETE JASON SMYTH WINS 100M PARALYMPIC GOLD IN WORLD RECORD TIME

13TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Northern Ireland’s Jason Smyth set the Bird's Nest track alight tonight in Beijing winning 100m Gold in a new Paralympic World record time of 10.62sec. It was two world records in one day for the twenty one year old as tonight he broke the 10.81sec mark he set in qualifying this morning by almost two tenths of a second. In front of a 90,000 strong capacity crowd and unfazed by a false start Smyth blasted out of the blocks to storm away from the field and with 40 meters to go, he had opened up a commanding lead that no one had any chance of closing. Alexey Labzin of Russia took silver (10.88sec), with Luis Felipe Gutierrez of Cuba taking bronze in 10.98sec.

Afterwards a delighted Smyth said of his debut Paralympic Games triumph: "I'm thrilled; it's awesome! I've put in so much work; it's all gone so well. To break my own world record twice in one day I knew it was there; it was just a matter of coming out and doing it on the big occasion, and I'm so pleased I did."

Jason’s sensational win is the second Gold for Ireland at these Games after his room mate, Michael McKillop from Belfast, won 800m (T37) gold on Wednesday night also in world record time.

There is still more to come from Ireland’s latest Paralympic champion. Jason runs in the 200m event in which he is the reigning world champion and record holder (21.83sec). The heats of the 200m are on Monday, with the final on Tuesday.