Paralympics GB’s astounding momentum at the Rio Games shows no sign of slowing down, with the team winning nine gold medals on the seventh day of the competition.
Dame Sarah Storey delivered the first gold of the day in the C5 road time-trial on Wednesday morning, officially taking the team beyond the 34 gold medals won during London 2012.
Further stellar performances, including a victory for Hannah Russell in the S12 100m backstroke, also helped Paralympics GB finish the day with 43 gold medals – bettering the bounty of 42 golds won in Beijing.
Such dizzying heights have not been reached since the Seoul Paralympics in 1988, when Great Britain won 64 golds.
Storey, now Great Britain’s most successful female Paralympian, said the “buzz around the camp was brilliant” – and eight medals at the Aquatics Centre within 60 minutes added to the celebratory atmosphere.
“We’re not just good at swimming, athletics and cycling … We’ve got so many sports we’re really, really good at and it’s exciting,” she said.
There are still another four full days of competition ahead, with guaranteed medals in the wheelchair tennis for Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett – playing together in the doubles final and head-to-head in the singles.
Other Paralympians making their way into the history books include Kadeena Cox, who has become the first Briton in 32 years to win gold medals in two sports at one Games.
It has not always been straightforward for Cockroft though, as she suffered a mishap with her racing chair ahead of an event.
“We took the chair back on the bus – I’ve been doing some training in the village – and unfortunately the bus driver fell over it.
“He bent my forks and my wheel, the wrong way, so I would have gone the wrong way round the track.”
Thankfully for her – and for Paralympics GB’s gold medal tally – the chair was repaired.
When 24 silver medals and 28 bronze medals are included, Paralympics GB now has 95 medals, leaving them in second place and streets ahead of Ukraine and the US.
China tops the table with 75 golds and 172 medals in all.
