Georgina Hermitage, Hollie Arnold and Rob Davies all win gold at Paralympics
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 14/09/16 9:39am
Paralympics GB continued their sensational run of success in Rio with gold medals for Georgina Hermitage, Hollie Arnold and Rob Davies.
Hermitage, who won the T37 100m title last Friday, stormed clear of the field over one lap to win by nearly three seconds.
She crossed the line in a new world record time of 1:00.53 with China's Xiaoyan Wen a distant second ahead of Neda Bahi from Tunisia.
The gold medal was Great Britain's 29th in Rio, only five short of the tally they secured in London four summers ago.
"I did what I needed to do so I'm happy. The heat is a good thing for my hemiplegia as it loosens my muscles off, but I've still got to cope with the humidity," she said.
"I'm really happy and relieved and I can relax for a day now before the relay. I was very nervous for this one because the 400m means everything, but I've pulled it off and hopefully there's more in the tank in years to come."
A 30th gold arrived soon after when Arnold produced another world record display in winning the women's F46 javelin.
Arnold launched the javelin out to 43.01m, bettering her personal best by more than two metres to add the Paralympic title to the world crown she secured in Doha last year.
"This has been my absolute dream for so long - I can't believe that I'm Paralympic champion and also a double world champion," she said.
"I've been injured for two months, so preparations have not been ideal but I tried to put that to the back of my mind and seize the moment. I didn't expect to throw that far but I've trained hard and rehab has even made me stronger in many ways."
A matter of minutes later, Paralympics GB moved on to 31 golds when Rob Davies won the final of the men's Class 1 table tennis tournament.
The Welshman, who suffered a broken neck while playing rugby 11 years ago, beat South Korea's Young Dae Joo 3-1 to follow up Will Bayley's gold in the Class 7 final on Monday.
"I've got to (reflect) and not only what happened 11 years ago, but four years ago in London," Davies said. "London 2012 gave me that motivation to train hard. That's been in the back of my mind all the time.
There was also a bronze medal for Paralympics GB in the men's F31/32 club throw, with 36-year-old Stephen Miller securing his seventh Paralympic medal some 20 years after his first.
Miller, who won gold in the corresponding event in 1996, 2000 and 2004 and was awarded an MBE earlier this year, produced a season's best throw of 31.93m, but that was nearly two metres adrift of the winner, Poland's Maciej Sochal.
A second bronze medal came at the Olympic Tennis Centre, where Andy Lapthorne and Jamie Burdekin won their quad doubles play-off against Israel's Itai Erenlib and Shraga Weinberg 3-6 6-4 7-6.
