Cork’s Noelle Lenihan has added to Ireland’s medal collection at the IPC Athletics European Championships on Sunday evening, when she secured a gold medal and set a new World Record in the F38 Discus final.
Noelle set the new World Record on her very first attempt, when she threw a whopping 32.14m – a throw that put her straight to the top of the table and eventually won her the gold medal.
Speaking about the fantastic performance, National Throws Coach Dave Sweeney said: “She did great, and we're really happy. She was very controlled, and to be honest, she has been throwing further than that the last few days in training so she's a little bit disappointed that she didn't throw further today! There was a tricky wind, which blew a lot of the discs down so it was a fantastic for her to throw so well in those conditions.
MEDAL ALERT: Noelle Lenihan has won GOLD for Ireland in F38 Discus final in #Grosseto2016 on top of new World Record pic.twitter.com/zDzSPYULsy
— Paralympics Ireland (@ParalympicsIRE) June 12, 2016
"This is a really big step in her career - to break a World Record and win a European Championships in one go and to then be a little bit unhappy with the performance is the sign of a good mindset and a sign of more exciting things to come in Rio!
"She will come away from today having learned a lot, she had very good competition there so she was pushed to the very end and we're delighted for her."
This was Ireland’s second medal of the Championships, following on from Deirdre Mongan’s bronze medal on Day One on Saturday in the F53/54 Shot Put final.
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