Tokyo Paralympics – Day 3: GB gold in cycling and swimming

ParalympicsGB had another successful day in Tokyo, winning nine medals and golds in both cycling and swimming.

It was, in particular, a brilliant day for Kadeena Cox, who set a new world record in the C4-5 500m time trial. She had previously won both cycling and athletics gold at the Rio 2016 Games, and was looking to retain her title in Tokyo. She had to surpass the time of 35.830 set by the Canadian world champion Kate O’Brien, something she managed comfortably in a world-record time of 34.812 to take another gold. In other cycling news, Jaco van Gass was unable to add to his day two gold, finishing in 1:05.569 in the men’s C1-3 1,000m time trial to take bronze.

GB had another brilliant day in the pool, as both Hannah Russell and Reece Dunn won gold. In the S12 100m backstroke title, Russell held off the RPC’s Daria Pikalovs to retain the title with a time of 1:08.44, while Brazil’s Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago won bronze. Dunn recovered from a silver-medal finish in the S14 butterfly on day two to take his first Paralympic gold in the S14 200m freestyle, beating his own world record with a time of 1:52.40. Bethany Firth took silver in the S14 200m, although she lost her crown to the RPC’s Valeriia Shabalina, and Stephen Clegg won bronze in the men’s S12 100m backstroke.

Natasha Baker won GB’s fourth Para-equestrian medal of the Tokyo Games, taking silver in the Grade III individual test on Keystone Dawn Chorus – they scored 76.265%, while the gold went to Denmark’s Tobias Jorgensen on Jolene Hill with 78.971%. ParalympicsGB also claimed a number of bronzes – Piers Gilliver, Dimitra Coutya and Oliver Lam-Watson won the medal for the men’s wheelchair fencing team epee, as did Maria Lyle in the women’s T35 100m and Olivia Broome in the women’s -50kg powerlifting.

In the table tennis, Tom Matthews (class 1), Jack Hunter-Spivey (class 5) and Paul Karabardak (class 6) are all guaranteed medals after reaching the semi-finals, while the wheelchair rugby team set up a semi-final match with Japan after losing 50-48 to the USA. Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley set a Paralympic best to reach Sunday’s final of the PR2 mixed double sculls, while Jess Stretton set a Paralympic record and topped the ranking in qualifying for the women’s compound open archery event. However, six-time gold medallist David Weir failed to qualify for the T54 5,000m final.

The USA’s Lex Gillette fell short in his quest to win a T11 long jump gold, finishing with his fifth successive silver. The blind long jumper managed a personal best of 6.17m, but was beaten to the gold by China’s Dongdong di. Poland’s Marcin Polak has been provisionally suspended by the International Cycling Union after testing positive for a banned blood booster – he will be unable to compete in the B 1,000m time trial and upcoming road events, and it is possible he may be stripped of the bronze he won in Wednesday’s B 4,000m individual pursuit.

Medal table:

1. China

Gold (20), Silver (11), Bronze (14), Total (45)

2. Great Britain

Gold (9), Silver (10), Bronze (9), Total (28)

3. Russian Paralympic Committee

Gold (9), Silver (7), Bronze (10), Total (26)

4. Australia

Gold (7), Silver (4), Bronze (8), Total (19)

5. USA

Gold (6), Silver (5), Bronze (1), Total (12)