The chiselled 35-year-old amputee caught the eye in a time of 47.87 seconds in the men’s VL3 va’a but was denied the title by Ukraine’s Vladyslav Yepifanov. Charlotte Henshaw and Emma Wiggs earlier delivered a British one-two with gold and silver in the women’s KL2 kayak before Laura Sugar retained the women’s KL3 title.
And it’s SILVER for 👏 What a performance from Jack in his debut Games. 🥈 — ParalympicsGB (@ParalympicsGB) Double world champion Eyers, who underwent surgery on his right leg aged just 16, became the first amputee to be crowned Mr England, in 2017, and has also modelled at London and New York fashion weeks. He was determined to make a splash in France after being devastated to agonisingly miss out on selection for the last Games.
Eyers turned heads as fastest qualifier from the two semi-finals on Sunday morning at Vaires-sur-Marne Stadium. But Yepifanov, who booked his spot in the medal race by winning one of the initial heats on Friday, then grabbed top spot on the podium. His Paralympic record of 47.
49 secs was 0.38 secs faster than the Briton. Eyers, from Bournemouth, was born with a condition called proximal femoral focal deficiency, which affected his hip, knee and femur.
He was advised to wait until he was 18 and had stopped growing to undergo surgery but convinced doctors to amputate his leg above the knee two years early. Since the operation, Eyers has been “ripped apart by werewolves” and “blown up” in horror films after jo.