Seventh gold medal triumph for our Hannah
HALIFAX’S INCREDIBLE ‘Hurricane Hannah’ has done it again, winning her seventh gold Paralympic medal.
Hannah Cockroft’s win in the 800m race on Saturday - which also saw her set a new Paralympic record - was her second in this year’s games and adds another gold medal to the six she had already earned.
Despite injuring her hand in the warm-up, she finished the race in the record time of one minute 48.99 seconds - almost 12 seconds inside her own previous games best.
The 29-year-old broke her own world record to win the 100m earlier in Tokyo games.
“I’m so relieved that I managed to get there and do what I said I was going to do,” she told the Courier.
“I’m so happy it went so well and so thankful that the games even took place.”
She said sport is for everyone, and her advice to other budding athletes is to “say yes to everything”
“For me, sport is something that I was told I may never be able to do,” she added.
“I’m a Halifax girl and I’ve managed to get this far.”
She urged people to start by getting involved with their local sports clubs.
“There is so much on offer in our town,” she said.
“You’ve got to try it and you might love it and if you don’t love it, you’ll learn from it.”
Hannah now has her sights set on being selected for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
There was also a Paralympic medal for Halifax’s Harry Brown, who was selected to be part of the Team GB Wheelchair Basketball Team.
The team won bronze after making it to the semi-final and beating Spain in a bronze medal match.
Table tennis player Megan Shackleton, from Todmorden, won bronze, after making through to the semi-finals and Mytholmroyd’s Steve Bate won silver in the Men’s B 4000m individual pursuit.
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