Limerick's Tiarnán O'Donnell moves on to PR2 Mixed Double Sculls repechage at Paralympics

LIMERICK'S Tiarnán O'Donnell will race again tomorrow morning in the PR2 Mixed Double Sculls repechage at 9:50am after coming fourth in their heat. 

After their initial race was postponed due to a thunder storm in the French capital O'Donnell and his rowing partner Katie O'Brien finally got on the water at 11:15am. 

The top two from both heat qualify straight away for the A final on Sunday, September 1 with China and Israel going through from heat one. 

Ireland clocked a time of 9:03.33 in their first race of the Paralympics with O'Donnell also making his Paralympic debut during the race as well. 

Team Ireland athlete O'Donnell, a relative newcomer to rowing, has already shown immense potential. Initially making a name for himself as one of Ireland’s top wheelchair basketball players, he transitioned to rowing through the PTSB NextGen programme.

His rapid progress and natural talent have earned him a place alongside Katie to compete in Paris. O'Donnell was diagnosed an AV malformation in his leg when he was only 11-years-old. After consultations with hospitals in America, he decided along with his parents to amputate his leg.

He travelled to London where doctors were able to remove the cancer from his calf and rearrange his knee to make it a pressure point for his prosthetic leg. Since then, he has had to learn to walk again with his prosthesis and thankfully the cancer has not returned.