Storey extends record as GB win flurry of silvers in Paris

Sarah Storey extended her run as Great Britain’s most-decorated Paralympian by winning her 18th career gold medal on day seven at this Paris 2024 Paralympic games.

Storey, 46, won in the women’s C5 time trial by more than more four seconds to secure ParalympicsGB's 31st gold medal of the Games.

It came 32 years after her first Paralympics medal in 1992.

There were three more cycling medals plus GB success in the pool, wheelchair tennis, Para-equestrian, Para-shooting and Para-powerlifting as ParalympicsGB added 11 more medals to their tally.

GB have won 72 medals putting them second in the medal table. Only China have more medals than Great Britain with 121, including 57 golds.

Storey kicked things off for ParalympicsGB on Wednesday morning by extending her record as Great Britain's most decorated Paralympian.

An astonishing 32 years on from her Paralympic debut at Barcelona in 1992, Storey won by 4.69 seconds from France's Heidi Gaugain, 27 years Storey's junior.

Gaugain, 19, was born in November 2004 - by then Storey had already won 16 Paralympic meals, all of which came in Para-Swimming.

She subsequently switched to Para-Cycling and Wednesday's win means she now has 29 Paralympic medals in all.

Her 18th Paralympic gold puts her among a group of six Paralympic athletes who have won that many.

Storey's victory came on what she described as an "appalling" course which was just 14.1km long.

It was her first race under 22km in the event at the Paralympics, which she has now won for five straight Games.

"It's a short race. This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we have ever had, and I think it's a real shame because we don't get to showcase Para-sport in the way we want to," Storey said.

"I've had to put that aside and focus on what I could control, because I couldn't control the race distance. But I hope they never do this to the women again, because it has been appalling."

Storey is back in action on Friday in the road race, looking to pick up her 19th gold medal.

Elsewhere in road cycling, Fran Brown completed a successful morning for ParalympicsGB with a silver medal in women’s C1-3 time trial.

Brown later posted on social media that on Sunday, she had been hit by a car during her preparations for Wednesday’s final and suffered a dislocated shoulder.

In the afternoon session, Sophie Unwin and Lora Fachie won sivler and bronze respectively in the women’s B individual time trial behind Ireland’s Katie-George Dunlevy, who won her country’s first gold medal of the Paralympics.

Great Britain now have 18 cycling medals at the Paralympics, with swimming being the only sport in which more medals have been won.

After all 10 of ParalympicsGB’s swimmers progressed through their heats on Wednesday morning, there were seven finals to look forward on day seven of the games.

Of the 72 medals won by Great Britain at the 2024 Paraylmpics so far, 23 have come in the pool.

Rhys Darbey, Poppy Maskill and Alice Tai all won silvers on Wednesday as the GB medal rush continued.

Darbey, 17, was first, with a silver in the men’s SM14 200m individual medley final to add to his S14 mixed 4x100m freestyle relay gold.

Alongside Darbey in that freestyle relay win was Maskill, who claimed her fourth medal of the Games on Wednesday in the women’s SM14 200m individual medley final.

She finished behind Valeriia Shabalina of the Neutral Paralympic Athletes to take her second silver of the games, having already won two golds and a silver. Louise Fiddes and Olivia Newman-Baronius both missed out on medals in that event.

Tai led the S8 women’s 400m freestyle final with 100m to go before being overtaken by Jessica Long of the United States, who claimed her 17th career Paralympic gold.

Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade won silver in the quad doubles wheelchair tennis final after a defeat in straight sets to the Dutch pairing of Sam Schroder and Niels Vink.

Wimbledon champion Alfie Hewett reached the semi-finals of the men's singles with a straight-sets win over Ruben Spaargaren from the Netherlands, but Gordon Reid was eliminated in straight sets by Argentina's Gustavo Fernandez.

Later on Wednesday, Reid and Hewett will team up in the men's doubles semi-finals against the French duo of Frederic Cattaneo and Stephane Houdet.

The afternoon started with a flurry of medals for Great Britain with Sophie Wells first winning bronze - her ninth Paralympic medal - in the Grade V individual event in Para-equestrian.

Wells' bronze was quickly matched by Tim Jeffery in the shooting Para sport mixed prone SH2 final, the 28-year-old's first medal in his third Paralympic games.

In Para-table tennis, teenager Bly Twomey has guaranteed herself at least a bronze medal after victory over Sweden's Smilla Sand in the quarter-finals of the WS7 women's singles.

Twomey, 14, won in three straight games to reach the semi-finals and she will face Kubra Korkut of Turkey on Thursday morning for a place in Thursday night’s final.

Zoe Newson finished in second place to win silver in the women’s Para powerlifting up to 45kg final. Newson finished behind China’s Guo Lingling, who won the event by setting a new world record lift of 123kg.

Newson was on course for a bronze medal after her lift of 109kg had been ruled incomplete. However, following an appeal, the lift was cleared, upgrading Newson’s medal to a silver.