
Britain's Golden Paralympic HeroesThere were more medals for the British Paralympians in Beijing on the final day of competition at the Laoshan Velodrome as Anthony Kappes/Barney Storey, Sarah Storey and the Team Sprint trio of Jody Cundy, Mark Bristow and Darren Kenny made it 12 Golds and 1 Silver, the greatest ever medal haul from any international event Men's Tandem Sprint In 200m TT Qualification for the Men's Tandem Sprint saw British pair Anthony Kappes and Barney Storey, who earlier in the games claimed the Gold Medal in the Tandem Kilo, set a new Paralympic record of 10.536s which was enough to see them top the times, 0.093s faster than Aussie's Ben Demery and Shaun HopkinsIn the Quarter Finals Kappes and Storey made easy work of Lujan Nattkemper and Juan Ferrari of Argentina, progressing to the Semis in straight heats, with arch rivals Demery/Hopkins handing out a similar punishment to Carlos Arciniegas and Juan Carreno of Columbia In the Semi Finals Demery and Hopkins beat their South African rivals Gavin Kilpatrick and Michael Thomson, after taking heat one they lost heat two only for the commissaires to reverse the decision, allowing the Australian pairing to reach the Gold medal ride-off In the other Semi, Kappes and Storey faced Japan's Tatsuyuki Oshiro and Hitoshi Takahashi who qualified in a 200m TT time of 10.842s, so on paper the British duo were the favourites and they easily lived up to this billing, making winning in straight heats look effortless In the final the Aussies were no match for the Brits and Kappes (Yasumitsu Schlapp) and Storey hammered home their dominance in the Tandem events by again winning in straight heats to become double Paralympic Champions Speaking to the BBC after the win, Storey said: "With all the medals being won in the team it just gets you going more and more. Kappes added, ""We crashed three weeks ago and that really hindered our progress. As a result we concentrated on the kilo and the sprint fell by the wayside a little bit. This morning's race felt like we were blowing the cobwebs away. The last couple of laps really hurt, but that's racing." South African's Gavin Kilpatrick and Michael Thomson took the Bronze medal from the Japanese pairing Results 1. Anthony Kappes/Barney Storey (Great Britain) 2. Ben Demery/Shaun Hopkins (Australia) 3. Gavin Kilpatrick/Michael Thomson (South Africa) Women's Pursuit - LC1-4, CP3/4 Britain's Sarah Storey put the disappointment of the 500m TT behind her in the Women's LC1-2, CP4 Pursuit when she produced a World Record time of 3m 36.637s to win Gold in emphatic style!Qualification saw CP4 cyclist Jennifer Schuble of the USA top the standings despite only clocking a time of 4m 01.243s, however the time was rounded down to 3m 35.514s due to a percentage factor aimed at giving all riders an equal chance in this mixed classification event Storey (nee Bailey) was second fastest but she had set a World Record of 3m 40.492s on her own merit, without a percentage factor In order to win Gold in the final, Storey had to again produce a time similar to her Qualification World Record and hope that Schuble didn't complete the 3km distance in less than four minutes Against all expectations Sarah produced the ride of her life, smashing her own World Record by a massive four seconds to set an amazing time of 3m 36.637s, but she then had an anagonising wait as Schuble completed her Finals ride, and to the delight of Storey the American did a time of 4m 02.758s which was rounded down to 3m 36.867s giving the former Paralympic Swimming Champion her first Paralympic cycling title by 0.2s!! Speaking to the BBC after her historic win, Sarah said "I can't quite believe I've gone 3:36. That would have got me a top eight place at the Olympics. The fact that a Paralympian can finish in that sort of time and that sort of position is amazing. I can't remember much about the race except my legs are hurting." Results 1. Sarah Storey (Great Britain - LC1) - 3m 36.637s 2. Jennifer Schuble (USA - CP4) - 4m 02.758s (3m 36.867s) 3. Jingping Dong (China - LC2) - 4m 14.103s (3m 49.754s) In the LC3-4/CP3 Pursuit Barbara Buchan (CP3) of the USA took the Gold medal in 4m 33.459s (4m 15.848s), beating Natalie Simanowski (LC3) of Germany, who recorded a time of 4m 19.396s. Bronze went to Paula Tesoriero of New ZealandResults 1. Barbara Buchan (USA - CP3) - 4m 33.459s (4m 15.848s) 2. Natalie Simanowski (Germany - LC3) - 4m 19.396s 3. Paula Tesoriero (New Zealand - LC3) - 4m 26.080s Men's Team Sprint - LC1-4, CP3/4 It was yet another Gold for Gb in the Team Sprint as Jody Cundy, Mark Bristow and Darren Kenny stormed round the Laoshan Velodrome in 49.323s to become Paralympic ChampionsIt was almost a forgone conclusion that the GB trio, all of whom have already won individual Golds at the games would win Gold after their Qualifying round saw them produce a time of 49.561s that was two seconds faster than second placed China who clocked 51.233s In the final the Chinese were simply no match to the British team, who went 0.2s quicker than in qualification to easily take the Gold medal with Bronze going to the Czech Republic Results 1. Great Britain (Jody Cundy (LC2), Mark Bristow (LC1), Darren Kenny (CP3)) - 49.323s 2. China (Kuidong Zhang (LC1), Lu Zhang (LC3), Yuanchao Zheng (LC2)) - 50.480s 3. Czech Republic (Jiri Bouska (CP4), Jiri Jezek (LC2), Tomas Kvasnicka (CP3)) - 52.379s
|