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Silver ends Martin's golden Games in pool

3 minute read

Swimmer Will Martin has added to his three Paralympic gold medals with a silver on Friday night in the 4x100m medley relay.

Will Martin has ended Australia's prolific swimming campaign at the Tokyo Paralympics as he started it - on the podium.

The 20-year-old from Brisbane capped his outstanding Games debut by helping Australia win silver in Friday night's in the last event on the 10-day swimming program, the 4x100m medley relay.

He combined with Tim Hodge, Tim Disken and Ben Popham to clocked four minutes 7.70 seconds, finishing 1.11 seconds behind the Russian gold medallists, with Italy claiming bronze.

Martin won the first Paralympic gold medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on August 25 when he broke the Games record in the S9 400m freestyle.

He also broke his own world record to take out the S9 100m butterfly and won gold as part of the 4x100m freestyle relay.

The relay silver was Australia's only swimming medal on Friday and there was a sad element to the event.

Disken's mother Jenny died earlier this week in Australia.

The swimming team won eight gold, 10 silver and 15 bronze in Tokyo - short of the 10-gold haul at the Rio Games, but up on the 29 medals in total.

Also on Friday night, Australia capped its unprecedented success in Paralympics table tennis with silver in the men's Class 9-10 teams event.

Ma Lin and Joel Coughlan were no match for China's Lian Hao and Zhao Yi Qing, losing 2-0.

Earlier on Friday, Lina Lei, Qian Yang and Melissa Tapper claimed silver in the women's team Class 9-10 with a 2-0 loss to Poland.

That gave Australia's table tennis team two gold and four silver, its best result at a Paralympics.

"We've been great for the whole two weeks ... the success will just keep coming," Coughlan said.

Curtis McGrath won Australia's 18th gold medal on Friday, with the former soldier executing the first half of his Tokyo mission by winning the KL2 canoe final.

Having defended his Rio title, McGrath will now contest the VL3 final - a new Games event - on Saturday.

Compatriot Susan Seipel also won silver in the VL2 class.

Australia has also shone in cycling at the Tokyo Games, winning four gold, and Paige Greco made it 13 medals when she took bronze in the C1-3 road race.

At the main stadium, world record holder James Turner, backing up from his 400m gold medal, broke the Paralympic record in his heat of the T36 100m.

Turner ran 11.87 seconds ahead of Saturday morning's final.

The BC3 boccia team narrowly missed out on progressing to Saturday's semi-finals.

After beating Portugal 4-3 and Brazil 5-2 on Friday, Australia's last pool match was against Hong Kong in the evening.

Singles bronze medallist Daniel Michel combined with Jamieson Leeson and Spencer Cotie to tie the score at three-all with Ho Yuen Kei, Liu Wing Tung and Tse Tak Wah.

Michel and Leeson then had a tie breaker against Ho and Tse, which the Hong Kong pair won to clinch top spot.

Australia finished third behind Japan, with the top two teams going through to Saturday's semi-finals.

Grant Manzoney and Caitlin Dransfield lost their badminton singles pool games.

Australia remains eighth on the medal table with 18 gold, 27 silver and 27 bronze.

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