Jason Smyth wins gold in world record time Irish sprinter Jason Smyth set the Bird’s Nest track on fire today in Beijing winning the 100m (T13 Vision Impaired category) GOLD in a new Paralympic World record time of 10.62sec. It was two world records in one day for the twenty year old as he broke the 10.81sec mark he set in the qualifying heats this morning by almost two tenths of a second. The City of Derry AC athlete is not finished yet as he also runs in the T13 200m in which he is the reigning world champion and record holder. The heats of the 200m are Monday with the final on Tuesday.
Afterwards a delighted Smyth said: “I’m thrilled; it’s awesome! I’ve put in so much work; it’s all gone so well. To break my own world record twice in one day I knew it was there; it was just a matter of coming out and doing it on the big occasion, and I’m so pleased I did.”
Smyth’s sensational win is the second gold for Ireland at these Games after his room mate Michael McKillop won 800m (T37) gold on Wednesday night also in world record time.
His time of 10.62 shows tremendous consistency considering he ran 10.53 in Talinn in June – a time that ranked him second on the Irish 100m rankings behind Paul Hession’s 10.21. He was also a member of the Irish 4X100m relay team at the European Cup in Talinn in June.