Niamh McCarthy of Carrigaline & Eagle AC wins Silver in the F41 Discus at Paralympic Games in Rio

Niamh McCarthy from Cork won a Silver medal in the Women's F41 Discus at the Paralympic Games on Thursday evening. The Carrigaline native who is a member of Eagle AC left it until the 5th round of throws to secure the Silver medal.

The chart below shows the progress of the competition and it was really between the top 5...three Tunisians, one Moroccan and Niamh.

In the first round, Niamh's first throw put her in the Bronze medal position. Her second attempt kept in that position but the distance was short of what she was capable of. By the time of the 4th round, it looked pretty grim as Niamh had slipped to 5th and that special throw seemed to elude her.

In the 5th round however, she nailed it with a throw of 26.67metres. The leader had a huge lead of nearly 7 metres and was never going to be caught. Niamh final throw would have been good enough to secure Bronze but in the end, that 5th round throw secured the Silver.

A remarkable performance for someone competing in their first Paralympic Games and only took up the sport recently.