Aled Davies Tastes Bitter Defeat . . . But Paris Is Sweet For Laura Sugar

Aled Davies of Team Great Britain. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Aled Davies Tastes Bitter Defeat . . . But Paris Is Sweet For Laura Sugar

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By Gareth James

Aled Davies has admitted he is finding it hard to offer an explanation for his failure to win a fourth Paralympic gold medal.

Wales’ greatest current Paralympian was unable to follow up his titles of the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Games and had to settle for shot put silver in Paris on a final weekend where Laura Sugar took gold in para canoeing and Phil Pratt earned a silver in wheelchair basketball.

Welsh athletes can reflect on 16 medals in total won for Great Britain – seven golds, five silvers and four bronzes – across 10 different sports.

That is the most medals since Athens 2004 when Welsh athletes earned 22.

But silver felt like a disappointment for Davies, whose best throw of 15.10m at his fourth Paralympic Games was way below his world record of 17.52m.

On an emotional night for Davies at the Stade de France on Saturday, he fell short, with Kuwait’s Faisal Sorour taking the gold with a throw of 15.31m.

“It’s a tough one, it’s been an emotional ride to get here,” said the Bridgend athlete.

“It’s been a brutal few years for me. There’s no excuses, winning and losing is part of the sport, I have looked for years where the next competitors will come from.

“To see the top six throwing over the old world record is magnificent and I’m so proud of how the event is coming on.

“But I still feel like I’m the better man and tonight I underperformed, it wasn’t my night. It’s a tough one to swallow but it’s back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong.

“My warm-ups were huge and I felt so good coming into this. I came into it thinking ‘I’m going to break a world record tonight, throw 17-plus’.

“I settled the nerves in round one, we were trying to build. I’ve been so impatient technically this year because of injuries but there are no excuses, I underperformed.”

Davies was left to find the silver linings in his performance after originally believing that he had only won bronze. Luxembourg’s Tom Habscheid instead the athlete to complete the podium.

But it’s not the medal that he is admitted he was emotional about, it was the performance.

“I would have been devastated to be going home empty-handed,” he added.

“I thought I’d won bronze, I only found out in the call room it was silver – a silver lining, I suppose.

“I’m more devastated with my performance – I’d have happily come last as long as I delivered the best performance I possibly could but unfortunately I left that in warm-up tonight.

“I’m scratching my head, I need to look through it with my coach.

I haven’t competed that much this year. Hopefully we’ll come back stronger and go back for the main medal.

“I think I have to take this one in. It has been a rough ride. Tonight wasn’t the outcome I hoped for.”

Sugar was delighted to claim ParalympicsGB’s 49th and final gold medal of Paris 2024.

The former Wales hockey international defended her women’s KL3 title in a Paralympic best time as she defied tough crosswinds.

Sugar came home in a time 46.66 to beat out home hopeful Nelia Barbosa of France by 1.25 seconds with Germany’s Felicia Laberer of Germany taking bronze.

“I didn’t know I was the last, that’s really cool, said Sugar, who is part of Aldi’s Nearest and Dearest programme in partnership with ParalympicsGB, helping to maximise support and minimise potential distractions for athletes so that they can focus on their performance.

“We are not just our canoeing team, there is a whole ParalympicsGB team.

“We’ve had the TV on downstairs cheering everyone on. I’ve got ex-teammates in the athletics who it’s been great to catch up on and it’s a special team to be a part of.”

Pratt won silver with ParalympicsGB men’s wheelchair basketball players following their 73-69 defeat by USA in the gold medal match.
The Cardiff star admitted: “It’s tough.

“They are a hell of a team and Steve Serio was incredible, he’s one of the greatest to ever play the game. We challenged him to shoot and he came out firing.

“We stuck to our gameplan but they were the better team. It doesn’t change anything, the work that’s gone into this, the legends of the game paving the way and giving us this platform to express ourselves, I am proud of our guys.

“USA were the better team, hats off to them. It sucks but we’ll be back.”

Welsh medals for ParalympicsGB at Paris 2024

GOLD

Matt Bush (Para taekwondo – men’s K44 +80kg)

Ben Pritchard (Para-rowing – PR1 men’s singles sculls)

James Ball and Steffan Lloyd (Para-cycling – Men’s B 1000m time trial)

Sabrina Fortune (Para-athletics – women’s F20 shot put)

Rhys Darbey (Para-swimming – mixed S14 4x100m freestyle relay)

Jodie Grinham (Para-archery – mixed team compound open)

Laura Sugar (Para canoe – women’s kayak singles KL3 200m)

SILVER

Rhys Darbey (Para-swimming – men’s SM14 200m individual medley)

Rob Davies (Para table tennis – men’s singles MS1)

Georgia Wilson (Para equestrian – grade II individual freestyle)

Aled Sion Davies (Para athletics – men’s F63 shot put)

Phil Pratt (wheelchair basketball men’s team)

BRONZE

Paul Karabardak (Para table tennis – men’s doubles MD14)

Jodie Grinham (Para-archery – women’s individual compound)

Georgia Wilson (Para-equestrian – individual event grade II)

Hollie Arnold (Para athletics – women’s F46 javelin)

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