Hannah Cockroft, Michael Jones and Aaron Moores claim Paralympic golds in Rio
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 15/09/16 8:36am
Paralympics GB stormed through the 40 gold medal mark on Wednesday night as the team's successful campaign in Rio continued with victories for Hannah Cockroft, Michael Jones, Hannah Russell and Aaron Moores.
Cockroft had the privilege of winning Britain's 40th gold with an imperious display in the final of the women's T34 400m, where she came home more than two seconds clear.
The leading women's wheelchair athlete was never troubled and set a new world record as she crossed the line in 58.78 seconds, metres clear of silver medallist Alexa Halko of the United States.
There was also a bronze medal in the same race for teen sensation Kare Adenegan who, at the age of only 15, had finished second behind Cockroft in the 100m final on Sunday.
Cockroft now has four Paralympic gold medals after winning the 100m and 200m double at London 2012, but this one came after a mishap with her racing chair.
"We took the chair back on the bus - I've been doing some training in the village - and unfortunately the bus driver fell over it," she said. "He bent my forks and my wheel, the wrong way, so I would've gone the wrong way round the track.
"Anything like that totally panics me. I have ideas how to fix a chair, but when it's the morning of a race, it completely throws you.
"But I've got fantastic team-mate in Rich Chiassaro. He keeps level headed. And fixing things calms his nerves; he's racing again tonight. It's down to me when he does well."
The 41st gold medal came in the pool where Michael Jones led home a Paralympics GB 1-2 in the S7 400m freestyle final.
Jones had qualified seven seconds slower than team-mate Jonathan Fox, but he had clearly kept plenty in reserve for the final.
He took the lead early on and Fox was never able to close the gap in the closing stages, Jones touching for the gold in four minutes, 45.78 seconds, more than three seconds clear.
Another British 1-2 followed in a thrilling final of the men's SB14 100m breaststroke, where Moores and Scott Quin went head to head.
Moores took a clear lead at the halfway stage but Quin made relentless progress in the closing stages and looked to have edged ahead, only to slightly mistime his touch on the wall and lose by three hundredths of a second.
The sensational run of results continued in the women's S12 100m backstroke final when Russell obliterated the field to claim the team's 43rd gold.
She set a new world record of one minute 06.06 seconds and won by nearly six seconds from Ukraine's Yarnya Matlo, making it eight medals in the pool - three of them gold - in 64 minutes.
Bethany Firth was narrowly denied a third gold medal of the Games in the final of the SB14 100m breaststroke final.
Firth, who won the S14 100m backstroke and 200m freestyle titles, challenged Spain's Michelle Alonso Morales all the way to the line but was beaten by 0.27s, with the winner just one hundredth of a second outside the world record.
There was also a third medal for Susie Rodgers, who won gold in the S7 50m butterfly on Monday, as she took a second bronze in a one-side S7 400m freestyle final.
Rodgers could never live with gold medal winner McKenzie Coan, who won the race by nearly 13 seconds from United States team-mate Cortney Jordan with Rodgers a further five seconds behind.
The evening schedule in the pool had started with a silver medal for Paralympics GB as well, with Claire Cashmore finishing second in the final of the women's SB8 100m breaststroke competition.
Cashmore chased home Canada's Katarina Rixon and there was a bronze medal for Ireland to cheer, with Ellen Keane finishing a distant third.
There was disappointment for Britain's Andy Lapthorne in the final of the men's Quad Singles tennis tournament, as he lost 6-3 6-4 to Dylan Alcott of Australia.
But Paralympics GB are guaranteed another gold and silver in the men's singles with doubles partners Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett progressing to Friday's final.
Reid and Hewett will first team up in Thursday's doubles final against France's Nicolas Peifer and Stephane Houdet, with Houdet having been Reid's singles semi-final victim. Hewett defeated Belgium's Joachim Gerard.
