Great Britain passed the half century of gold medals at the Paralympic Games on Friday – the first time since 1988 they have achieved that feat as the team streaked away from the 2012 haul.
Paul Blake’s victory in the T36 400m marked the 50th of the Games, with a total of 109 medals. That figure is still some way short of the record set at the 1984 Paralympics, when GB won 107 golds, and the 65 won in Seoul in 1988 then .
Blake told Channel 4: “I’m lost for words. In 2012 I was fortunate enough to get silver and bronze but I’ve finally done it and got gold and all the hard work has paid off. It’s not the ideal lane running from lane eight but I just got on with it.
“I was aware we were on 49 gold medals, it’s incredible for us to get so many gold medals and for me to help out with that tally is great.
“It feels incredible – I’ve worked so hard to get where I am now. Coming out of London, I wanted to go one better. I’m still lost for words and it just hasn’t sunk in. I’m sure it will later on or maybe after the 800m.”
Blake won in 54.49 seconds. He claimed 400m silver and 800m bronze at London 2012. His father, also called Paul, is an actor who played the bounty hunter Greedo in Star Wars, while his mother Kate was a dancer with the Royal Ballet.
The 26-year-old from Dorchester benefited from the absence of London 2012 Paralympic champion Evgenii Shvetsov, who beat him at last year’s world championships in Doha and is the world-record holder.
The Russia team is banned from the Rio Paralympics for state‑sponsored doping – a scenario that part explains Britain’s extraordinary medal collection.
Blake kept his cool as Poland’s Krzysztof Ciuksza drew level on the second bend before the Briton accelerated away. Roman Pavlyk of Ukraine was second in 55.67 and William Stedman of New Zealand third in 55.69. Ciuksza was fourth.
Blake, who has cerebral palsy, competes again over 800m on Saturday, where two other Russian rivals are absent, although he did beat Artem Arefyev and Andrey Zhirnov to take world gold in Qatar last October.
“I’m coming away from the world championships in Doha as the gold medallist but this is the Paralympic Games so anything can happen,” he said. “I’m just going to rest up now and then bring on the 800m tomorrow.”
Shvetsov also won gold over two laps at London 2012, when Arfeyev was second with Blake in third, and another Russian, Pavel Kharagezov, was fourth. Later on Friday David Smith beat Holland’s Daniel Perez 5-0 in the boccia mixed individual BC1 final to win GB’s 51st gold. And there was still time for Lee Pearson to win his 11th Paralympic title as the gold medal tally climbed to 52 – 18 more than in London. Britain’s flag bearer and his horse Zion finished with a total of 77.400% in the grade Ib individual freestyle equestrian event.
