Tokyo Paralympics – Day 4: super Saturday for ParalympicsGB
It truly was a ‘super Saturday’ for ParalympicsGB at the Tokyo Games, with the team winning seven golds overall and truly cementing their second place in the medal table.
On the final day of cycling, ParalympicsGB racked up the gold medals – in a particularly nice pair of results, husband and wife Neil and Lora Fachie both won gold within the space of 16 minutes. They experienced mixed results at London 2012 and Rio 2016, but they both took home the gold this time. In the B 1,000m time trial, Neil Fachie and pilot Matt Rotherham finished in 58.038, smashed their own world record and beating compatriots James Ball and Lewis Stewart in the process. Shortly afterwards, in the B 3,000m pursuit, Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall retained their crown – they qualified fastest for the final, setting a new world record in process, and finished comfortably ahead of Ireland’s Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal. The British team of Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl won bronze.
In the final track cycling event of Games, the mixed team sprint, Kadeena Cox and Jaco van Gass won their second golds of Tokyo 2020, while Jody Cundy claimed his seventh Paralympic gold. The team came second-fastest in the decider, facing off against a team from China, and it was a battle for the win. Cox’s opening lap provided a narrow advantage, and van Gass and Cundy kept it up to win gold by 0.106.
In the pool, Maisie Summers-Newton won her second Tokyo gold with victory in the SB6 100m breaststroke, where she faced close competition from China’s world record holder Liu Daomin – however, her time of 1:32.34 was enough to clinch the win. In the first-ever staging of the S14 mixed 4x100m freestyle, Reece Dunn, Bethany Firth, Jessica-Jane Applegate and Jordan Catchpole won gold for GB, finishing more than five seconds ahead of silver medallists Australia. Grace Harvey was fastest in qualifying for the SB5 100m breaststroke, but she was unable to contend with Ukraine’s Yelyzaveta Mereshko and ultimately won silver.
ParalympicsGB had a double success in the T38 100m – Sophie Hahn defended her title, defeating nearest rival Darian Faisury Jimenez Sanchez of Colombia, with a time of 12:43 and continuing her unbeaten run in the event since 2014. In the men’s event, Thomas Young won after a photo finish, crossing the finish line in a personal best of 10.94 – 0.06 ahead of Chinese sprinter Zhu Dening.
In the wheelchair rugby, the British team reached their first Paralympic final after beating Japan 55-49, where they will face the USA. Table tennis class 7 champion Will Bayley has reached Sunday’s final, where he is guaranteed at least a silver, while Tom Matthews (class 1), Jack Hunter-Spivey (class 5) and Paul Karabardak (class 6) all took bronze after losing their semi-finals. There were also bronzes for Mickey Yule in the powerlifting -72kg and a third Tokyo medal for Dimitri Coutya in the foil B fencing.
Lisa Adams of New Zealand won gold in the shot put, with a throw of 15.12m in the F37 event taking the medal. The USA’s Brad Snyder won gold in the men’s PTVI triathlon, while Italy’s Bebe Vio retained her foil B title.
Medal table:
- China
Gold (30), Silver (21), Bronze (26), Total (77)
- Great Britain
Gold (16), Silver (12), Bronze (15), Total (43)
- Russian Paralympic Committee
Gold (13), Silver (7), Bronze (20), Total (40)
- USA
Gold (11), Silver (7), Bronze (4), Total (22)
- Ukraine
Gold (8), Silver (17), Bronze (9), Total (34)
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