Cockroft storms to ninth Paralympic gold

Hannah Cockroft stormed to her ninth Paralympic title at Paris 2024 with a dominant success in the women’s T34 800m.

Cockroft was unmatched in the two-lap showpiece, finishing 7.66 seconds ahead of teammate Kare Adenegan to claim her second gold of the Games.

Performing in front of a packed Paris crowd, the 32-year-old got that London 2012 feeling all over again.

“I just couldn’t wait to get out here,” she said. “The atmosphere was amazing, I could feel the noise following me around, it’s like being back in London, I love it.

“It is just amazing. This is how many people love para sport. This is what we want to see, give us the opportunity to race.”

Cockroft has long been a Paralympic figurehead as the nation’s most decorated track and field athlete, a 16-time world champion to boot.

But she wants British fans to back her for the four years in between the Games with the other major Championships often taking place in front of small crowds.

“It doesn’t end here, we have World and European Championships year on year, it’s not a four-year gap for us.

“Find your favourite athletes online, give them a follow, go and support them because this is what we live for.

“I don’t want to wait 12 years again – I can’t, I’m too old!

Cockroft clocked a time of 1:55.44 to continue her stunning unbeaten record at the Paralympics.

Despite the roar inside the stadium, Cockroft revealed she was still able to pick out the voice of fiancé Nathan Maguire.

Fellow wheelchair racer Maguire narrowly missed out on joining her on the podium with two fourth-place and one fifth-place finishes across his three events in Paris with the pair are set to marry in less than a month’s time.

She added: “Nath’s voice was the last one I heard. It means so much, he understands what goes into that performance and he knows I won’t be happy with that time at all!

“He sees every session, he sees everything I do to make sure that can happen.

“I came off and he said ‘Kare went out well, you didn’t get a great start’, I was like ‘alright!’.

“Three weeks and five days until we get married, so now the hard work begins. I just want to sleep but hopefully I’ll go home, have an amazing wedding and have a great life.”

Adenegan was pleased with her fight as she claimed silver and a seventh Paralympic medal.

Adenegan finished comfortably ahead of Eva Houston of the USA in third, with Fabienne André in fourth.

Adenegan said: “I feel so happy, I feel really blessed because that 800 was hard. I was having to give absolutely everything at the end.

“My arms were dying. I feel so proud of that because I felt I had to fight for it.”

Aled Davies (Ryan Spencer-Jones, Cardiff) is taking the silver linings of claiming his first Paralympic men’s F63 shot put silver and completing the set.

The Welshman’s third throw of 15.10m saw him finish just behind Kuwait’s Faisal Sorour of Kuwait, who took gold with a throw of 15.31.

Davies, who won gold in London, Rio and Tokyo, said: “I would have been devastated to be going home empty-handed. I thought I’d won bronze, I only found out in the call room it was silver – a silver lining, I suppose.

“To see the top six throwing over the old world record is magnificent and I’m so proud of how the event is coming on.”

Didi Okoh (Joe McDonnell, Chelmsford) was in disbelief as she claimed bronze from her debut final with a PB time of 14.59 in the women’s T63 final.

The sprinter had earlier broken the T42 Paralympic record to advance to the showpiece and was the last track athlete to make their Paris bow.

Okoh claimed bronze but faced a long wait to confirm it following a review which saw Italy’s Monica Graziana Contrafatto upgraded to joint-bronze having been taken out centimetres before the finish line by her falling compatriot Ambra Sabatini.

Okoh dipped below her heat time to win bronze and finish behind gold medallist Martina Caironi of Italy and Karisma Evi Tiarani of Indonesia, who set a new world and Paralympic T42 record.

“Anything can happen in a race, a 100m is always full of surprises and this happened to be one,” she said.

“I am very happy, I am very sad for the other Italians that were in the race, I can imagine that is a lot to be so close to the line and have it gone in a split second.

“I’m really proud for pushing myself to the line because my one goal was a PB, I wanted to run a really good race and just put on a show, hopefully I did.”