There were three Team Ireland athletes in action at the Paralympics in Tokyo on the ninth day of the Games.
Barry McClements finished fourth in the S9 100m butterfly heats overnight.
Patrick Flanagan swam a time of 5.40.48 to finish seventh in his heat in the S6 400m freestyle. He is back in action tomorrow in the S6 100m backstroke.
Patrick O’Leary progressed from both of his heats in the canoe sprint.
He will compete in tomorrow’s semi-finals of the KL3 after he posted a time of 43.502 to finish fifth in his heat.
The Cork native also finished with a time of 54.70 to qualify for the semi-finals of the VL3 Va’a, which take place on Sunday.
O'Leary said: “They were both good races. I got a really good race in the Va’a, had a bit of a wobble in the middle so that’s something to work on but I got it back together again towards the end in a fairly stacked heat so I’m pretty happy with that.
“The KL3 was also stacked but in some ways I’d prefer to have those guys in the heat because that means I’ll avoid them in the semi when I get the draw later on.
“It’s great to get those first races done because generally speaking I improve as regattas go on. Only the winners went straight through to the final so the stakes were relatively low and getting a hit out at no cost to me was really important.
“I have a better idea of where I am in the kayak and think I’ll be there or thereabouts in terms of making the A final. The problem with the Va’a is that there’s a lot of non-Europeans in them that we hadn’t seen yet this year and they were showing some style out there today. Just looking forward to the semi-finals now.”
