Another athlete catching attention for crossover potential is Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka, who ran the 1,500m in the T3 category for impaired vision, winning with a time of 3:48.29 that would also have given him Olympic gold. The best at Beijing in 2008 was 19 and the best at London 2012 was 18.
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China is on the top of the medal count table with 92 medals (39 golds, 30 silvers, 23 bronzes).
“I had a little cry after, I had another little cry when they put the medal round my neck”, said Grinham.
Rachel Morris won Britain’s first gold of the day – and first of four medals from four rowing finals, three of them gold.
When one can respect and gratitude being woman, she won!
“I don’t think I can sum up the emotions”, said Whiteley, who only partnered with Rowles in 2015 after a two-and-a-half-year search. This is what you dream of. “This is a coming together… of eight years of hard graft”.
The 33-year-old had his lower leg amputated 11 years ago after a motorbike accident when he was 16.
“Irrespective of the complicated situation, I believe that the Paralympic committee of Russian Federation needs to restore dialogue with the IPC”, he says.
I agree that “people who compare her to (Joseph) Schooling are missing the point”.
Henson’s bronze followed a significant gold for RAF weapons technician turned cyclist Jon-Allan Butterworth. It added another gold medal to Cundy’s win in the C4-5 1km time trial on Friday, putting to bed his bitter experience in the 2012 London Games when he was disqualified due to an issue with the start gate. “I’m just happy that I could come from Egypt to be here at the Paralympics and to play against a champion”, he told AFP. “By the time Tokyo 2020 comes along I might not even be in a position to take part in one event”. “I’m just in shock, I’m Paralympic, world and European champion and perhaps I’ll have my first beer in two years now”.
As we all await for the opening of the Rio 2016 Paralympic games, many people viewing might not know how this multi-disability multi-sport mega event has evolved from one-man’s vision to use sport as a vehicle for rehabilitation to the worldwide spectacle that it is today. They were two of seven medals in the pool on Sunday.
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This aim was boosted in the evening session by another three golds as swimmer Bethany Firth won the women’s 200m freestyle S14 final, Richard Whitehead defended his 200m T42 crown and Jo Butterfield took the F51 club throw.
