GOLDEN GORDON
Reid laps up glory in Rio after conquering best friend Alfie
GORDON REID beat his best friend and doubles partner Alfie Hewett to win wheelchair tennis gold as Great Britain surpassed their medal target with two days of the Paralympics still remaining. Flagbearer Lee Pearson and Paul Blake, son of a Star Wars actor and prima ballerina, also clinched gold as the team raced past their UK Sport target of 121 medals.
Reid and Hewett had won silver together in doubles the previous evening but put their professional and personal relationship to one side to assume their position on opposite sides of the net.
After clinching victory with a forehand rocket, Sportsmail columnist Reid, 24, held his head in his hands before warmly embracing 18-year-old Hewett. A large group of his supporters inside Rio’s tennis stadium, wearing t-shirts bearing his nickname ‘Gio’ rose to their feet and he posed arms spread wide before them.
Scotsman Reid draws inevitable comparisons with compatriot Andy Murray and has out performed even him this year, winning both the Australian Open and Wimbledon and getting to the final of the French Open.
Earlier, Blake was cheered to victory over one lap inside the Olympic stadium by his father, also called Paul, who is best known for playing a bountyhunter called Greedo in Star Wars shot by the main character Han Solo.
Running from lane eight, the same berth from which South Africa’s Wayde Van Nierkerk broke the 400m world record during the Olympics, Blake clinched his own famous win in the T36 400m.
‘I think my dad’s still the most famous member of the family,’ said Blake, ‘he still does conventions all over the world because there’s geeks left, right and centre but I’m pretty high up there after that.’
Holding strong in the final straight as his rivals tired, he crossed the line in 54.49sec ahead of Roman Pavlyk of Ukraine. Blake is one of several British athletes to have benefited from the absence of Russia, with the country completely banned from the Paralympics after evidence of state sponsored doping across all sport emerged.