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OLYMPICS 2008

BRITS CONTINUE WINNING CYCLE

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Sarah Storey celebrates Gold

Thursday September 11,2008

By Christian Miles

CYCLING and swimming continue to be lucrative hunting grounds for Great Britain after a further five gold medals in Beijing.

The final day of track cycling yielded three, to cap a stunning performance with 12 golds and one silver in all.
 
It was fitting that Britain completed their haul in the men’s team sprint, as Darren Kenny, Jody Cundy and Mark Bristow emulated their Olympic counterparts Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff, who began the gold rush on August 15.

Sarah Storey and Anthony Kappes – with Storey’s husband Barney as his tandem pilot – also triumphed, while at the Water Cube, Heather Frederiksen won the women’s S8 100metres backstroke and the men’s 4x100m freestyle team claimed a third straight victory.

Gold remains elusive for the athletics team after wheelchair racer David Weir saw his world record go as he took silver in the T54 men’s 400m.

ì
The fact a Paralympian can finish in that sort of time and that sort of position is amazing
î

Sarah Storey


The haul took Britain’s gold medal tally to 21 and 43 medals in all, second only to China in the medal table – the hosts have 24 golds and 77 total medals – and more than halfway towards the target set by UK Sport. 

Storey’s victory was the catalyst. The Manchester girl made her Paralympic debut in Barcelona aged 14, winning two golds, three silvers and one bronze in the pool under her maiden name Bailey. This time, at the age of 30, she won the women’s LC1-2/CP4 individual pursuit in a world-record 3mins 36.637secs.

That performance would have earned Storey – born with a deformed left hand – seventh place in last month’s Olympics in the event in which Britain won gold and silver through Rebecca Romero and Wendy Houvenaghel.
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“The fact a Paralympian can finish in that sort of time and that sort of position is amazing,” said Storey.

Swimmer Frederiksen lowered the world record she set in the heats to 1:16.74 to win her second medal after a 100m freestyle silver. 

Frederiksen, 22, was a promising junior swimmer before an accident ended her career. She thought she would never swim again, but was inspired by Rebecca Adlington – a double gold medallist at the Olympics – and Joanne Jackson, who won bronze, to return to the water.

“To do something like Becky Adlington – when she won that gold medal I said to my coach, ‘I want one’ – it’s a dream come true,” said Frederiksen.

The men’s relay quartet of Matt Walker, Graham Edmunds, David Roberts and Robert Welbourn successfully defended the title they won in Athens in a world-record 3:51.43.

And it was a ninth Paralympic gold for Roberts as he closes in on Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson’s mark of 11.


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