Storey extends record as GB win 13 medals on Wednesday

Great Britain’s most decorated Paralympian Sarah Storey won her 18th career gold as ParalympicsGB secured 13 more medals on day seven at Paris 2024.

Cyclist Storey, 46, won the women’s C5 time trial to secure her 29th Paralympic medal – 32 years after her first in 1992.

GB collected two further golds on Wednesday as wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn won the women’s T53 100m final and Dimitri Coutya was victorious in the wheelchair fencing foil category B.

ParalympicsGB also won seven silver medals on day seven and three bronzes.

GB remain second in the medal table with Wednesday’s results increasing their gold total to 33 and medal tally to 74. Only China have more medals than Great Britain with 135.

ParalympicsGB’s bountiful Wednesday was kicked off by the nation’s most decorated Paralympian, Storey, who is competing at her ninth Games.

Such is her longevity, Storey had already won 16 Paralympic medals before French teenager Heidi Gaugain – who finished second behind her on day seven – was even born.

Wednesday’s win means she now has 29 Paralympic medals in all – 16 in Para-swimming and 13 in Para-cycling. She is fifth on the all-time Paralympic medal list.

There was also a Para-cycling silver for GB’s Fran Brown, with the 39-year-old then posting on social media her medal came three days after she dislocated her shoulder having been knocked off her bike by a car.

Sophie Unwin and Lora Fachie, with their pilots Jenny Holl and Corinne Hall, won silver 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 Games.

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

Great Britain’s Kinghorn must have been sick of the sight of Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner having finished second behind her in the T53 800m and 1500m earlier in the Games.

Kinghorn came into the 100m final as a four-time Paralympic medal winner, but had never before won a gold.

She needed something special in the 100m and she delivered, crossing the line with a Paralympic record time of 15.64 to beat the Swiss by 0.13 seconds.

“I sobbed the whole way round my victory lap, just sobbed the whole time,” she said.

Kinghorn and Debrunner will line up against each other again on Thursday over 400m.

British wheelchair fencer Coutya is another Paralympian who finally secured a long-awaited first gold medal on Wednesday.

The world number one could only win bronze in Tokyo, but three years later managed to beat China’s two-time defending Paralympic champion Feng Yanke 15-7 at the Grand Palais.

“I really wanted that gold,” the European champion said after his victory. “And it’s something that I’ve dedicated my life to for the last few years.”

Coutya, who is also world number one in epee category B, will target further gold medals in the men’s team foil quarter-final on Thursday (11:40 BST), the individual epee B category on Friday (08:40) and team epee quarter-final on Saturday (11:40).

The 26-year-old is certainly one to watch.

Great Britain were swimming in silvers on Wednesday with three of their seven coming in the pool.

Rhys Darbey and Poppy Maskill added to the golds they won in the S14 mixed 4x100m freestyle relay with successive silvers in the men’s and women’s S14 200m individual medley finals on Wednesday afternoon.

About 30 minutes later, GB’s Alice Tai finished second in the S8 women’s 400m freestyle final, behind USA’s Jessica Long who claimed her 17th career Paralympic gold.

And while success was flowing in the pool, ParalympicsGB also claimed silver medals through Zoe Newson in the Para-powerlifting women’s -45kg event, and Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade in the wheelchair tennis quad doubles.

Elsewhere, Britain’s Sophie Wells took bronze in the Para-equestrian grade V individual test, winning her ninth Paralympic medal, while Tim Jeffery won Para-shooting bronze in the mixed 50m rifle prone SH2.

And the success keeps coming. Looking ahead, more podium places are on the way.

British 14-year-old Bly Twomey is guaranteed a medal in the Para-table tennis women’s WS7 singles after reaching the semi-finals on her debut.

Rob Davies will claim at least a silver after reaching the Para-table tennis men’s singles MS1 final. He faces Cuba’s Yunier Fernandez in the showpiece match on Friday (13:00 BST).

Alfie Hewett is also through to the last four of the wheelchair tennis men’s singles. He will also contest the men’s doubles final alongside team-mate Gordon Reid on Friday.