Let the Medal haul begin

The first day of the Paralympics has seen some fantastic results! With five medals already won ParalympicGB are on course to achieving its target of 103 medals.

The velodrome again captured the attention of the nation with Sarah Storey winning Paralympic GB’s first gold medal in the C5 three kilometres individual pursuit. Cheered on by a 6,000 full house Storey not only accelerated to gold over Poland’s Anna Harkowska but is now the world record holder in the event, the 72nd such title of her career.

This triumph represented her third cycling gold medal, to go with the five swimming gold’s she won as a teenager in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996 and takes her overall Paralympic medal collection to 19.

Storey’s performance has again proved Great Britain’s prowess in the velodrome and will inspire even more people to pick up their bikes and go for a cycle. During the Olympics British Cycling reported that an extra 250 people were cycling every day and programmes like Sky Ride will see this number continue to grow.

Today also saw 16-year-old Hannah Russell taking silver medal in the S12 400m freestyle. Hannah is a graduate of the Sport England-funded ‘Playground to Podium’ programme which identifies and nurtures disabled people with a talent to become elite athletes.

With more events to come the medal tally can only increase.