Great Britain’s Paralympians snared 21 medals on day four, eight of them gold, on Super Sunday in Rio.
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Bethany Firth added a second gold medal to her collection in Rio as she won the S14 200m Freestyle at the Paralympics.
Jody Cundy, Jon-Allan Butterworth and Louis Rolfe’s golden effort came after Lora Turnham and Corrine Hall won the women’s tandem B 3km pursuit. Jason Smyth from Eglinton retained his T13 100m title in Team Ireland colours on Friday and the Northern Ireland gold medal total is now four. “I know those were a home Games but to be on the top step, you can’t beat that feeling and that’s the first time I have done it at a Paralympic Games”.
Rachel Morris, who made the transition from cycling to rowing after London 2012, was Britain’s first medal victor of day four.
Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley next won the double sculls and the mixed coxed four team of Pamela Relph, James Fox, Daniel Brown and Grace Clough, plus cox Oliver James, were victorious, too.
A little earlier, swimmer Bethany Firth won gold in the S14 200m freestyle – hours after Paralympics GB gained two golds on the cycling track and three in the rowing.
Neil Fachie and his pilot Peter Mitchell had to settle for silver in the tandem one-kilometre time-trial.
That left Firth, 20, 1.99 seconds ahead of second-fastest qualifier, her GB team-mate Jessica-Jane Applegate.
Elsewhere on the day, Alison Patrick with her guide Hazel Smith, won a silver in the PT5 para-triathlon and Melissa Reid, together with guide Nicole Walters, took bronze in the same event.
The 26-year-old from Ballymena, who has cerebral palsy, claimed his fourth Paralympic gold medal after one win in Beijing and two four years ago in London.
Richard Whitehead surged to a successful defence of the T42 200 metres title he won at London 2012 before Joanna Butterfield won the F51 club throw.
“I had to stay focused and realise what life is about, it’s not just about winning gold medals, it’s about living and being proud to live the life that I have, and I’m lucky”.
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Meanwhile, Will Bayley has guaranteed himself a medal in the Class 7 table tennis by getting through to tomorrow’s final.
