Tanni leads another golden day

TANNI Grey-Thompson and Jim Anderson led Great Britain to yet another golden day in Athens yesterday.

Grey-Thompson cruised to second gold of the Games with a win in the T53m 400 metres and become Britain’s most successful Paralympian ever, taking her career total to an incredible 11 golds.

In the pool, Team GB matched their 15-gold medal haul from Sydney as Scotland’s Anderson claimed his fourth title in Athens with a S2 50m backstroke gold. Back in the stadium Ken Churchill retained his F37 javelin title, while Britain also won silvers in road cycling and table tennis. By the end of the penultimate day’s action Team GB had four gold medals and nine overall.

Grey-Thompson missed out on the medals in the 200m but earlier defended her T53 400m title in style, dominating the race as the anticipated challenge from her rivals did not arrive.

The athlete, who never eats before a race, had to wake up at 5am as she had to be at the stadium at least two hours before the race. The 35-year-old said the early start had been a struggle and the tears of joy as she crossed the finish line were testament to the relief at pulling off her victory. "I was so nervous this morning because I really struggled to warm up, I just couldn’t get my arms moving.

"But after the semi I had a great lane draw. I was so lucky to be in between Madelene Nordlund and Francesca Porcellato. Francesca’s got a great start and she pulled me along to a fast first 150m.

"When I got to the halfway point I still couldn’t see who was around me so I just had my head down and went for it. When I crossed the finish line I did cry and that’s not unusual for me.

"I was really surprised, I was expecting it to be a lot closer. It’s probably one of my best 400m races and it’s great to have done that at the Paralympics.

At the Aquatic Centre, Anderson became Great Britain’s second quadruple gold medallist at the Games.

Anderson emulated team-mate David Roberts’ achievement by claiming his fourth gold. The 41-year-old Scot had gone into the final second favourite after American Curtis Lovejoy set a new world record of one minute 4.43 seconds in the first heat.

But Anderson got off to a good start and never looked like surrendering his lead, eventually winning in a time of one min 5.51secs.

"I was really worried about Curtis after his swim this morning and I was quite annoyed that he took my world record," said Anderson.

"I was hoping that I would beat him tonight and I have done. I’ve won a lot over here, but I never imagined I could win four golds."

In yesterday’s cycling action, double gold medallist Darren Kenny took bronze in the CP3 individual road race and time trial event. He was fastest in the time trial, clocking 16.28 minutes, but his combined time of 1:18.04 hours was not enough to overhaul Spain’s Javier Otxoa from top spot.

Day ten of the Paralympics was overshadowed by a road smash which claimed the lives of at least seven Greek schoolchildren. The students, who on their way to watch the Games, were killed and over 30 others were seriously injured when a truck veered off course and rammed into the oncoming bus carrying them.

The accident prompted organisers to cancel the artistic part of today’s closing ceremony as a mark of respect and a minute’s silence was observed at all venues.

SELECTED RESULTS

Men. Triple Jump. F12 Final: 1 Q Duan (Chn), 15.30 WR, 2 A Kuzmichou (Blr) 14.59, 3 I Kytsenko (Ukr) 14.45. Discus. F12 Final: 1 HT Sun (Chn) 52.51 WR. 4x400m. T42-T46 final: 1 United States 3:27.00, 2 Australia 3:33.55, 3 France 3:37.28. 4x400m. T35-T38 Final: 1 Tunisia 3:38.92, 2 China 3:40.62, 3 Ukraine 3:46.78. Football 7-a-side. Bronze medal: Russia 5, Argentina 0; Gold medal: Ukraine 4, Brazil 1. Table tennis: Class 4, Gold Mdl Match: Korea bt France 3-2; Bronze Mdl Match: China bt Germany 3-1; Class 9 Gold: Netherlands bt Austria 3-2, bronze: Chinese Taipei bt United States 3-2; Class 3 gold: Korea bt Great Britain 3-0, bronze: France bt Germany 3-0. Class 6/7 gold: Germany bt Poland 3-1, bronze: Sweden bt France 3-2. Powerlifting: 100 kg Group B: 1, Kazem Rajabigolojeh (Iri) 242.5, 2 Solomon Ikechukwu Amarakuo (Ngr) 235.0, 3 Bing Li (Chn) 232.5. Men’s +100 kg Group B: 1 Vladimir Buben (Blr) 200.0, 2 Leszek Hallmann (Pol) 200.0, 3 Ali Mohamed (Qat) 190.0

Women. Shot Put. F37/38 Final: 1 A Grigaliuniene (Ltu) 11.07 WR, 2 V Bujarkova (Cze) 9.68, 3 E Berna (Cze) 9.47, 4 B Jones (Gbr) 10.21. Shot Put. F42-46 Final: 1 BZ Zheng (Chn) 9.37 WR. Javelin. F56-58 final: 1, S Djelal (Alg) 30.97 WR, 2 Ne Iyiazi (Ngr) 27.61.