Powerlifting: Omar Sami Hamadeh Qarada, of Jordan, wins gold with a top lift of 173kg. He beats the winner at Rio 2016, Vietnam’s Le van Cong, to the gold, while Azerbaijan’s Parvin Ammadov takes bronze. FacebookTwitter Advertisement 5m ago 04:16 For our Australian readers, a little bit of background about Darren Hicks. He had a lifelong love affair with BMX riding until the age of 29, when in 2014 he suffered severe leg and neck trauma in a horrific road accident. His right leg was amputated. Three months after the accident, he rode a bike against for the first time. Now 36, he’s competing at his first Paralympics. FacebookTwitter 9m ago 04:11 Cycling: Thrilling stuff at the velodrome. Alexandre Laute, of France, beats the world record time just posted by Japan’s Kawamoto, in the C2 3000 individual pursuit. Riding against Laute in that heat was Australia’s Darren Hicks, who also went under Kawamoto’s time, meaning he’s sitting in second place and has a chance of racing for gold tonight unless his time is beaten in the final heat. FacebookTwitter 16m ago 04:04 Women’s wheelchair basketball: Half-time between Japan and Great Britain, with the hosts leading 25-21. Great Britain are looking to bounce back after a tough first outing against Canada yesterday, while Japan are hoping to build some more momentum following a big win against Australia. Amy Conroy leads the scoring for Team GB with nine points. FacebookTwitter 26m ago 03:54 Cycling: Cheers reverberate around the Izu velodrome as Japan’s Shota Kawamoto breaks the world record in the Men’s C2 3000m individual pursuit. We’re about halfway through qualifying here, with the fastest two riders competing for gold later today, and the next two fighting it out for the bronze. Australia’s Darren Hicks is coming up soon. FacebookTwitter 30m ago 03:50 Wheelchair rugby: Wheelchair rugby action is underway and the day begins with a grudge match: After the first period, the USA leads Canada 17-16. Canada’s Zak Madell is starring with nine tries, while the USA’s Charles Aoki has eight. Wheelchair rugby is one of the sports at the Paralympics that allows people with different impairments to compete alongside and against each other. Each player is given a points classification based on their disability – and the four players on each team cannot exceed eight points. FacebookTwitter 43m ago 03:38 Powerlifting: They’re three quarters of the way through the Men’s 49kg category and Jordan’s Omar Sami Hamadeh Qarada and Le van Cong of Vietnam are on top with best lifts of 170kg. Powerlifting at the Paralympics is a deadlift competition, with each athlete having four attempts. FacebookTwitter Advertisement 1h ago 03:15 Women’s wheelchair basketball: An easy 77-58 win for Germany over Australia in the end. A tough start to the Games for Australia’s Gliders, who’ve lost their first two preliminary round matches. FacebookTwitter 1h ago 03:10 That’s a very very impressive effort from the US’ Gia Pergolini, 17, who is competing in her first Paralympics. She was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease in 2014, causing progressive central vision loss during childhood. She’d been keen on lacrosse, soccer and gymnastics, but focused on swimming when she was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease. “Once I started swimming for Para, I saw that there’s other kids with the same disability as I,” she has said previously. “It opened my mind up more, and I started having a closer and closer relationship with Para swimming.” Pergonlini will be going for gold in tonight’s final. FacebookTwitter 1h ago 03:02 Swimming: And more records go. This time in the women’s 100m Backstroke S13. Australia’s Katja Dedekind breaks the paralympic record in heat one. And interviewed post-race she’s speechless. “That’s just awesome,” says Dedekind. But Dedekind says she won’t be surprised if that record falls in the second heat, and she’s right. Dedekind will go into tonight’s final second fastest, after the US swimmer Gia Pergolini broke the world record. FacebookTwitter 1h ago 02:56 Swimming: The records are tumbling at the pool once again. The Netherlands’ Lisa Kruger beat the Paralympic record in heat one of the women’s 100m Breaststroke SB9. But it didn’t last long, with compatriot Chantalle Zijderveld beating own world record time in heat two. Australia’s Keira Stephens was delighted to also make it through to tonight’s final. It looks like the Dutch will be tough to beat. Netherland’s Lisa Kruger during the Women’s 100m Breaststroke SB9 Netherland’s Lisa Kruger during the Women’s 100m Breaststroke SB9 Photograph: John Walton/PA Updated at 3.17am BST FacebookTwitter 2h ago 02:46 Just summarising that medal event at the velodrome, the British at one stage looked like they may claim all three places as the time trial neared its conclusion. But the last rider of the event, but the Netherlands’ Larissa Klaassen (with pilot Inke Brommer) was just too good, eclipsing Aileen McGlynn’s time by about a second and a half. And Belgium’s Griet Hoet was good enough for third. Team GB’s Lora Fachie and Sophie Unwin finished in fourth and fifth. It’s a great triumph for Klaassen, who improves on her silver from Rio in the same event with a spot on the top of the podium. FacebookTwitter Advertisement 2h ago 02:40 Netherlands win gold at the velodrome, silver to Team GB Cycling: Larissa Klaassen wins gold for the Netherlands in the women’s B 1000m time trial. Silver goes to Great Britain’s Aileen McGlynn, while Griet Hoet of Belgium gets bronze. FacebookTwitter 2h ago 02:37 Men’s wheelchair basketball: USA defeat Germany 58-55. What a game that was! Germany, who had been in front for most of the match, surrendered the lead to the reigning champs in the fourth quarter. From there it was a see-sawing contest. The Germans held possession in the final 10 seconds, but couldn’t hit the three pointer on the buzzer. FacebookTwitter 2h ago 02:26 Men’s wheelchair basketball: Well, well, well. Team USA have come roaring back here against the Germans. The Americans have taken the lead (52-51) with two minutes left! Updated at 2.28am BST FacebookTwitter 2h ago 02:21 Cycling: They’ve kicked off at the Izu Velodrome in the women’s B 1000m time trial. This is today’s first medal event, and will see 10 tandems of a visually impaired rider and their pilot race for glory. With five riders to go, it’s Team GB in first (Aileen McGlynn) and second (Sophie Unwin). Dominka Putrya of Poland is currently in the bronze medal position. McGlynn, 48, was born partially sighted, and started cycling at 18 in Glasgow. Initially reluctant to tell her teammates about her disability, she was embraced by the club and is now a three-time gold medallist. Updated at 2.21am BST FacebookTwitter 2h ago 02:06 Men’s Goalball: It’s all over between Belgium and China: the Belgians winning 10-3. The star for the Belgians was 28-year-old Klison Mapreni, who scored eight of their 10 goals. FacebookTwitter 2h ago 01:53 Wheelchair basketball: Germany is having a very good start to today’s wheelchair basketball action. Early in the third quarter, the men are up 32-26 against reigning gold medallists Team USA, while the women’s team have a comfortable 45-25 lead against Australia at half-time. FacebookTwitter Advertisement 3h ago 01:47 Table tennis: Australia’s Ma Lin had a comfortable win in the Men’s class 9 singles, beating Italy’s Mohamed Kalem. It’s his second win for the Games so far. A little bit of background about Ma Lin. He’s a four-time gold medallist for his native China, but is representing the green and gold for the first time at Tokyo. He lost his right arm at the aged of five, after he was bitten by a bear in a zoo accident. Updated at 1.59am BST FacebookTwitter 3h ago 01:35 Swimming: In the men’s 100m freestyle S5, Brazilian champ Daniel Dias qualified second-fastest, behind China’s Yuan Weiyi. He needs two more gold medals to become the most-decorated Para swimmer of all time. (He already has 14 gold, seven silver and four bronze). FacebookTwitter 3h ago 01:26 Women’s wheelchair basketball: It’s a slow start for Australia’s Gliders, down 22-13 late in the first quarter against Germany in their second hit-out of the Games. The Gliders went down 73-47 to the hosts Japan in their first round match yesterday, so they’ll be looking to turn things around. FacebookTwitter 3h ago 01:22 Men’s Goalball: Belgium looks the goods against China here, extending its lead to 4-1, courtesy of a Klison Mapreni goal late in the first half. For the uninitiated, goalball is a sport designed for people with vision impairment. It’s a bit like handball, but with two teams of three attempting to throw the ball into a goal, which covers the length of the court. The ball has a ball in it, and eyeshades are used so that partially blind players are on an equal footing against blind opponents. Tom Vanhove of Belgium and Bruno Vanhove of Belgium in action. Tom Vanhove of Belgium and Bruno Vanhove of Belgium in action. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters Updated at 2.20am BST FacebookTwitter 3h ago 01:17 Men’s wheelchair basketball: This is one to watch today. It’s still early days but Germany is up by six points (16-10) against reigning champs Team USA at quarter time. FacebookTwitter Advertisement 3h ago 01:11 This is what the medal tally looks like as the action gets underway today. It looks pretty good if you’re looking at it from Australia. But my colleague Martin Belam warns, “Savour this one Australia, because I doubt there will be many days when China are not top.” 1 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 6 🥈 1 🥉 3 total: 10 2 🇨🇳 China 🥇 5 🥈 1 🥉 2 total: 8 3 ◻️ Not Russia 🥇 3 🥈 1 🥉 2 total: 6 4 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 2 🥈 1 🥉 2 total: 5 5 🇺🇦 Ukraine 🥇 1 🥈 5 🥉 2 total: 8 6 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🥇 1 🥈 4 🥉 1 total: 6 7 🇧🇷 Brazil 🥇 1 🥈 1 🥉 2 total: 4 8 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 1 🥈 1 🥉 0 total: 2 9 🇧🇾 Belarus 🥇 1 🥈 0 🥉 0 total: 1 9 🇨🇱 Chile 🥇 1 🥈 0 🥉 0 total: 1 9 🇮🇱 Israel 🥇 1 🥈 0 🥉 0 total: 1 9 🇸🇬 Singapore 🥇 1 🥈 0 🥉 0 total: 1 FacebookTwitter 3h ago 01:06 There’s about to be a flurry of live action, with swimming heats and cycling and plenty more, so let’s quickly take a look at some of the highlights of yesterday before we get in to that. Australia dominated in the pool yesterday, claiming four gold medals. Of particular note was Lakeisha Patterson, who bested Hungary’s Zsófia Konkoly and Team GB’s Toni Shaw in a thrilling race. Gold also went to William Martin in the men’s 400m freestyle S9, Rowan Crowthers for the men’s 50m freestyle S10, and Ben Popham (men’s 100m freestyle S8). For our British readers, the Sarah Storey show is well and truly on the road. Storey, 43, won gold 3000m individual pursuit C5, breaking her own world record in the process. By four seconds, no less. It takes her Paralympic gold medal haul to 15, one short of swimmer Mike Kenny’s British record. Staying at the velodrome, and it was a golden start for Australia there, too. Paige Greco defeated China’s Wang Xiaomei in the C3 individual 3000m pursuit final. Moments later, Emily Petricola, 41, also won cold in the C4 classification. In the wheelchair rugby, the US got of to a flying start, defeating New Zealand 63-35. It was a much tighter affair between Great Britain and Canada, with the Brits winning 50-47. Meanwhile, debutants Denmark claimed a surprise win over reigning champs Australia, 54-53. FacebookTwitter 3h ago 01:00 Preamble Luke Henriques-Gomes Luke Henriques-Gomes Hello and welcome to our coverage of day two of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. We’re delighted to have you joining us again today. I don’t know about you, but post-Olympics it’s felt like there’s been a bit of a void in my life, so thank goodness there is so much more elite sport for us to enjoy in these next two weeks. Already, things got off to a thrilling start yesterday, with world records tumbling across a range of events, and plenty of medals already run and won. But there’s so much more to come today. Below, I’ve listed an excellent overview of today’s events, courtesy of my colleague Martin Belam. All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Sydney, subtract eight hours for London, 13 hours for New York City and 16 hours for Los Angeles. If you only watch one thing: 10am-2.57pm Track Cycling – there are races all Thursday morning, and then from 1.45pm we get into the women’s 3000m individual pursuit finals in three classes, with the men’s B 4000m individual pursuit final to round off Thursday at the velodrome 🥇 9am-11.16am and 5pm-8.01pm Swimming – after a morning of heats, Thursday’s evening session features what should be an hour’s worth of entertaining 100m finals followed by the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay 20 points final 🥇 9am-2.20pm and 4pm-10pm Table tennis – there’s more table tennis than you can shake a stick at again on Thursday with more than 128 group stage games taking place. 9am-8.30pm Wheelchair basketball – there are group games for both men and women all day, notably the US men face Germany at 9am, Great Britain’s women face the hosts at 11.15am in a game they need to win, and the British men face Algeria at 2.45pm. 9am-8.30pm Goalball – there are seven preliminary matches in both the men’s and women’s competition scattered through the day, with the USA men clashing with Brazil at 1.15pm probably being the pick of the bunch. 11am and 1pm and 4.30pm and 6.30pm Powerlifting – a busy day as in order it goes men’s -49kg final, women’s -41kg final, women’s -45kg final and then the men’s -54kg final 🥇 4pm-8.31pm Equestrian – 47-year-old Lee Pearson has 11 Paralympic gold medals behind him, but there will be something different about competing this year, as it is the first time he will have a young family to cheer him on – albeit remotely. In a rather ambitious lockdown project, Pearson became a foster father for the first time last year. His Grade II individual dressage test is first up 🐴🥇 6pm-8.30pm Wheelchair fencing – preliminaries are on all day from 9am but we get to the business end at 6pm on Thursday, with medals to be won in the men’s and women’s épée individual, in both category A and category B 🥇