Storey takes gold on day one of London Paralympics

By Nick Bull; Photos by Andy Jones

30-Aug-2012 | 0 comments

Sarah Storey and individual pursuit gold medal, London 2012 Paralympic Games, track day one afternoon

Sarah Storey stole the show as she took Great Britain's first cycling gold medal on day one of the London Paralympics.

Storey successfully
defended her C5 Pursuit title she won in Beijing in 2008, and there was also a silver medal for Games newcomer Mark Colbourne in the C1-2-3 Kilo.

The gold looked guaranteed for Storey when she eclipsed her world record during the morning's qualifying round, which saw her beat nearest rival Anna Harkowska (Poland) by 16 seconds.

Thankfully there were no surprises in the final, as the former champion swimmer caught her rival within the space of 1625m to take her third Paralympic cycling gold, and her eighth in total.

"I'm proud to able to reduce my world record in the event," said Storey afterwards. "The Paralmypic Games is the only thing I've ever know and to be here at Games number six is a dream come true."

Crystal Lane, who was only called up to the team at the start of August, narrowly missed out on bronze as she was beaten by Kiwi Fiona Southorn.

42-year-old Colbourne was the penultimate starter in the men's C1-2-3 kilo, and set a new personal best en route. However, he couldn't quite beat Chinese rider Zhang Yu Hi, who took the gold medal in a factored time of 1-05.021, which was also a new world record. Because this event combined three categories, those with a greater physical impairment saw their times modified to take their disability into account.

That meant that Britain's Darren Kenny, who took the gold medal in this discipline in the now defunct CP3 category in Beijing, had to settle for fourth,
despite setting the fastest time of the day. Fellow Brit Rik Waddon finished ninth.

Results
Paralympics Games 2012, track day one
Men's C1-2-3 1km Time Trial
1. Zhang Yu Li (Chn)1-05.021*
2. Mark Colbourne (Gbr) 1-08.471*
3. Tobias Graf (Ger) 1-09.979*
Brits
4. Darren Kenny (Gbr) 1-10.203
9. Rik Waddon (Gbr) 1-11.394

* Riders in the C1 category takes 89.06 of their actual time.

Women's C1-2 Pursuit
1. Sini Zeng (Chn) 4-20.820
2. Simone Kennedy (Aus)4-24.893
3. Allison Jones (USA) 4-27.793

Women's C4 Pursuit
1. Susan Powell (Aus) 4-05.200
2. Megan Fisher (USA) 4-07.147
3. Alexandra Green (Aus) 4-07.921

Women's C5 Pursuit
1. Sarah Storey (Gbr) caught
2. Anna Harkowska (Pol)
3. Fiona Southorn (Nzl) 3-55.867
Brits
4. Crystal Lane (Gbr) 4-02.773

Men's B/Vi Tandem Pursuit
1. Keiran Modra/Scott McPhee (Aus) 4-17.756
2. Bryce Lindores/Sean Finning (Aus) 4-22.269
3. Miguel Angel Celement Solano/Diego Javier Munoz (Spa) 4-24.015

Sarah Storey wins individual pursuit