Of the 366 athletes who went to the Rio Games for Team GB a total of 130 – more than a third – came home with a medal. Wimbledon champion Reid inflicted a 6-1 6-2 defeat in 54 minutes on his less experienced team-mate to emulate fellow Scot Andy Murray and win on Centre Court on the Rio Olympic Park.
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“I’ve run out of tears”, said Natasha.
Cyclist Carol Cooke won the time-trial gold two days ago and overnight she added another gold to her medal haul, winning the women’s T1-2 road race.
Blake is one of several British athletes to have benefited from the absence of Russian Federation, with the country completely banned from the Paralympics after evidence of state sponsored doping across all sport emerged.
It was a cloudy and blustery day nine of the Rio 2016 Paralympics, where 59 gold medals were won in events including women’s wheelchair basketball, men’s wheelchair tennis singles and athletics.
“In 2012 I was fortunate enough to get a silver and a bronze and I’ve finally done it (claimed gold)”.
She already had two silvers and a bronze under her belt, plus a gold with the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team from the night before.
Blake, running from lane eight, kept his cool as Poland’s Krzysztof Ciuksza drew level on the second bend before the Briton burst over the live ahead of Ukraine’s Roman Pavlyk and William Stedman of New Zealand third in 55.69.
Christiansen, who now has eight Paralympic titles, might not be able to take a break just yet. “I’m just gutted we didn’t qualify”, said Chiassaro.
Baker joked she felt sorry for Britain’s rivals after a haul of 11 medals across the equestrian competition.
“It’s really made me find that passion for sport again, because I personally have invested so much these last few years, as well as him”, Cole said. “They know I work too hard”.
“I was still questioning if I was worthy to be there heading in”, she said. “We’ve spent so much time training together and I think that was the factor that brought us together”.
Also on Friday, Iranian sportsman Hamed Amiri took part in the men’s shot put F54/55 category contests at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, also known as Nilton Santos Stadium, and collected a silver medal with a throw of 11.40.
Zhang also claimed gold in the 200m freestyle S5 and 50m freestyle S5 in Rio.
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The 42-year-old from Welwyn Garden City was inspired to get into archery by watching American Matt Stutzman competing at London 2012.
