Great Britain’s rowers led the way on a golden start to day four at the Rio Paralympics, which featured a momentous success for Jon-Allan Butterworth, who was injured while serving in Iraq.
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“Para-triathlon is a great addition to the Paralympics and it brings tears to my eyes that I’ll be able to tell my kids that I won this gold medal”.
Britain were second in the standings with 12 gold medals and Ukraine were third with seven.
Should Cox win a medal at the velodrome she will become the first Briton since Isabel Barr in 1988 to win Paralympic medals in two sports at the same games.
Understandably, Cox admitted that she was exhausted from her historic double after her record-breaking time trial.
ParalympicsGB have roared into second place in the medals table after winning a flurry of events on day two of the Rio Paralympics.
“I could not sleep all night yesterday, but I knew I could get a medal and I did”, she said.
The 25-year-old was forced to overcome a late reclassification that put her place at the Games in jeopardy, but still managed to finish third behind teammate Sophie Hahn and home favourite Veronica Hipolito. They will compete in athletics, swimming and powerlifting.
In shooting, China’s Yang Chao dominates in the men’s 10-meter air pistol, SH-1 category. I just can’t stop laughing and crying. Uzbekistan’s Server Ibragimov claimed bronze with 172.1 points.
It also featured his Paralympic achievements in three Games as a swimmer and two prior Games as a cyclist. “I got a lot of conditioning from athletics but rowing taught me why I love sport and why I especially love rowing”.
“I felt ready to go for it‚ but when I got behind the block my legs did not agree‚ they went numb‚ and nerves and the shock hit me like a brick wall”.
Born into a poor farmer’s family, he migrated to Ho Chi Minh City as a 19-year-old with just VND1 million (US$45) in his pocket and a few clothes.
He attributed his coolness and pressure to a combination of natural talent and training.
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“Then I had people in the village, in the food hall, even in the track centre, saying “I can’t wait to watch you race”, “I can’t wait to watch you do what you said you were going to do four years ago”.
