The Arizona native suffered severe hip injuries in Iraq in 2010 when 19 that left her with no feeling in her left leg.
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Hayes will be competing in two events – Athletics Women’s 100m & 400m (T13) – in Rio. “She’s done awesome things here so to have her on the team is incredible”, she told Sports Mole.
Paul, 25, took gold in 1min 04.86sec to win his second Paralympic gold medal after doing the same at Beijing 2008. This year marks her fifth Paralympic appearance. It’s going to be weird to go back to school as a Paralympic champion.
She is now on a collision course with her rival in Saturday’s 50m freestyle – and she admits it’s a struggle to take it all in.
“I didn’t come down as quickly as I wanted to – I was on a high”, she added. I can’t see when I am swimming. We always knew we wanted to go out comfortable, go out steady. “Nothing makes me happier than breaking my ownrecord”, Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted him as saying.
She represented England in wheelchair athletics at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow before switching to rowing. Even if I had been as quick as London I would still be fourth. My Invictus brother and sisters are in my mind all the time.
“It’s hard because I think I was quite ignorant of it at the time”, he said.
“This is the best reply to my friends and family because for a long time they have been trying to convince me not to race, to retire, but this gold shows that I was right”.
“I think I will keep this one for the moment”.
“The pressure was just sky high coming into this”, she said. When I swim it is very physically painful. Obviously the times were a lot slower then.
“What just happened?” a disbelieving Lewis said after the race.
“I cried myself to sleep after the 400m disappointment but I knew I had to pull it together… it’s just so wonderful to stand on top of the world again.it was so close”, Langenhoven added.
“It’s been a tougher journey than I thought, but I’ve had incredible support”.
Zou Liankang set a new world record to win gold in the men’s 100m backstroke S2.
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Blake Cochrane took silver in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB7 event, Deon Kenzie won silver in the men’s 1,500m T38 final, as did Amanda Reid (C1-2-3 500m time trial), Kyle Bridgwood (men’s C4 4,000m individual pursuit) and Alistair Donohoe (men’s C5 4,000m individual pursuit) in track cycling.
