GB win five golds in 20-medal haul on penultimate day
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- Author, Joe Rindl
- Role, BBC Sport journalist
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Great Britain won 20 medals including five golds on a packed penultimate day at Paris 2024.
Para-athlete Hannah Cockroft stormed to her ninth Paralympic title in a British one-two in the T34 800m.
Para-canoers Emma Wiggs and Charlotte Henshaw also won golds, while cyclist Finlay Graham triumphed in the men’s C1-3 road race.
There was also a gold in the pool for Stephen Clegg after a tightly-contested men’s S12 100m butterfly final.
Elsewhere, Alfie Hewett and Great Britain’s men’s wheelchair basketball team won silvers after agonising final defeats.
Great Britain ended day 10 with a total of 120 medals at the Paralympics, including 47 golds. Only China, with 94 golds and 216 total medals, have more.
Cockroft wins title weeks before wedding
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Cockroft further cemented her reputation as one of the all-time Para-athletics greats, finishing almost eight seconds ahead of team-mate Kare Adenegan.
The 31-year-old has won gold in the 100m and 800m at every Paralympics since London 2012, and took the 400m title at Rio 2016.
Cockroft’s latest title comes three weeks and five days before she is due to get married.
“[My fiance’s] voice was the last one I heard,” she told Channel 4 after her dominant win.
“It means so much. He understands what goes into that performance. I’ll go home, have an amazing wedding and have a great life.”
Meanwhile, Didi Okoh took bronze in the women’s T63 100m, while Aled Davies missed out on a fourth consecutive Paralympic gold – taking silver in the men’s F63 shot put.
Britons star in Para-canoe
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Four of Great Britain’s 20 medals on Saturday came in Para-canoeing.
First, defending champion Wiggs won the women’s VL2 200m Va’a Single final by more than a second.
Henshaw then doubled Britain’s Para-canoe gold tally winning the women’s VL3 200m Va’a Single final ahead of fellow Briton Hope Gordon, who won silver.
In the men’s KL2 Single final, David Phillipson finished in second, meaning no nation claimed more Para-canoeing medals in Paris than GB.
Golds for Graham and Clegg after tight finishes
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Graham started off Great Britain’s medal haul by beating France’s Thomas Peyroton-Dartet in a dramatic sprint finish.
As the pair approached the final kilometres, the 24-year-old Brit – who clinched C3 individual pursuit silver last week – made a late surge to win his second medal in Paris by less than a second.
There was a similar close finish in the pool where world record holder Clegg was pushed all the way to the line and touched home first by just half a body length.
The 100m backstroke champion dedicated his win to his mother Moira – who was celebrating her birthday, as well as her son’s victory, on Saturday.
There was a bronze for GB swimmer Alice Tai in the women’s S8 100m butterfly final.
Hewett & wheelchair basketball team lose agonising finals
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Spare a thought for Britain’s Hewett.
The Wimbledon champion was unable to complete a career ‘Golden Slam’ in singles, failing to convert a gold-medal point in his singles final, and eventually losing 6-2 4-6 7-5 to Japan’s Tokito Oda.
Great Britain’s basketball team were also on the wrong end of a narrow final defeat.
Hunting their first gold they trailed defending champions USA by 10 at the end of the third quarter.
But they fought back to cut the deficit to just three with seconds to go. Ultimately though USA held out to win 73-69 and win a third consecutive Paralympics title.
“It hurts but we’ll be back,” said star shooter Terry Bywater on Channel 4. “This is just the start for us.”
More GB medals in equestrian, judo and fencing
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On Saturday morning GB’s Georgia Wilson won silver in the Para-equestrian where there were also individual bronzes for Sophie Wells, Mari Durward-Akhurst and Natasha Baker.
Daniel Powell took silver in the men’s -90kg J1 competition in Para-judo after losing his final to Brazil’s Arthur Cavalcante da Silva.
In the men’s +90kg J2 competition, Christopher Skelley won bronze, while GB beat Poland to third in the wheelchair fencing men’s team epee.
Meanwhile, India’s Navdeep Singh was awarded gold in the men’s F41 javelin after Sadegh Beit Sayah of Iran – who had thrown the furthest distance – was disqualified for “unsporting or improper conduct”.