Jonnie Peacock defends T44 100m title in GB gold rush at Rio Paralympics
Last Updated: 10/09/16 6:59pm
Jonnie Peacock successfully defended his T44 100m title as Great Britain's gold medal total moved into double figures at the Rio Paralympics.
The London 2012 gold medallist, 2013 world champion and two-time European champion stormed to GB's 12th gold at the end of day two in Rio.
Peacock flew out of the blocks and triumphed in 10.81 seconds, equalling the Paralympic record he set in Thursday's heat.
The world No 1 admitted: "I just got to 40 metres then I kept pushing and that's when I pulled away. I wasn't the favourite in that race but my experience came through."
It was an astonishing day for ParalympicsGB, who won three golds in nine minutes to take their medal haul to 27.
Jody Cundy sparked their gold rush earlier in the evening when he triumphed four years after the expletive-laden rant which changed perceptions of Paralympians.
Cundy won the C4/C5 1km time-trial in one minute 04.492 seconds to get his hands on a sixth Paralympic gold.
The 37-year-old from Wisbech had hoped that landmark would come in front of a home crowd at London 2012, but officials disqualified him for a false start which led to a verbal outburst and water bottles thrown towards officials.
"Up until about three days ago I hadn't really thought about it," Cundy said.
"Then I had people in the village, in the food hall, even in the track centre, saying 'I can't wait to watch you race', 'I can't wait to watch you do what you said you were going to do four years ago'.
"All of a sudden I started feeling the pressure. It's one of the most nervous I've ever been on the start line. So once I got out the start clean, I just tried to build on that.
"It wasn't my perfect race, but it was the race that took me to my Paralympic gold."
Moments later Georgina Hermitage won the T37 100m final at the Olympic Stadium and, in the next final, Sophie Hahn powered to glory in the T38 100m.
In the pool 15-year-old Ellie Robinson secured GB's 10th gold by winning the women's S6 50m butterfly.
Robinson, inspired by Ellie Simmonds who is now her team-mate, triumphed in 35.58 seconds, a Paralympic record. Steph Slater won silver in the women's 100m butterfly S8.
Back on the track Libby Clegg won Britain's 11th when she won the women's T11 100m final by two hundredths of a second.
Clegg had won her heat in a world record time but was disqualified as her guide Chris Clarke had been deemed to have pulled her along.
However, she was reinstated and snatched victory by a whisker from China's Zhou Guohua.
Britain's first gold medal of Friday's second day came in the velodrome when Sophie Thornhill and her tandem pilot Helen Scott triumphed in the women's B 1km time-trial.
Stef Reid and Ali Jawad won silvers in the long jump and powerlifting respectively, while club thrower Gemma Prescott, powerlifter Zoe Newson,and swimmers Susannah Rodgers and Lewis White secured bronzes.
