Katarina Roxon finishes fourth in 100m breaststroke

Defending gold medalist just misses the podium in fourth appearance

Katarina Roxon
Katarina Roxon gets a good start in the 100-metre breastroke at the Tokyo Paralympics. The Canadian finished fourth.  

Defending champion Katarina Roxon finished a disappointing fourth in the women’s 100m breaststroke (SB8) at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, on Thursday.

The Newfoundland and Labrador native, finished her race with the time of 1:25:73 in the finals Thursday, improving from her qualifying time of 1:26:62.

Ellen Keane locked in the gold medal for Ireland with a personal best time of 1:21:71 that just out-touched New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe. The bronze medal went to Russian Paralympic Committee athlete Adelina Razetdinova.

Roxon was not happy with the result. 

“It’s not what I wanted, not what I expected,” she said, afterwards. “It was really hard.” 

During the race, Roxon and Razetdinova battled it out, neck-and-neck majority of the race, with Roxon pulling ahead after her turn. Then during the last 25 metres, the Russian was able to pull ahead to claim third place. 

Roxon still has three more events (two individual) the SM9, 200m individual medley, and the S9, 400m freestyle, and one relay.

Leonard Roxon, Katarina’s head coach and father, spoke to their local CBC station program St. John’s Morning Show, after the disappointing defeat.

“Obviously you’re going to race wanting to win, but it is good because she still put out her best effort,” he said.

Succeeding making it to the finals in both events at Rio 2016, Roxon finished 7th in the SM9 and 6th in the S9.

Roxon made her Paralympic debut in 2008 in Beijing, as the youngest swimmer for Canada. She’s still competing at age 28 in her fourth Paralympic Games.

During the 2016 Rio Games, Roxon hit a few career highlights — setting a Canadian record, winning a gold medal in the 100m breaststroke.

The four-time Olympian will be racing in the qualifiers on Monday, for the 100m freestyle and Tuesday, for the 200m medley.

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Posted: Aug 26 2021 3:37 pm
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Filed under: Sports Swimming Tokyo Paralympics
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