Dame Sarah Storey wins record 12th Paralympic gold
Last Updated: 09/09/16 8:08am
Dame Sarah Storey became Britain's most successful female Paralympian as Britain won five gold medals on day one in Rio.
The 38-year-old swimmer-turned-cyclist surpassed former wheelchair racer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson's mark as victory in the C5 3km individual pursuit in the velodrome gave her a 12th gold.
Storey qualified in a world-record time of three minutes 31.394 seconds - more than 17 seconds quicker than Crystal Lane - and overtook her team-mate before the halfway point in the final to claim gold.
Storey won her first two Paralympic gold medals as a 14-year-old swimmer in Barcelona in 1992, later switching to the bikes for Beijing in 2008.
I'm just so relieved in many ways," said Storey, who has three more chances for gold in the C4-5 road race, C5 time trial and C4-5 500m time trial. "Everyone was expecting it, but sport has a habit of throwing something in the mix.
"Anything can go wrong, so you can never bank on it happening, but I'm in better shape than I realised after breaking the world record, so I'm absolutely delighted.
"Winning on day one and throwing down that gauntlet - showing people how fits and strong i am - is obviously huge. It's great motivation to keep pushing.
"The 500m is the event I fully expect the sprinters to step up this time. If they don't I'll be right there to sweep it away from them like I did in London, then out to the road which is where I do 99 per cent of my racing."
The honour of Britain's first medal of the XV Paralympics went to Megan Giglia, who won gold in the C1-2-3 3km individual pursuit moments prior to Storey.
Giglia also clocked a world record in qualifying in 4:03.544, more than eight seconds clear of the United States' Jamie Whitmore, her rival in the final.
Britain claimed a fourth medal in the velodrome as Steve Bate and his tandem pilot Adam Duggleby took gold the 4km pursuit after setting a world record in qualifying.
The team's two other golds came in the pool, where Bethany Firth retained the 100m backstroke S14 title and Ollie Hynd won the 400m freestyle S8 final - again in a world-record time.
Jessica-Jane Applegate took bronze behind Firth, and there were silver medals for Jonathan Fox in the 100m backstroke S7 and Harriet Lee in the 100m breaststroke S9.
A personal best helped Andrew Mullen to bronze in the 200m freestyle S5 and there was bronze, too, for Stephanie Millward in the 400m freestyle S8.
On the track, Jonnie Peacock set a new Paralympic record of 10.81 as he qualified quickest for Friday's 100m T44 final.
