Wheelchair racer Kinghorn adds to GB’s Paralympics tally with stunning gold
Wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn added to GB’s Paris Paralympics success with a stunning T53 100m gold at Stade de France. Scottish athlete Kinghorn, who secured 800m and 1500m silvers in recent days, powered home ahead of Swiss star Catherine Debrunner to set a Paralympic record in 15.64sec. The 28-year-old became the first non-Chinese athlete to win the title since Tanni Grey-Thompson 20 years ago in Athens.
Tears of joy streamed from her eyes as she greeted her family in the stands before dedicating the victory to her brother on his birthday. “I just can’t believe that I’ve done that,” she said. “It’s honestly absolutely blowing my mind. This one is definitely for my brother.”
Zoe Newson had experienced the joy of bronze medals in London and Rio, then the pain of a fourth-placed finish in Tokyo, but on Wednesday in Paris the 32-year-old went one step further on the podium, winning silver in dramatic circumstances at Porte de la Chapelle Arena.
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On the first day of the powerlifting competition she attempted the final lift of 109kg she needed for second spot but was adjudged initially to have fouled. She and her team appealed and, after a tense pause, the silver medal was hers.
“I didn’t realise,” Newson said to the BBC of the decision. “It didn’t come on the screen but we heard the crowd start cheering. Then we saw it on the screen and lost it. My boy and my fiance are in the crowd so I got quite emotional.”
In the pool Poppy Maskill won her fourth medal of a hugely successful Games in the women’s SM14 200m individual medley, adding another silver to the silver and two gold medals the 19-year-old from Cheshire has won in her debut Paralympics.
Maskill could still make it five in the 100m backstroke on Friday but admitted the demands of the schedule are beginning to take their toll. “It’s hard work,” she told Channel 4 after being pipped to the gold by Valeriia Shabalina. “I’m just going back [to the athletes’ village], napping … and that’s all I’m doing.”
Maskill and her GB teammate Olivia Newman-Baronius were ahead after the opening butterfly leg, with Maskill powering clear during the backstroke. “I was trying to see what I’ve got in there and see what happens,” she said. Shabalina touched just ahead after the breaststroke then held off the British swimmer, who touched the wall just 1.53sec behind.
Rhys Darbey grabbed a silver in the men’s SM14 200m individual medley behind Canada’s Nicholas Bennett. The Welsh swimmer, in his debut Paralympics, adds the silver to the gold earned as part of the S14 mixed 4x100m freestyle team on Sunday.
“I’m very happy with that,” he told Channel 4. “It’s my first individual race at the Games and to come second, two races out of two that I’ve won a medal, I’m really chuffed.”
There was also a silver for Alice Tai in the women’s S8 400m freestyle.
Sophie Wells added a bronze in the individual Grade V dressage at Versailles, her ninth Paralympic medal at her fourth Games, after gold and silver medals in London, Rio and Tokyo.
Tim Jeffery won a shooting bronze in the R9 mixed 50m rifle prone SH2 at the Châteauroux Shooting Centre. “The final was one of the hardest things I’ve done in a long time,” the 28-year-old said. “Hopefully this medal is the first of many.”
At the Stade de France, Karim Chan narrowly missed out on a bronze in the men’s T38 long jump, his effort of 6.39m just 1cm short of third-placed José Lemos, the Colombian completing an unlikely medal double having won gold in the T38 javelin last week.
The GB women’s wheelchair basketball team bowed out at the quarter-final stage but gave the United States a scare on their way. The British team led 50-49 with fewer than four minutes remaining before the bronze winners from Tokyo powered through to win 59.52.
Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade had to settle for silver in the wheelchair tennis quad doubles after losing 6-1, 6-1 against the dominant Dutch pairing of Sam Schröder and Niels Vink. There was better news for Alfie Hewett, who marched into the men’s singles semi‑finals with a 6-1, 6-4 win against Ruben Spaargaren, but Gordon Reid lost his quarter-final 6-0, 7-6 (5) against Argentina’s Gustavo Fernández.
