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A number of athletes from Team Ireland will be competing today. INPHO/Cathal Noonan
Ready to go

Paralympic breakfast: Team Ireland ready for momentous occasion

Ellen Keane, James Scully and Damien Shaw are among the athletes from these shores competing today.

EVERY MORNING, WE bring you all of the info you need to make sure you don’t miss a second of Paralympic gold.

After a considerable build-up, the London 2012 Paralympic Games is finally upon us.

And there are no fewer than ten Irish athletes competing today, many of whom will potentially be participating twice, with heats in the morning followed by finals in the evening.

And aside from supporting those competing from these shores, there is plenty of alternative events to look forward to today, with sports such as wheelchair basketball and goalball always likely to provide their fair share of entertaining moments.

So stick with TheScore.ie over the coming days for comprehensive coverage of all the key Paralympics events.

Who’s flying the flag?

Eilish Byrne of the Equestrian Team is the first Irish athlete to compete at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. She gets her campaign underway at 9am today in the Team Test at Greenwich Park, and will feature in the final at 7.30pm if she qualifies.

Ellen Keane will partake in the 100m Butterfly S9 Heats at the Aquatics Centre at 10.53am. You may remember her from the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, when she was Ireland’s youngest athlete at 13 years of age.

Ronan Rooney will participate in the Men’s Singles M2 Table Tennis Preliminaries at 11.40am and again (if he progresses) at 6.40pm.

Paracycling tandem pair James Brown and Damien Shaw are in action at 11.06am and (should they progress) 4.57pm at the Velodrome. It is the fifth time in which Brown has competed at the Paralympics.

James Scully takes part in the 50m Freestyle S5 Heats at 11.24am, and at 8.31pm if he qualifies for the final.

In table tennis, Rena McCarron Rooney and Eimear Breathnach feature in the Women’s Singles F1-2 Preliminaries at 1pm, while Philip Quinlan plays in the Men’s Singles M1 Preliminaries at theExCel Arena 1 at 1.40pm.

Finally, Enda Smyth competes in the individual 1Km Time Trial C1-3 at 2pm.

Do not miss…

Wheelchair basketball

Wheelchair basketball is undoubtedly one of the most interesting sports to watch at the Games. Britain’s men, who are attempting to improve on their third place finish four years ago in Beijing, will be in action at 7pm against Germany. Meanwhile, their female counterparts play the Netherlands at 1pm.

Men’s 100m butterfly

World champion and world record holder Jonathan Fox is hoping he can add the men’s S7 100m backstroke title to his list of accolades. He is in action at 9.42am, and 5.36pm assuming he qualifies from the heats.

Paracycling

While all the Irish athletes will be of interest, it will be especially fascinating to see how Damien Shaw and in particular James Brown get on in the Paracycling at 11.06am. Brown is a veteran of the Paralympics – it is his fifth time competing.

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