Ellen Keane wins gold medal for Ireland at the 2020 Paralympics

Ellen Keane has won a gold medal for Ireland in the SB8 100m breaststroke at the 2020 Paralympics. It is the first medal for Ireland during this year's Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

The Contarf swimmer has been representing Ireland since her first Paralympics in Beijing in 2008. In 2016, she won a bronze medal in Rio.

To win her gold medal during this race, Keane beat her own personal best by almost two seconds, finishing with a time of 1:19.93 and beating rival Sophie Pascoe of New Zealand.

At the start of the race, the 26-year-old's goggles filled with water, but it may have aided her performance.

"When I dove in my goggles filled up with water but I think that was maybe a good thing because I couldn't see where the girls were around me," she said to RTÉ Sport. "Just on the turn I saw Sophie a little bit but I just had a gameplan in mind and I stuck to that."

Keane overtook Pascoe in the second half, resulting in Pascoe taking the silver medal and Russia's Adelina Razetdinova taking the bronze medal.

Swimmer Róisín Ní Riain also made Ireland proud at the Paralympics, finishing sixth in the SB13 backstroke 100m final. It was the 16-year-old's Paralympic debut, and she made her personal best time of 1:08.61 during the event.

The gold for the SB13 backstroke 100m was taken by USA's Gia Pergolini, who set a new world record with her time of 1:04.64. The silver medal went to Italy's Calotta Gilli, and the bronze went to Australia's Katja Dedekund.