Paralympics glory for British athletes as the Games reach their climax in the Japanese capital

Hannah Cockroft and Kare Adenegan finished one-two in the women’s T34 800m on Saturday (Sept 4) at the Paralympics while Aled Davies earned his third consecutive gold at the Games with victory in the men’s F63 shot put.

It means British para-athletes in Tokyo have now won nine gold medals in the past week.

Wheelchair racer Cockroft took her seventh Paralympics title in total as she clocked 1:48.99 for the two-lap race to follow the gold she won earlier in the week at 100m.

“To be so close to the world record is gutting, but I am so happy to win the gold,” said Cockroft, who was only 12 hundredths of a second away from beating her own world record.

“I had a little accident in warm-up which I wasn’t sure if it would affect my chance, but it didn’t, I got a good start and I got around well.

“I knew it was my race to lose. I’ve gone a lot quicker than the other girls this year. I made a couple of mistakes but it’s all about the medal at the end of the day, not about the time,” she added.

Hurricane Hannah storms to victory again! ?@HCDream2012 takes Gold in the Women's 800m T34 to become Double Paralympic champion! ?

It's a double podium for @Paralympicsgb with @AdeneganK taking Silver ?#Tokyo2020 #Paralympics pic.twitter.com/hPz2zw7DYd

— C4 Paralympics (@C4Paralympics) September 4, 2021

“To go that close to the world record on a wet day, I’m not complaining.”

Runner-up Adenegan clocked a PB of 1:59.85 to take her second silver in Tokyo.

She said: “I focused very much on my own race plan. I know my start is my strength so I have to get away very fast to create a gap, so I’m really pleased that it paid off. I achieved what I set out to achieve so I’m really proud of myself. It’s been a tough couple of years so I’m really pleased with how I performed.”

Alexa Halko of the United States took bronze with Britain’s Fabienne Andre fourth in a PB of 2:09.09.

Shot put gold for Davies

Davies threw 15.33m to beat Iran’s Sajad Mohammadian in the shot put, adding to his shot put title in Rio 2016 and discus gold from London 2012.

“It’s surreal, there has been so much hard work to get here,” said the 30-year-old. “It’s tough to win medals, you’ve got to appreciate them when they come, so that’s why I was soaking it all in at the end.

“The conditions were great up until a few days ago, which is a shame because I was ready to deliver a big performance but it doesn’t matter now, I’m going home with the colour of medal I came for.

“That’s for everyone; my whole team, my family, my friends, I’m just so happy that I could do the job. That’s what championship throwing is all about, adapting to the conditions in front of you.

“I’m still young in this sport and I feel great and in the shape of my life, so Paris (2024) is my next stop, maybe even LA (2028) – I’m just getting started.”

Their victories follow those of fellow Brits Jonathan Broom-Edwards in the T64 high jump, Sophie Hahn and Thomas Young in the T38 100m, Dan Pembroke in the F13 javelin, Owen Miller in the T20 1500m and Andrew Small in the T33 100m.

Britain has also won a stack of silver and bronze medals, which included silver behind the United States in the Universal Relay on Friday courtesy of Libby Clegg, Jonnie Peacock, Ali Smith and Nathan Maguire, while Richard Whitehead also took another Paralympics medal with silver in the T61 200m.