It had to be her. The organisers had the right idea, scheduling the C5 time trial for an early morning start in Pontal, and Dame Sarah Storey did the rest. Great Britain’s most decorated female Paralympian of all time is not in the disappointment business and she was never going to let herself or the team down, not when there was a chance to lift ParalympicsGB clear of their tally of 34 gold medals in London four years ago.
Storey’s second gold of these Games was Britain’s 35th in Rio and her first since she surpassed Tanni Grey-Thompson’s record of 11 gold medals with victory in the C5 3,000m individual pursuit last week. For all the 38-year-old’s enduring excellence, however, her ominous start on the road was merely the first of nine golds on a day when ParalympicsGB edged closer to the ultimate goal of breaking their record of 120 medals at London 2012.
Mission 121 is almost complete with four days of competition left and as Storey celebrated for the 13th time since making her Paralympic debut as a swimmer in Barcelona 24 years ago, it hit home that standing still was not an option.
The accumulation of gold medals continued at such lightning speed that Hannah Russell’s world-record triumph in the S12 100m backstroke even meant that ParalympicsGB surpassed their tally of 42 in Beijing eight years ago.
The visually impaired 20-year-old came home in 1min 6.06sec. “I’ve always dreamed about standing on top of the podium,” she said.
After dominating the track cycling in the Velodrome, winning eight gold medals, Britain were equally imperious on the road. Steve Bate, who is visually impaired, won his second gold in the B time trial. Bate and his guide, Adam Duggleby, finished in 34:35.33.
Karen Darke, who was paralysed in a climbing accident at the age of 21, won the H1-3 time trial. A silver medallist in London, it was the 45-year-old’s first Paralympic gold medal.
“I felt my ride was going really badly,” she said. “My power just wasn’t there and my chain fell off, meaning I lost a few seconds so I thought that was it. I just had to stop, put the chain back on and dig in, but I didn’t think it was going very well. But in the last turns, I could see I was slightly ahead.”
Kadeena Cox and Hannah Cockroft were victorious in the Olympic Stadium and Sophie Wells held her nerve on Valerius to secure individual (IV) dressage gold. Her score of 74.857 at the Olympic Equestrian Centre was half a point better than Belgium’s Michele George.
“I’ve been crying a lot,” Wells, who hides her allergy to horses well, said. “It feels pretty good. My aim was individual gold in London and that got away from me. When you’ve not got something, you want it even more and work so hard for it. He’s such a talented horse, he knew what he had to do and I’m really proud of him.”
The British Paralympic Association has taken to Brazil a seriously talented squad comprising 264 athletes. Britain are second in the standings and have pocketed 13 golds in the Aquatics Centre following wins for Michael Jones in the S7 400m freestyle and Aaron Moores in the SB14 100m breaststroke respectively.
“The buzz around the camp is brilliant and to see the strength and depth across the sports – it’s the depth of sports that we’re good at,” Storey said. “It’s not just swimming, athletics and cycling, we’re good at paratriathlon and hopefully canoeing. We have triathlon and canoe, which we didn’t have in London. Even if you take out the one triathlon gold, we are still the same as London. It’s superb.”
Storey, who revealed that she would like to assist Lizzie Armitstead in the defence of her road race world title next year, is staying with her husband Barney and her young daughter Louisa.“With a young family it’s been really beneficial just to be a mum as well, not to be in the village full-time,” she said. “Just to keep that normality. To suddenly change something would have been detrimental. It’s really worked well.
“I don’t go back to my room and worry about stuff. I get to do toddler stuff. It’s about having the confidence and the right support network. Barney is full‑time support to both of us. He’s a super-domestique if ever there was one.”
Storey, who is likely to complete a hat‑trick in the road race on Saturday, finished over a minute and a half clear of the competition, completing the 20km course in 27:22.42. Poland’s Anna Harkowska took silver and the USA’s Samantha Bosco knocked Britain’s Crystal Lane into fourth place. “This is brilliant to go over the total,” Storey said. “It’s so cool.”
