Britain’s athletes had an intoxicating Sunday in Paris, collecting 12 gold medals, the most successful single day for ParalympicGB this century. It was, from the moment Benjamin Pritchard raced to victory at Stade Nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne in the morning’s PR1 men’s sculls, to the moment teenager Olivia Newman-Baronius touched the side of the pool in the final leg of the mixed 4x 100m S14 relay, just after 8.30pm, a heady gold rush, beating the nine collected on the most bumper days in Rio and Beijing.
It was fitting that one of those golds should go to Hannah Cockroft, who has been the face of Paralympic sports in the UK since she crossed the line in her wheelchair on the first night of athletics in 2012, her face stamped all over the London Games. On Sunday night, after she won her fourth consecutive T34 100m title and her eighth Paralympic gold, at an electric Stade de France, she was still trying to take it all in.
“I had a little tear in my eye as I crossed the line as I honestly didn’t know if I would win it today,” she said. “It means so, so much to just be able to hold on for a fourth Paralympic Games. Honestly, on the start line, they said: ‘On your marks,’ and it didn’t go quiet and I had a little panic: ‘What if I don’t hear the set?’ My wheels were buzzing and I was trying to find my grip, it took me back 12 years because the last time I felt like that was London 2012.”
Cockroft’s face was focused under her visor as she waited for the gun and she accelerated away after 20m, head down, powerful shoulders pounding, beating her teammate Kare Adenegan into silver by 1.19sec.
Cockroft was still buzzing after being roared across the line. “That’s what we do it for,” she said, “that support, it is amazing. I can’t wipe the smile off my face, my wheels were vibrating from the noise, I knew Paris could do it and I’m so glad they did.”
But being a champion year after year brings its downsides – namely pressure. “It is scary – at the start line one kid was just saying: ‘Cockroft, Cockroft,’ and you know you’re the one people are watching and you don’t want to let people down. But that’s what we do it for.
“The standard is getting better and better. This is the first time since London that we’ve had heats in the 100m, this morning Lauren Field, the girl from the USA, said: ‘I watched London 2012 and that’s why I’m here,’ and I just really, really hope there are some girls at home saying: ‘I can do that.’”
Britain’s second gold of the night at the Stade de France went to Sabrina Fortune, who won the women’s F20 shot put with a mammoth first throw of 15.12m. The Rio bronze medallist and a three-time world champion, broke her own world record and said: “I still can’t believe it. I was expecting about 14m on the first throw, just a simple throw and then I hit the world record and I just wanted to jump up and down and celebrate right then and then I remembered I have five more throws after that and couldn’t do it yet. I didn’t expect with my limb disability to do an event like this. To be able to go on the world stage, it’s a crazy experience.”
She too was buoyed up by the heady atmosphere: “It’s like magical, it’s like you’re walking into a world that is just crazy. The roar around you is deafening. It’s something that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”
Cockroft just missed out on being Britain’s first Paralympic medallist in the track and field, that honour going to the Countryfile presenter Samantha Kinghorn. She took silver in the first race of the evening – the women’s T53 800m, despite having problems with her axle just before the race.
Away from the track, there were five medals at the velodrome, three of them gold, including one for Kadeena Cox, who had been inconsolable on Thursday after crashing in the final of her C4-5 500m time trial. She, Jody Cundy and Jaco van Gass won the final race of the track cycling programme, the C1-5 750m team sprint. James Ball and Steffan Lloyd (B1000m time trial) and Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl (B3000m individual pursuit) also topped the podium. On the water, Britain rowed away with three golds – Lauren Rowles, who became the first woman to have won a rowing event at three Paralympic Games, and the mixed coxed fours, joining Ben Pritchard.
In the pool Maisie Summers-Newton won the SB6 100m breaststroke, there was gold for Grace Harvey in the SB5 race over the same distance, while Brock Whiston and Alice Tai collected gold and bronze in the 200m SM8 individual medley before Britain sealed a golden night with the relay.
