Injury can’t put the brakes on Hannah’s gold run
She misses world record with bloodied hand
Wheelchair racing star Hannah Cockroft shrugged off a freak injury to smash her own Paralympic record as she cruised to the seventh gold of her glittering career in Tokyo.
The 29-year-old suffered a nasty cut after catching her right hand in her chair less than an hour before dominantly defending her T34 800m crown in testing conditions at the Olympic Stadium.
She sported strapping on the wound, which was also covered by custom-made 3D printed gloves – manufactured by GB team-mate Richard Chiassaro – to provide additional grip.
Cockroft said: “I put my hand through the wheel, while the chair was moving – I’ve never done it before.
“Wheelchairs and rain don’t mix so I slipped off the rim and there’s not really much space to slip into so it went straight in.
“My hand went straight round but luckily a coach was with me. It’s pretty bloody but it’s fine.”
Asked if she considered pulling out, she replied: “Never. The doctors and everyone looked like they were going to lean that way but I was ‘no way’.
“Even if my hand’s fallen off I was going to be on that start line. My hand’s a bit sore so I’m struggling to grip, so they just tied my hand a bit tighter.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t rain. Obviously it’s been a shocking few days for the rain.”
Cockroft showed no ill-effects and powered out of the blocks, finishing more than 10 seconds ahead of British silver medallist Kare Adenegan in 1:48.99, before laughing as she declared herself “gutted” to be 0.12secs outside her world record.
American Alexa Halko prevented Paralympicsgb dominating the podium as she took bronze in 2:02.22, just under seven seconds ahead of fourthplaced Briton, Fabienne Andre.
Having already retained her 100m title on this track last Sunday, Cockroft heads home four golds short of matching Baroness Tanni Grey-thompson as Britain’s most successful athletics Paralympian.
Cockroft’s boyfriend, Nathan Maguire – winner of a silver in the 4x100m universal relay – failed to make it past the heats of the men’s T54 800m, a race won by 10-time world champion Marcel Hug, who collaborated with Swiss engineers to design his chair.
“I would love that investment, because if you look at my chair it’s not aerodynamic. It’s not the best it could be,” Cockroft said.
“My chair is as light as it can go but what else can we change, down through my helmet, or my gloves or my push technique?
“There’s so many things we could look at but, as athletes, we don’t have the money to put ourselves in a wind chamber or do any of those things so we’re lucky this time we’ve had these rather snazzy suits made.
“Rich Chiassaro went in a wind tunnel and designed these and I redesigned them for a woman. We need more like that.
“It can’t happen every four years, it has to happen every year so when we get to that start line we know our equipment is the absolute best. Marcel absolutely destroyed it – what’s to say if Nathan wasn’t in that chair he could have won more medals.”
Although Cockroft remains in a class of her own, Coventryborn Adenegan was satisfied with a second silver behind her compatriot and hopes to close the gap before Paris 2024.
“I did what I expected and to get two season’s bests when it matters shows that all the hard work to peak on time paid off,” said the 20-year-old.
“It’s been a tough couple of years for all of us, so I’m really pleased with how I performed.”
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