Paralympic medals make distinctive rattle noises so blind athletes know whether they have won gold, silver or bronze.
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SOPHIE Christiansen believes her meticulous attention to detail paid off after claiming dressage Ia gold at the Paralympic Games in Rio. China now have 93 golds thanks to the nine the country picked up on Friday to go along with 74 silver and 49 bronze and first place in the medal table. The Wimbledon singles champion capped a superb year by beating his training and doubles partner Alfie Hewett 6-2, 6-1 in the wheelchair singles final.
“As they planted their final halt, the crowd waved, before the cheers erupted after a score of 79.700% was given, meaning a British one-two for the second day running, with Sophie taking the Gold and Anne (Dunham) the Silver”. Table tennis gold for Will Bayley, Aaron McKibbin and Ross Wilson saw Britain’s total rise to 119 before Cockroft and Adenegan registered the ones that mattered.
When 24 silver medals and 28 bronze medals are included, Paralympics GB now has 95 medals, leaving them streets ahead of Ukraine and the US.
Paralympics GB has a total of 58 gold medals from Rio 2016.
“I was still questioning if I was worthy to be there heading in”, she said.
In April, Hussein was chosen for the refugee team, which follows a similar gesture made for the first time for the Rio Olympics last month. Britain won gold medals in seven sports at London 2012; it is 11 here.
“As you get older it can be hard to have the same enthusiasm going into a race”, she said. “I was feeling calm, not thinking, ‘Oh, I need to get a medal.’ I wasn’t feeling the pressure and that’s why I was very good”.
After the freestyle gold Sophie said: “It’s awesome, I’m so proud of all my team, I’m just thrilled. All my previous Games experiences have really contributed so much to me as a person and I’m immensely proud to have seen the sport grow over that time”.
“I felt like I was in a dream”, the 21-year-old said after the race.
The veteran of three Paralympic Games, who lost her right leg to cancer when aged just two, endured a disrupted lead-in to Rio that included surgery on each shoulder and a change in coach to Nathan Doyle.
All five British athletes will compete again today in the individual Freestyle tests, when they’ll have the opportunity to add to Great Britain’s medal haul.
He had to be content with third in Rio as David Blair of the United States won with a world record throw of 64.11 metres.
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Walker’s triumph in the W1 individual event was Britain’s 57th gold, 23 more than in London. “To be Paralympic champion is incredible”.
