Paralympics: Golden Day for GB at the London Velodrome

More Gold for Sarah Storey & husband Barney as Neil Fachie tops tandem podium after Anthony Kappes/Craig MacLean misses out

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Great Britain’s Neil Fachie and his sighted pilot, Barney Storey, set a new world record to win gold in the 1km Time Trial after their team-mates, favourites Anthony Kappes and Craig Maclean, were denied the chance to ride.

Fachie and Storey’s time of one minute 1.351 seconds was the fastest time ever ridden on a tandem – Paralympic or able-bodied – beating the mark set by Kappes and Jason Queally three years ago.

“We knew what we could do and we knew that it was going to be world record pace. We are expected to be the best bikers in the world,” said Aberdonian Fachie, 26, a former athlete who switched to cycling having failed to make the 100m or 200m finals in Beijing.

“I was absolutely devastated to see my team-mates false starting. I’d have given anything to have them on the podium with us. I really wanted to beat them in a fair race.”

Storey, who piloted Kappes to two golds in Beijing, said: “We’re absolutely gutted to not race against them. They’re our friends and it’s not a nice thing to happen.”

Kappes and Maclean were judged to have committed two false starts and rules prevent them starting for a third time. The duo stopped after hearing a worrying noise from the pedal or chain the first time. Even though the problem re-occurred, they were prepared to carry on but the starter had already fired his gun for a false start.

Sighted pilot Maclean, an Olympic silver medallist alongside fellow Scot Sir Chris Hoy in the Team Sprint in Sydney 12 years ago, said: “It was a mechanical failure ultimately. The bike let us down. In the heat of competition, we were probably trying harder than we’ve ever done before and the bike was just not up to the job.”

“There was disbelief. We tried to argue with the start judge that we wanted to carry on but he had fired the gun. He possibly could have bent the rules.”

Maclean and Kappes, 39, from Stockport, have a chance on Sunday to defend the Sprint title, with Fachie and Storey again their main rivals. Kappes was sanguine afterwards but said: “Tomorrow morning we’re still going to be annoyed.

Barney and Neil are a good pairing. I think we would have gone better than them but we didn’t.
We’ve spoken to both of them and they don’t feel as happy as they should. Congratulations to both of them; they’re gold medallists.”

Jody takes bronze in the 4km Pursuit!

Jody Cundy smashed his Columbian rival in the C4 4km Individual Pursuit to win his first medal at a Paralympic home games!

He took just 5 laps out of 16 to chase down Diego German Duenas Gomez and secure a bronze. The double Beijing gold medallist was on a mission  to claim his medal as he overlapped his opponent and punched the air in victory as the gun sounded to signal the end of the final.

Incredibly, he rode the first four laps of the Pursuit in 1:05.317; which, had he been allowed to ride the Kilo yesterday, would have won him gold. This only proves that Jody has unbelievable form and is performing at the top of his game.

Speaking after the race, Jody spoke of his gratitude for the home support: “I was starting to panic because my legs were completely gone after four and a half laps, but I couldn’t let the crowd down and they carried me home. The support here has been more incredible than anything I’ve experienced before! It really has been amazing, thank you to everyone for cheering me on”.

“I’m fully committed to Rio in 2016 as I still have unfinished business.”

Gold for Sarah Storey

Sarah Storey won her second gold medal of the London 2012 Paralympics in the 500m Time Trial on Saturday afternoon, hours after her husband Barney took gold on the tandem, to extend her career haul to nine golds in two sports.

The Storey family have accounted for three of those golds as Barney was the sighted pilot for Neil Fachie’s surprise 1km Time Trial victory during the morning session.

Sarah won Great Britain’s first gold of the Games, in the 3km Pursuit, her favoured event, on Thursday and was thrilled and surprised to beat American 500m specialist Jennifer Schuble by almost a second.

“Sometimes when the pressure is off you do the things you least expect,” said the Mancunian, who won five golds in swimming, as well as collecting eight silver medals and three bronze, before switching to the track in 2005.

She thanked her husband, a former sprint rider in elite able-bodied events, for helping her move to cycling after 13 years in the pool. She watched his morning victory before warming up and the two passed each other on the way between the Velodrome and the Paralympic Village.

“I gave him a big hug, told them how amazing they were and said I hoped to be as amazing. Hopefully, I was as amazing as them,” she said. “Barney’s got great experience as a sprinter and when I came along as a big-shouldered, raw swimmer he taught me everything I know,” added Storey, who met Barney at a training camp before the Athens Paralympics.

The duo managed a similar feat four years ago when Barney won tandem sprint gold an hour before Sarah triumphed in the Pursuit.

Silver for Butterworth: Jon Allan Butterworth the 26 year old from Sutton Coldfield, knew he had his work cut out in the C5 4km Pursuit after a breathtaking qualifying session that saw him take two seconds off the world record, only for Australia’s Michael Gallagher to snatch it back with a five-second improvement.

Butterworth went out hard and was 1.3 seconds up at half way but could not maintain the pace against the Australian world champion. “I went out fast. I tried to match him and see what I had left. He’s a great rider and I haven’t been doing this for that long,” said Butterworth, who took up the sport two years ago.

“All these rivalries will bring the sport forward. In four years, where’s it all going to be? I knew I was in good shape, so it’s not a bad debut.”

Butterworth goes for another medal in the team sprint on Sunday, along with Darren Kenny and Rik Waddon, having beaten Beijing winner Cundy by 0.03 seconds in a recent selection race.

RESULTS

Men’s Ind.B 1km Time Trial
1 FACHIE Neil STOREY Barney 1:01.351 WR +
2 PORTO LAREO Jose Enrique VILLANUEVA TRINIDAD Jose Antonio 1:02.707 +
3 OOST Rinne BOS Patrick 1:03.052 +
4 MODRA Kieran McPHEE Scott 1:03.120 +
5 LINDORES Bryce FINNING Sean 1:03.896 +
6 OSHIRO Tatsuyuki ITO Yasufumi 1:04.266 +
7 RACHFAL Clark SWANSON David 1:05.280 +
8 CHALIFOUR Daniel CLOUTIER Alexandre 1:05.433 +
9 BROWN James SHAW Damien 1:07.979 +
10 STEFANAKIS Christos TROULINOS Konstantinos 1:09.163 +
11 NATTKEMPER Alberto Lujan ITHURRART Jonatan 1:11.181 +
12 KAPPES Anthony MACLEAN Craig DNF

Men’s Ind. C4 Pursuit
1 NOVAK Carol-Eduard +
2 JEZEK Jiri +
3 CUNDY Jody +
4 DUENAS GOMEZ Diego German

Men’s Ind. C5 Pursuit
1 GALLAGHER Michael +
2 BUTTERWORTH Jon-Allan +
3 LIU Xinyang

Women’s Ind.C1-2-3 500m Time Trial
1 HE Yin 39.158 WR +
2 NORBRUIS Alyda 39.174 +
3 PARIS Jayme 40.476 WR

Women’s Ind. C4-5 500m Time Trial
1 STOREY Sarah 36.997 +
2 SCHUBLE Jennifer 37.941 +
3 RUAN Jianping 38.194 WR +
4 HARKOWSKA Anna 39.599 +
5 NEIMANAS Greta 39.621 +
6 POWELL Susan 39.702 +
7 SOUTHORN Fiona 41.796 +
8 GREEN Alexandra 42.095

 

 

 

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