Tokyo Paralympics: Kadeena Cox and Jaco van Gass deliver world records to win cycling gold and bronze
Kadeena Cox retained her C4-5 500m time trial title while Jaco van Gass added a bronze medal to the gold he won on the second day of the Paralympic Games
Last Updated: 28/08/21 7:31am
Kadeena Cox smashed the world record as she retained her C4-5 500m time trial title at the Tokyo Paralympics, while there was bronze for Jaco van Gass on day three of the Games.
Multi-sport athlete Cox, who won gold in cycling and athletics at Rio 2016, crossed the line in 34.812, which was reduced to a real time of 34.433 due to her being in the lower of the two classifications.
Canadian Kate O'Brien - a fellow C4 rider, who held the previous global best - finished just over a second slower at the Izu Velodrome.
"It feels amazing," she said. "I knew I was going to have to do something special.
"I knew if I put everything together me and my coach have worked on, it would be amazing and that's what happened, so I am so happy.
"I was not paying attention to what anyone else was doing, I was just listening to my gospel music and just reading messages from my family and focussing on that. I got up and did my own thing.
"I think today I executed a race that was near-perfect and maybe I will go quicker tomorrow [in the mixed team sprint] with the boys either side of me."
Cox had also dyed her hair red and blue ahead of the Games, in homage to the Great Britain flag.
"I like to be different so I thought blue and red will match the kit," she smiled. "I thought it would make me stand out and be the quirky Kadeena that I am."
Earlier, former soldier Van Gass broke his second world record in as many days but had to settle for third place in the men's C1-3 1000m time trial.
The Afghanistan veteran, who powered to 3000m individual pursuit gold on Thursday, finished in 1:05.569.
Yet with the event featuring athletes from different classifications, the unprecedented C3 time of Van Gass was not sufficient for another trip to the top of the podium.
That honour went to China's Li Zhangyu, a C1 rider, whose real time of 1:08.347 was reduced to a factored time of 1:05.569 due to the greater severity of his impairment.
Frenchman Alexandre Leaute, who competes in C2, claimed the silver medal, with his real time lowered from 1:09.211 to 1:05.031.
Each of the times recorded by Li, Leaute and Van Gass were world records in their respective classifications.
