Wheelchair rugby: Quarter time there, Australia trailing France 12-13.
Wheelchair basketball: Half time between the USA and Spain in the women’s pool match. Los Americanos lead 32-20.
Equestrian: Lee Pearson of GB has qualified in top spot from the Grade II dressage event, joining his teammate Georgia Wilson in the freestyle final. Australia’s Victoria Davies misses out by one spot, finishing ninth.
Powerlifting: Gold for Nigeria, as expected, thanks to Latifat Tijani. Her attempt at 117kg fails, but no one else tries to go past her top lift of 107. Cui Zhe silver, Kozdryk bronze.
World record gold for Maisie Summers-Newton
Swimming: Another Great Britain gold, they’re coming in fast today. Summers-Newton looked just behind world record time but makes up group late in the freestyle leg of the 400m individual medley SM6 category. Her new mark is 2:56:68.
Yelyzaveta Mereshko held that world record, and won gold last night in the S6 50 metre free, but has to settle for silver for Ukraine this time. Germany’s Verena Schott is bronze.
Updated
at 9.51am BST
Swimming: Home gold for Suzuki Takayuki in the men’s 100m S4 final. Another silver for Italy via Luigi Beggiato, bronze for Russia’s Roman Zhdanov who won gold in the breaststroke last night.
Then in the SM6 individual medley 200m final, Nelson Crispin Corzo wins Colombia’s first gold in a world record time. Huge swim. Andrei Granichka gets silver for Russia, Jia Hongguang extends China’s overall lead with bronze.
Powerlifting: Tactics ahoy. Justyna Kozdryk of Poland lifts 101kg on her third attempt to go past Cui Zhe. Who then returns the favour by lifting 102, happy to make an effort to lock in silver rather than risk a bigger lift to get into the gold position. Tijani sits there with 107 on her third lift.
Everyone has one more to come, though. Tijani has listed 117 as her target. Wonder if she’ll stay with that, or go more conservative.
Golden world record for Tully Kearney
Swimming: What a barnstormer for the British swimmer. She was a surprise silver medallist in the women’s S5 200m last night, a race that she was expected to win, but she leaves no doubt about the result in the 100 metres. She already holds the world record in this event, but demolishes it by two full seconds to win in 1:14:39. She hangs on to the side of the pool with a beaming smile that looks like part joy, part relief.
Zhang Li, who out-touched Kearney last night, trails her in for silver in this race, while Monica Boggioni gets bronze. Zhang takes China past Australia on 13 medals so far at these Games. Boggioni has Italy’s seventh medal, all in the pool.
- Tully Kearney on her way to winning the Women’s S5 100 metre freestyle final with a new world record time of 1:14.39. Photograph: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile/Getty Images*
Updated
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Swimming: A golden double for Francesco Bocciardo. The Italian won the men’s 200m S5 freestyle final yesterday, and backs it up with 100m gold today.
Wang Lichao gets silver for China, Daniel de Faria Dias bronze for Brazil.
Powerlifting: Interesting. Cui Zhe was leading the women’s -45kg final with a lift of 95kg, butLatifat Tijani has blown that out of the water with 105kg, and her next attempt set at 110. Cui Zhe has gone on to lift 100kg and will also attempt the 110 lift. So it’s China battling Nigeria for gold.
Equestrian: Georgia Wilson and Sakura are Great Britain’s first guaranteed qualifiers from the Individual Test to the Individual Freestyle Test. She’s currently second with six riders yet to come. The top eight go through.
- Photograph: Tim Goode/PA*
Updated
at 9.06am BST
Wheelchair basketball: Australia’s men have just wrapped up a big win over Iran, ending at 81-39. And that’s with the Iranians getting a bit of a run on in the last few minutes to score a few baskets. Australia joins USA and Great Britain as the teams in Group B with a win to their names. Six teams per group, the top four go through to quarters.
- Shaun Norris of Australia battles with Iman Bagzadhfard of Iran. Photograph: Alex Pantling/Getty Images*
Updated
at 8.37am BST
Gold and silver for Great Britain, bronze for Australia at the drome
Cycling: Jaco steps on the… van Gass. Great Britain can’t lose in this final, as the 35-year-old takes the medal up against his compatriot Graham Finlay. Jaco van Gass already set a world record in qualifying, but he cruises to gold about three seconds slower, and still two seconds ahead of Finlay.
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Jaco Van Gass on his way to gold. Photograph: Thomas Lovelock for OIS//EPA*
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Silver medal winner Fin Graham (left) celebrates with Jaco Van Gass. Photograph: SWpix.com/Shutterstock*
David Nicholas wins bronze against Spain’s Eduardo Santas Asensio.
Updated
at 9.36am BST
The schedule tonight in Tokyo
All events on Tokyo time.
- 4pm Dressage individual test Grade II
- 4:30 – Powerlifting women’s 45 kg final
- 4:50 Dressage individual test Grade IV
- 5pm – Swimming finals of all stripe and hue
- 5pm Wheelchair basketball – USA Spain women
- 5:30 Wheelchair rugby – Australia France
- 5:30 Goalball – Ukraine Germany men
- 6pm Wheelchair fencing gold medal bouts begin
- 6:30 Powerlifting men’s 54 kg final
- 7pm – Goalball – Lithuania Algeria men
- 8pm – Wheelchair rugby – Great Britain New Zealand
- 8:30 – Goalball – Canada Israel women
- 8:30 – Dressage individual test Grade V
Geoff Lemon
Hey gang. Best regards also to Kool. David Nicholas is going around the velodrome right now looking for a bronze medal for Australia in the men’s C3 individual pursuit. Busy night ahead. What have we got on, I hear you ask?
Emma Kemp
I’m handing you over to the one and only Geoff Lemon now. He tells me he’s feeling the vibes and is ready to impart them onto you all.
Léauté wins C2 individual pursuit gold
Alexandre Léauté has done it in the men’s C2 3000m individual pursuit and done it with little fuss. In a world record, mind you. He led Hicks by more than three seconds with 100m to go and finished in 3:31.478. Hicks claims silver in 3:35.064, and it’s a silver he wouldn’t have been expecting earlier today when he qualified for the bronze medal race instead of the big one. This young Frenchman is one to watch for the future. And one to watch now, to be fair.
- France’s Alexandre Leaute celebrates winning gold. Photograph: Tim Goode/PA*
Updated
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They’re off, and this is a battle of experience v youth – Hicks is 36 and Léauté 20.
Track cycling: China’s Liang Guihua has just won the bronze medal from Japan’s Shota Kawamoto and Australian Darren Hicks, promoted thanks to a disqualification, is about to contest the gold medal race against French star Alexandre Léauté.
Wheelchair basketball: The Australian women’s team face a fight to reach the quarter-finals after a 77-58 loss to Germany. A day after losing their opening clash to Japan by 26 points, the Gliders have a 0-2 record in Group A and with just two games remaining.
They will need to win at least one of those remaining matches – against Great Britain on Saturday night and Canada on Sunday – to have any chance of progressing to the last eight. Eight of the 10 teams across Group A and B qualify for the quarter-finals.
Amber Merritt did her best to lift Australia with 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting, while Georgia Munro-Cook chipped in with 14 points. But German star Mareike Miller stole the show with a 30-point haul and she received handy support from Katharina Lang (14 points).
The Gliders won medals at the 2000 (silver), 2004 (silver), 2008 (bronze) and 2012 (silver) Paralympics, but failed to qualify for Rio in 2016.
Wheelchair rugby: Japan have done it against Denmark, emerging on the right end of a 60-51 scoreline.
Astashov wins C1 individual pursuit gold
That was exciting. Russian Mikhail Astashov overlapped Canadian Tristen Chernove while China’s Li Zhangyu (3:39.273) walks away with bronze after seeing off Saniard Ricardo Ten Argilés (3:43.351) in the bronze medal race.
- Mikhail Astashov. Photograph: Thomas Lovelock for OIS HANDOUT/EPA*
Cabello Llamas wins men’s time trial gold
Spaniard Alfonso Cabello Llamas has absolutely blitzed the men’s C4-5 1000m time trial field in the final ride to win in a world-record time of 1:01.557. And it is an upset of Jody Cundy, who was out to defend his Rio 2016 title. Still, the British great claims silver to add yet another medal to his bulging cabinet in a Paralympic-record time of 1:01.847. Slovakia’s Jozef Metelka claims bronze in 1:04.786. Wowee.
Track cycling: The time trial is almost complete, and Great Britain’s world record holder Jody Cundy and American Chris Murphy are up very soon. Slovak Jozef Metelka has usurped Wu at the top.
Wheelchair rugby: Japan’s men are leading Denmark 34-30 in the third period. The host nation are known for their strong form in this sport, and Denmark are the team which beat Australia on Wednesday to consign the Steelers to their first Paralympics defeat in 13 years.
Here’s what Australia’s captain Ryley Batt had to say about the upset:
“It was obviously a result that absolutely shocked us and I think every other team out there, it was definitely not expected. Hats off to Denmark. They played an absolute amazing game. I have never seen them play like that before. They were well drilled, they were just on point.
“I think maybe a little bit of pressure got to us and a little bit of lack of game time in these pressure situations. You can train as hard as you want, prepare as much as you want. Without that high intensity, high pressure situation, it’s very hard to replicate a game.”
Australia play France at 5.30pm local time before Team GB take on New Zealand at 8pm.
- Sebastian Frederiksen of Denmark and Yukinobu Ike of Japan. Photograph: Lisi Niesner/Reuters*
Here’s an update from my colleague Paul MacInnes in Tokyo on the Covid cluster in the athletes’ village.
An outbreak of Covid-19 at the Tokyo Paralympics has grown in severity after a foreign participant infected with the virus was admitted to hospital.
The news was confirmed by the Games’ organising committee on Thursday as the latest test results reported two more cases amongst athletes in the Olympic Village, bringing the total to five in the past three days.
The patient, whose identity has not been confirmed, is the first hospitalisation connected with the Paralympics and their symptoms are reported to be ‘non severe’.
Tokyo 2020 said there has now been a total of 13 cases inside the village, including the five athletes. The Paralympic testing programme confirmed another 13 cases outside of the Village on Thursday too, including three Games-concerned personnel and 10 contractors.
With concern over the number of hospital beds available in the Japanese capital already a political issue during the current Covid surge in Tokyo, there will be renewed focus on the Olympic and Paralympic presence in the city following today’s news.
Tension has not been eased by the unexpected return to the country of the IOC president Andrew Bach. Bach attended the Paralympic opening ceremony and visited a number of Paralympic venues in a whistle-stop stay this week. He was also spotted walking round the district of Ginza, with sightseeing an activity that is forbidden for athletes and other participants under the Tokyo 2020 playbook.
Bach’s visit has been criticised in Japan, but was defended by the International Paralympic Committee. “President Bach was here at our invitation,” IPC spokesman Craig Spence said. “His activity plan had been approved by the Japanese government. The IPC and the IOC have a very close working relationship. The Paralympic Games wouldn’t be the size or scale that it is today if it wasn’t for the support that we get (and) for the relationship we have with the IOC.”
Track cycling: The time trial is a little over halfway done and China’s Wu Guoqing (1:05.548) is sitting in the gold medal position, France’s Kévin Le Cunff (1:06.357) in second and Malaysia’s Zuhairie Ahmad Tarmizi (1:06.472) has just slipped into third. Tarmizi was an up-and-coming able-bodied football player, but had his arm amputated at the wrist after his palm got stuck in the sugarcane machine while helping at his family’s stall as a kid.
Goalball: That men’s preliminary game turned into a goal-fest, with the USA seeing off Brazil 8-6 to lay down some early medal credentials.
Paul MacInnes
We have a winner at the powerlifting and not one but two new world records. The Chinese lifter Guo Lingling completed a weight of 109kg in an extra powerlift round to seal gold in a dominant performance. Guo beat her second-placed rival, Ni Nengha Widiashi, by a clear 11kg, with Clara Sarahy Fuentes Monasterio finishing with a bronze medal after lifting 97kg. It was disappointment and fourth place for Britain’s Zoe Newsom who was twice unable to complete the press sequence at 97kg.
To recap on the news in just before, Australian Darren Hicks has been promoted to second-fastest qualifier for the final of the men’s C2 3000m individual pursuit. That is by virtue of Ewoud Vromant’s disqualification after the Belgian breached a rule around the use of his saddle. Vromant qualified fastest a few hours ago and set a world record, which has now been wiped out. French star Alexandre Leaute also set a world record (3:31.817) even in qualifying second-fastest, which means Leaute now holds the WR. The Frenchman is the man for Hicks to beat in the final.
- Darren Hicks. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters*
Track cycling: We’re going to stay at the velodrome for a bit because there are a heap of medals up for grabs. Colombia’s Diego German Dueñas has just had some awful luck, unable to start men’s C4-5 1000m time trial because the bolt wasn’t screwed onto his back wheel tight enough. A mechanic has the Phillips out and Dueñas has been allowed a restart. He gets away with no problems this time and clocks 1:10.702, which is enough for an early lead as the third of a 21-rider field.
Track cycling: Some big news in that Edwoud Vromant has been disqualified after his world-record time, which means Australian Darren Hicks is into the gold medal race in the men’s C2 3,000m individual pursuit.
Paul MacInnes
We’ve just finished the second round of lifting here at the Tokyo International Forum and there has been no shortage of tension. China’s Guo Lingling has already set a new Paralympic record of 105kg and just had a world record lift of 108kg denied by a perceived failure in the chest sequence of her lift.
Britain’s Zoe Newsom is clinging on for hopes of a bronze medal after she failed to complete the press on her second round lift of 97kg. She got a reprieve after her rival, Indonesia’s Ni Nenga Widiashi was adjudged to have a failing of technique on her 98kg lift. Newsom has opted to go again at 97 and Widiashi at 98 so a medal bid is out of her hands, but not yet over.
Venezuela’s Clara Sarahy Fuentes Monasterio looks set fair for a medal. She has successfully lifted 97kg and is lighter than Newsom, which would count in her favour in the event of a tie.
- Zoe Newsom in action. Photograph: Molly Darlington/Reuters*
Updated
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Goalball: Leomon Moreno has just brought Brazil back on level terms early in the second half. Moreno is a pretty special player. He was the tournament top-scorer with 44 goals when his team successfully defended their world title in Sweden in 2018 and has been key to Brazil winning a medal at every major competition since London 2012. He scored three times in Wednesday’s 11-2 walkover of Lithuania.
- Leomon Moreno Photograph: Lisi Niesner/Reuters*
Goalball: There’s a heated battle happening between the USA and Brazil men’s teams at the Makuhari Messe Hall. The US lead 3-2 after a first half that started with a penalty and ended with an own goal when Josemarcio Sousa sent the ball into his own net.
For those unfamiliar with this sport, goalball is played indoors by athletes with vision impairment. The object of the game is to roll the ball into the opponent’s goal while the opposing players try to block the ball with their bodies. Bells inside the ball help orientate the players by indicating the direction of the oncoming ball.
- Zachary Buhler of Team USA has his eyes taped before the men’s preliminary-round Group A match against Brazil. Photograph: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images*
Table tennis: Australian Samuel Von Einem has just accounted for Korea’s Kim Gi-Tae 3-0. The 26-year-old, who has autism, is the Rio 2016 silver medallist in the men’s Class 11 singles and is well on the path again here.
- Samuel Von Einem. Photograph: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images*
Emma Kemp
Thanks Luke and hello! Depending where you are in the world good afternoon, good morning, good some ungodly hour at night.
There are more track cycling finals coming up this afternoon. Australia have strong medal hopes in Nicholas David and Darren Hicks while Team GB is guaranteed a gold in the men’s C3 3,000m individual pursuit with Jaco van Gass and Finlay Graham facing each other in the final.
Until then, though, I’m heading to goalball and table tennis.
I’m going to pass you on to my colleague Emma Kemp now. Enjoy the action to come!
Wheelchair rugby: USA vs Canada ends with a win for the Americans, 58-54. That’s their second win, and they look good to progress to the knockouts. The Canadians, who were very much in this contest, are zero wins and two losses so far. Fair to say the Americans are happy with this win: at full-time they form a circle and start chanting: “Who are we? USA. Who are we? USA.”
Women’s wheelchair basketball: Japan has defeated Great Britain 54-48, their second win from two matches.
Paul MacInnes
The countdown to the women’s -41kg category has begun (to a soundtrack of solid 80s hits, and a DJ who effectively mixed Huey Lewis’s Power of Love into Whitney’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody, respect). I’m here to follow the prospects of double bronze winning Brit Zoe Newsom, in what is likely to be her last games. It’s a bench press event and athletes are regularly lifting more than twice their own bodyweight. Leading contender for gold is world-record-holder China’s Lingling Guo, whose starting lift is at 103kg (she weighs 40.13kg). Newsom starts at 92kg.