Family affair as Storeys take gold
LONDON, Sept 1, 2012 (AFP) - Britain's Sarah Storey on Saturday clinched the women's C4/5 500m time-trial for her second gold of the Paralympics and the ninth of her Games career, as her husband had a part to play in another victory.
The 33-year-old, who won five swimming golds before switching to cycling, won in a new personal best of 36.997secs, with Jennifer Schuble of the United States in silver and Ruan Jianping of China taking bronze.
Storey's husband, Barney, 34, had earlier guided Neil Fachie to gold in the men's blind and visually impaired 1km time-trial in a new world record time of 1min 01.351secs.
Spain's Jose Enrique Porto and Jose Antonio Villanueva took silver while Rinne Oost and Patrick Bos, of the Netherlands, won bronze.
Sarah Storey described the win as “just incredible”, as she now switches to the road races in a bid to equal wheelchair racer Tanni Grey-Thompson's British women's record of 11 Paralympic golds.
And she said of her husband: “It's amazing. I'm so proud of him and all he has achieved.” In the men’s C4 individual pursuit over 4km, Carol-Eduard Novak of Romania, a silver medallist in Beijing, clocked 4min 42.000secs to take gold from the Czech Republic's defending champion Jiri Jezek, while Britain's Jody Cundy took bronze.
Cundy's medal came a day after he reacted angrily to being disqualified in his favoured event the C4 1km individual
The 33-yearold, who won five swimming golds before switching to cycling, won in a new personal best of 36.997secs, with Jennifer Schuble of the United States in silver and Ruan Jianping of China taking bronze
pursuit, at which he had been unbeaten since 2006.
But he said the experience -- and the 6,000-strong crowd -- had spurred him on as he took the race from Colombia's Diego German Duenas Gomez.
“I think if it had been one more lap I might have been struggling, I was pretty much on my last legs when I got near his rear wheel,” the British rider said.
“But with that crowd cheering me on that last lap, it was one of the most painful I've done, but one of the easiest I've done as well.”