SARAH HITS THE JACKPOT AS BRITAIN BAGS 1,000TH MEDAL OF LOTTO ERA
STOREY’S DELIGHT AFTER LANDMARK GOLDEN TRIUMPH
DAME SARAH STOREY pedalled into the record books yesterday – clinching her 16th gold medal to become the joint most successful British Paralympian.
And history was also made when Britain bagged its 1,000th medal in the Olympics and Paralympics since National Lottery funding began in 1997. George Peasgood’s bronze in the C4 road cycling time-trial brought up the milestone.
Dame Sarah, born without a functioning left hand, won the C5 time-trial in Tokyo, beating team-mate Crystal Lane-Wright.
And the 43-year-old could yet surpass swimmer Mike Kenny – who took home 16 golds between 1976 and 1988 – when she competes in tomorrow’s road race.
Calling it ‘a dream come true’, the mum-of-two from Cheshire said: ‘Sweet 16.
Can I be 16 again? I would never have imagined getting to 15.’
CYCLIST Sarah Storey said her record-equalling 16th gold medal truly was the sweetest thing after moving to within one more victory of becoming Great Britain’s greatest Paralympian.
Storey emulated the achievement of former swimmer Mike Kenny to win the women’s C5 time trial on the Fuji International Speedway circuit in a time of 36 minutes 8.90 seconds.
Fellow British rider Crystal LaneWright snatched silver in 37min 40.89sec, with Germany’s Kerstin Brachtendorf taking bronze.
Storey, who gets a chance to surpass 76-year-old Kenny in terms of golds in Thursday’s C4-5 road race, is already more successful, owing to a total haul of 27 medals to his 18.
‘I never set out on this journey to be Britain’s greatest Paralympian, but to match the best man and to have more other medals is just a dream come true,’ she said.
‘It is almost a dream that was not one. The closer we have got to Tokyo, the more it has been like “this is a possibility, it really could happen”.
‘I am just so chuffed. I have been preparing for this for such a long time. It is such a sweet feeling. Sweet 16! Can I be 16 again?’
The last of Kenny’s 16 titles, and two silvers, came in Seoul in 1988, four years before Storey kicked off her own Paralympic career as a 14-year-old swimmer in Barcelona.
She won five golds in the pool across four Games before her transition to the bike ahead of Beijing 2008 led to even greater rewards.
The 43-year-old travelled to the Far East needing three more titles from as many events to stand alone as Britain’s most successful Paralympian. And after securing a time-trial title at a fourth successive Games, she can now finish the job in tomorrow’s road race.
On the target of 17 goals, she said: ‘That is something that may happen in the future – it may happen on Thursday. Who knows in a road race? There is no foregone conclusion in any race, but especially not in a road race.’