Golden touch Cockroft wins her third title at the London Stadium
Athlete picks up third victory in T34 400m Briton sets new mark for most golds at the Worlds
Peerless. The Halifax flier Hannah Cockroft pumped those piston arms here last night to complete a glorious treble, winning the 400metres T34 final in a championship-record 58.29 seconds to complement the two victories in the 100m and the 800m events earlier in this eighth staging of the World Para Athletics Championships.
But even more significantly, the superb, powerful start and faultless cornering at speed, powered Cockroft to double figures in world championship gold medals. It also made the 24-year-old the most decorated senior British athlete in history in world championships.
The great Tanni Grey-thompson, has more Paralympic gold medals, 11 in total, between 1992 and 2004, and two world golds in 1998 and 2006.
Add Cockroft’s Games medals and, overall, the tally of 15 golds makes her arguably the greatest of all time. Paralympic purists, how- ever, might arguably point to the difference in depth of athletes in the field in the two racing ladies’ fields. One thing is certain: Cockroft is the modern face of wheelchair racing, with only Tatyana Mcfadden, the brilliant US athlete, comparable.
Cockroft, brash and ebullient on the surface if the mood takes her, has a work ethic that few witness. Yet, since she burst onto the scene at the world championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, seven years ago, she has enjoyed almost utter dominance in the T34 class of wheelchair racing.
There has been just one defeat in that entire period, against fellow Briton Kare Adenegan, on an offday in a 400m event at a Grand Prix in London two years ago.
“I’m feeling really emotional. I even had a little cry,” said Cockroft after securing a perfect championships. “I was confident until yesterday when I got full of cold. When I came to the start line I felt like I had nothing to put into the race.
“All the way round I was thinking ‘I can hear the girls coming. I’m not going fast enough, I’m not going fast enough’. So to get that result when I was feeling like this is such a relief.
“This is my 10th world title but that hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m so used to taking each race as it comes. Every time I put on this top it’s still a massive honour to represent Britain and British Athletics.’’
She added: “But I’m not finished yet. My motivation was out there, those two young girls right at my back. They are the reason I train. I want to prove I can still go fast. I just want to keep going out there. I want to prove I can keep going a little while longer.”
Cockroft truly is a home-grown athlete. The baby girl who had two heart attacks in the first few hours of her life and suffered brain damage and a neurological disorder began racing 15 years ago, while still at primary school in West Yorkshire, after her father, Graham, a welder, built her a set of training rollers in the cellar of their home.
Nursing that cold last night, Cockroft showed the focus which has made her a modern Paralympic racing star.
Grey-thompson, commentating on BBC radio, said that she believed Cockroft had even more speed in her. “This has been special. It does get your heart beating a little bit and it is scary going out there. You don’t want to let those people down. I hope I did the British public proud,” Cockroft added.
Adenegan, who finished third in the 400m, said: “She’s an amazing athlete and as I get older and stronger I think the gap will close between us. But it gives me a target every day and I just have to keep working hard to get near her.”
Cockroft had her headphones tight over her ears last night, listening to track Hold On by Skepta, from the electro-grime genre, music which gets her ready to pump her arms before races. It has a resonant chorus: ‘‘Just hold on, hold on, cause you are undefeatable/you are undefeatable/ First place never settle for less/ What’s the point in trying if you ain’t trying your best.”
The outspoken athlete, who is a partner in her own management company, set up because she felt existing sports agencies undervalued Paralympic athletes, said last night that sponsors drop off after a Paralympic Games, and she believes para-athletes are still under-valued in society.
But not by the 20,000 crowd in the stadium here last night, and the many watching Channel 4’s coverage of these 10 days which have recalled London 2012 in so many ways.
As Cockroft left the stadium last night, the headphones were back on again: “I stay on my grind/ Aiming for the top and I won’t stop till I cross that finish line.”
Cockroft lived up to the letter of her musical inspiration over the last seven days. And then some.
World beater: Hannah Cockroft is the dominant figure in modern wheelchair racing