A LAW graduate from Bangor University made his debut at the Paralympics today (August 27), finishing second out of six in the PR1 men’s single scull rowing event in Tokyo.

Ben Pritchard, 29, achieved one of his best global results to date by ending as runner-up to Ukrainian Roman Polianskyi in the second PR1 M1x heat, which got underway at 2.30am UK time.

The T6 paraplegic rower completed the Sea Forest Waterway course in a time of 10 minutes, 12 seconds and 24 milliseconds; almost 16 seconds shy of the time set by Polianskyi, which was a new Paralympic best.

Of the 12 rowers who competed in one of the two 2000m heats, Pritchard was fourth-fastest to the halfway mark (4:57.96).

Pritchard will now race in Saturday’s second men’s repechage event, which again starts at 2.30am UK time at Sea Forest Waterway.

There, he will face Priyamal Jayakodi of Sri Lanka, the RPC’s Aleksey Chuvashev, Spain’s Javier Reja Munoz and American Blake Haxton.

In 2016, Pritchard sustained a spinal injury from of a cycling accident, and then decided to focus on the Paralympics from 2019, becoming a full-time athlete.

He said prior to the Paralympics: “Initially, I disliked the rowing machine as I found it too difficult and a little on the boring side.

“However, a friend and fellow patient mentioned to me that there was a leaderboard being kept by the physios, and that was it.

“I was hooked on trying to go faster and faster - the natural progression was to reach out to British Rowing and see what the next steps were.”

Pritchard also made his international rowing debut in 2019, when he finished third at the World Cup and fourth at the World Championships.