Jamaica was one of twenty-eight nations that competed at the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, Israel from November 4 to 13, 1968.[1][2] The team finished fourteenth in the medal table and won a total of five medals; three gold, one silver and one bronze.[3] Eleven athletes represented Jamaica at the Games; seven men and four women.[1]
History
Jamaica made their Paralympic Games debut at these Games.[4]
Seven Jamaican archers competed at the Games, none won a medal.[5] The best result was achieved by Quida White who placed fifth in the St. Nicholas round for paraplegic women; Lewis[n 1] finished eleventh in the same event.[6]
Seven of Jamaica's competitors took part in athletics. Two medals were won by Jamaican athletes, both gold and both in the precision javelin.[5] Excell took the men's title, with a score of 74, and Baracatt the women's, with a score of 78.[7][8]
The only dartchery event at the Games was the mixed pairs event which took a knockout format. Two Jamaican pairs entered; Excell and Hall lost in the first round to the eventual gold medallists from the United States; Long and Baracatt also lost in the first round to British pair Nicholson and Taylor.[9]
Three Jamaican swimmers competed at the Games. Patrick Reid took part in two men's class 2 complete classification events but failed to advance past the heats in either.[5] Octavius Morgan competed in three men's class 4 incomplete classification events and achieved a best finish of fifth in the breaststroke.[5][10] Jamaica's two swimming medals were both won by Meikle; she won gold in the women's 50 m breaststroke class 4 incomplete
and silver in the 50 m freestyle.[5]
Five Jamaica players took part in table tennis singles events and a pair in the women's doubles. All of the singles players were eliminated at the round of 16 stage.[5] In the women's doubles C event Baracatt and Lewis reached the quarter-finals before losing to Great Britain's Bryant and Barnard, who went on to win the gold medal.[11]
One athlete entered a weightlifting event for Jamaica. Hall won the bronze medal in the men's lightweight with a lift of 110 kg; the gold was won by Johnsen of Norway with a new world record lift of 150 kg.[12]
^Data is taken from the International Paralympic Committee website and is based on information contained/sourced in the original hardcopy final results publications. Some information from earlier Paralympic Games (i.e. 1960 – 1984) is incomplete and is missing first names of some athletes.
