Bolton Finishes in Sixth Place in Women's Shot Put

Friday, 27 August 2021 at 09:47

Photo Credit: Charlotte Bolton Instagram page, @charlotte.bolton.throws

Charlotte Bolton's parents describe what it was like to watch their daughter perform on the biggest stage last night at the Paralympics.

TOKYO - Charlotte Bolton finished in sixth place in the F41 Women's Shot Put competition at the Tokyo Paralympics.

The 18-year-old from Tillsonburg had a final score of 8.73. 31-year-old Raoua Tlili of Tunisia wound up winning the gold in the end with a final score 10.55. You can check out the final results online here.

In a post on her Instagram page, Bolton admits that she was nervous but she's also very proud of how she did.

She now has her sights set on the Women's F41 Discuss Throw on Tuesday. That should get started at about 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time and you should be able to watch it on the CBC Paralympics stream or on the Canadian Paralympic Committee website online here.

Bolton's parents Scot Bolton and Bridget Fearon were watching the event last night with friends in their backyard in Tillsonburg. Scot says you could see a lot of red and white in their backyard.

"We had 5 or 6 couples watching the live stream, it was great, lot's of red and white being worn, she doesn't have family in town, so it was some of our closest friends."

Charlotte's mom Bridget says this whole experience is surreal.

"It is very emotional, even right now I'm getting emotional. It didn't hit me until yesterday afternoon when I got an email notification and I got a couple of messages I kind of lost it yesterday afternoon, it really hit me that this is it."

Charlotte wasn't expected to make Team Canada this year. Her goal was always 2024. She extra year off allowed her to make the team and compete in Japan. In a normal year, her parents would be in Japan cheering her on. Scot says obviously they would love to be there.

"Bridget has been calling this the bonus Olympics, in that, if this had of happened a year ago, she wouldn't of qualified. So, the pandemic was to her benefit, so sure, we would love to be there cheering her on in person, but it wouldn't of happened if there hadn't been a pandemic, so we can't really complain about not being able to go because of the pandemic."

Charlotte is the youngest member of the Team Canada Track and Field team at 18 years old. She was the youngest person to crack the top 10 last year. The age of the people who finished 1-5 last night were between 28 and 35.

You can send Bolton a message of support through her Instagram account @charlotte.bolton.throws.