Tokyo Paralympics – Day 6: eight medals for ParalympicsGB
ParalympicsGB added three more golds to its medal count on day six of Tokyo 2020, in a showing that saw Paralympic stalwarts Sir Lee Pearson and Jonnie Peacock both expand their personal medal collection.
Pearson picked up his third gold of the Tokyo Games in the individual freestyle (grade II) event, and his 14th Paralympic gold medal overall – he is Britain’s third most successful Paralympian behind Mike Kenny and Sarah Storey. On his horse Breezer, he won comfortably with a score of 82.447%, ahead of silver medallist Pepo Puch of Austria on Sailor’s Blue with 81.007%. Compatriot Georgia Wilson won bronze on Sakura with 76.754%, her second bronze of the Tokyo Games. In the grade III event, Natasha Baker won silver – her third medal of Tokyo 2020 – behind Denmark’s Tobias Thorning Jorgensen.
On her debut, Phoebe Paterson Pine won gold in the women’s individual compound archery. In the second round, she defeated the defending champion, world number one and compatriot Less Stretton, and then she took her friend’s crown with a 134-133 win over Chile’s Mariana Zuniga Varela in the final. After the win, Paterson Pine said: “I still almost feel I’m living in a dream and it won’t settle until I’m with family or looking at the aftermath on my phone.”
On the track, wheelchair racer Andrew Small won T33 100m gold, finishing in a time of 17.73 ahead of defending champion Ahmad Almutairi of Kuwait by just a tenth of a second. He had previously won bronze in the event at Rio 2016 – this time, the third-place medal went to compatriot Harri Jenkins, with a season-best time of 18.55, while GB’s James Freeman came fourth.
Two-time Paralympic sprint champion Jonnie Peacock hoped to add a third men’s 100m sprint medal – the win ultimately went to Germany’s Felix Streng with a time of 10.76, while Sherman Isidro Guity Guity took the silver and won Costa Rica’s first Paralympic medal in the process. It was Peacock who made the headlines, however, with an incredible photo finish – he and Germany’s Johannes Floors were both judged to have crossed the finish line in 10.786, and it was determined that they’d share the bronze.
In the women’s -86kg powerlifting, Louise Sugden secured a bronze and GB’s third medal in the sport of Tokyo. It is her first Paralympics as a powerlifter – she previously played wheelchair basketball at Beijinh 2008 and London 2012 – and she claimed the medal with a best lift of 131kg. Her bronze echoed third-place finishes for Micky Yule and Olivia Broome earlier in the Hames.
Both David Weir and Daniel Sidbury qualified for the men’s T54 1,500m final, and the men’s wheelchair basketball team finished top of group after a 70-69 victory over Australia. Aflie Hewett and Gordon Reid advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals and the doubles semi-finals, while Jordanne Whiley is through to the women’s singles quarter-finals. There was some disappointment in the pool – Ellie Robinson finished fifth and was unable to defend her women’s S6 50m butterfly title, while ten-time Paralympic medallist Stephanie Millward finished ninth in the women’s S9 100m backstroke.
Francisca Mardones Sepulveda became the first Chilean woman to win a Paralympic medal with a F54 shot put gold, breaking her own world record with a throw of 8.33m in the process. Dinesh Priyantha Herath Mudiyanselage smashed the world record in the men’s F46 javelin by nearly four metres, winning Sri Lanka’s first Paralympic title in athletes, while China’s Zheng Tao set a new world record of 31.42 in the men’s S5 50m backstroke final.
Medal table:
- China
Gold (54), Silver (35), Bronze (30), Total (119)
- Great Britain
Gold (26), Silver (20), Bronze (22), Total (68)
- Russian Paralympic Committee
Gold (19), Silver (11), Bronze (31), Total (61)
- USA
Gold (18), Silver (19), Bronze (12), Total (49)
- Ukraine
Gold (12), Silver (27), Bronze (15), Total (54)
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