COUNCIL bosses are planning a homecoming celebration for local Olympic and Paralympic stars.

As our Paralympians returned from Rio this week, there was plenty to rejoice from the past two months and with the Paralympics now over, we can reflect on the incredible sporting successes.

Patrick Wilson flew the flag for Peeblesshire in the Boccia event and his valiant effort meant an appearance in the quarter finals.

The 20 year-old stormed Pool G after defeating Portugal’s Mario Peixoto 4-2, last Tuesday and then Kazuki Takahashi of Japan 5-3 to take the group.

But he was knocked out in the quarter finals after a narrow 4-3 defeat to Korea’s Han Soo Kim, who went on to lose the bronze medal match to Portugal’s Jose Carlos Macedo.

Elsewhere in the Borders, Libby Clegg from Newcastleton scooped not one, but TWO gold medals after dominating both of her events.

The first came on September 9, when she won the 100m T11 final, just edging out China’s Guohua Zhou, by point two of a second, with a time of 11.96.

She thought she had been disqualified for a lead runner infringement during her semi-final, but was reinstated for the final and certainly didn’t let the confusion affect her.

Then things got a little bit better. She then set a Paralympic record last Tuesday in the 200m T11 final with a time of 24.51, beating Cuiqing Liu, who didn’t have much chance.

And the Rio Games was a bit of a family affair, with brother Stephen taking to the pool. His games started last Monday in the 400m freestyle-S13. But he just missed out on qualifying for the finals, as Australian Jacob Templeton nicked third spot in heat one, leaving Stephen in fourth.

In the 100m backstroke-S12, he managed to qualify from heat two, finishing second behind America’s Tucker Dupree with a time of 1:03.11, but could only manage fifth in the final.

He missed out on a final spot in the 100m freestyle-S13 and the 50m freestyle-S12. 

It was also a busy Rio games for wheelchair athlete Samantha Kinghorn. Her games began on Thursday, September 8, in the 100m T53. She finished fifth in the final with a time of 17.13, after qualifying from heat one by finishing second to Lisha Huang of China, who set a world record of 16.19 and went on to win gold.

The star from Gordon was disqualified in the final of the 400m-T53 event, but things got a lot better on Saturday.

Sammi smashed the European T53 800m record to reach her third final. She clocked a highly impressive 1.48.89 behind eventual gold medalist China’s Hongzhuan Zhou and Angela Ballard of Australia in the second semi-final.