KADEENA HITS GOLD STANDARD
KADEENA COX stormed home in the T38 400m final as GB bettered their gold medal tally from Doha in 2015.
Cox, 26, won golds on the track and in cycling in the Rio Paralympics last year and hit top gear again last night to run 1:02.87mins – just outside her world record set in Brazil.
Earlier this year the Manchesterborn athlete took part in The Jump on TV and had £28,000 worth of funding withheld because of the danger of injury.
And this was payback time as she destroyed her rivals to win GB’s 14th gold of the games.
Paul Blake’s dad, also Paul, played bounty hunter Greedo in Star Wars, but the Force was not with the Dorset runner, who faded to finish fourth in the T36 400m final behind Aussie James Turner. Blake – who won gold in Rio last year – looked nailed on for silver with 50m to go, but was overhauled first by Poland’s Krzysztof Ciuksza then pipped for bronze on the line by Kiwi Keegan Pitcher.
Blake, who has cerebral palsy, was eighth in the 200m, rallied to run a season’s best time here of 55.79 secs, but it was not good enough to make the podium.
Georgie Hermitage should boost GB’s medal tally in tonight’s T37 100m final. The Guildford girl broke the world record in winning the 400m on Thursday and wants a golden double to add to the two world championship gongs she won in Doha.
Other medal prospects include Aled Davies, who goes in the F42 shot fresh from winning the discus and gold would give him six world titles in the last three games.
Cox, Sophie Hahn and Olivia Breen are in tonight’s T38 100m final, with Hahn hunting another Brit double after breaking the world record in the 200m last Saturday.