Paralympic GB’s Kadeena Cox has dedicated her Tokyo 2020 gold medal to her grandad.
The 30-year-old smashed the world record as she stormed to victory in the C4-5 time trial, retaining her title from Rio 2016 in the process.
She finished ahead of Canadian Kate O’Brien and Dutch athlete Caroline Groot.
Cox paid tribute to her grandfather in an emotional interview post-race and thanked her family for all their unwavering support.
“I got a lot of messages from my family before. My grandad has been in and out of hospital, and this one is for him. I just love him," she told Channel 4.
“I tried not to cry on the podium, I tried to enjoy this moment. I did enjoy Rio but was trying to go well that I didn’t really, it’s a bit overwhelming.”
She added: "I knew I was going to have to do something special, and that if I put everything together that me and my coach had worked on, it would be amazing," she said.
"I executed a race that was near-perfect - I'm so happy."
She added: “Do everything you want to do. If you don’t see someone, you don’t think you can be it. People can see me and go on and do better than me.”
After having a stroke in 2014, track and cyclist athlete was then diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had to rebuild her sporting career.
She has done that in style and Cox has now claimed her third Paralympic gold medal after claiming victory in both cycling and athletics events at the Rio Games in 2016.
Since becoming the first Briton to win two golds in different sports at the same Paralympic Games in 28 years in Rio, Cox has overcome several injuries as well as issues with what she referred to as "disordered eating".
Her latest challenge has been dealing with the sweltering conditions in Tokyo and being intolerant to the heat makes it even tougher for Paralympic champ.
"I'm heat intolerant and it is tricky out here, it has affected my muscle spasms and my speech”, she said.
"It's a little bit of a struggle and it will take me a bit longer to recover, which hopefully isn't too long because I've got another race tomorrow."
She will go for glory again in Saturday's team sprint alongside Van Gass and Jody Cundy before switching to athletics and aiming to retain her T38 400m title next Saturday.
