Tammy Cunnington on the blocks at the 2018 Pan Pacific Games in Australia. (Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

150m Individual Medley

Red Deer swimmer Tammy Cunnington places fifth in heat at Tokyo Paralympics

Aug 28, 2021 | 2:01 PM

150Red Deer Para swimmer Tammy Cunnington has placed fifth in the women’s 150m Individual Medley SM4 heats during day four action at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan Aug. 28.

Cunnington posted a time of 3:41:06 in the event, placing 13th overall, and returns to the pool Tueday (Aug. 31) to compete in the 50m Breaststroke and on Sept. 2 in the 50m Backstroke.

“The time wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I was working for more in that IM,” said the veteran from Rio 2016. “I gave it all I had this morning but it wasn’t what I wanted. I have the 50 breaststroke in two days and I’ve been working on that for the IM, so now I’m going to focus on that and see what happens.”

“Because it’s my second Games and I knew I was going to be in tough this time around, I’m just really taking it all in and celebrating all it took for me to make it here,” added Cunnington, who trains at the Red Deer Catalina Swim Club.

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Cunnington’s teammate Aurélie Rivard from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, however, gave Canada its first golden performance of Tokyo 2020, however, with a record-breaking swim in the Para Swimming, Women’s 100m freestyle S10 event for her seventh Paralympic medal.

Rivard set not one, but two, world records en-route to winning Canada’s first gold medal of the Games. After bettering her own women’s 100m freestyle S10 world record in the heats, she smashed it even more in the final with a time of 58.14.

Rivard was the only swimmer to touch the wall in under 60 seconds. With the gold, Rivard retains her Paralympic title in the event from Rio 2016. She now has seven Paralympic medals through three Games – four gold, two silver, and one bronze, with that third-place podium coming on day one in Tokyo in the 50m freestyle S10.

Canada now holds eight medals – two per day – at the end of day four in Tokyo.