28 August 2021
Today in Tokyo - Day 4
ParalympicsGB had another incredible day of sporting success in a superb Saturday performance that saw Great Britain firmly determine their place as second in the medal table.
Seven gold medals graced ParalympicsGB athletes, with golden cycling couple Neil and Lora Fachie winning Paralympic titles within minutes of each other, and a second gold in the pool for Maisie Summers-Newton, while it was double T38 100m golds for Sophie Hahn and Thomas Young.
If you missed any of the action, here’s what happened today.
Fachie household strike double velodrome gold and Brits add team sprint glory
Neil and Lora Fachie captured the hearts of the nation as they won Paralympic golds within just 16 minutes of each other in Izu’s velodrome.
Neil and his pilot Matt Rotherham broke their own world record in the B 1,000m time trial in a time of 58.038 to beat teammates James Ball and pilot Lewis Stewart for gold.
Lora followed suit with her pilot Corinne Hall, retaining their title in the B 3,000m pursuit, while Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl took the bronze for GB.
Kadeena Cox and Jaco van Gass won their second golds of the Games alongside Jody Cundy in the mixed team sprint, sealing the win by just 0.106 seconds over China.
Neil and Lora Fachie both won gold on the final day in the Velodrome
Scorching sprint golds for Young and Hahn
Thomas Young and Sophie Hahn scorched to Paralympic sprint titles in the space of just 26 minutes – the first two athletics golds of Tokyo 2020 for ParalympicsGB.
Young went sub-11 seconds for the first time in his career as he claimed the men’s 100m T38 title in a European record 10.94 seconds.
And defending champion Hahn, who hasn’t lost in seven years, was pushed harder than ever before, crossing the line in the women’s 100m T38 just six hundredths ahead of Colombia’s Darian Jimenez Sanchez.
Thomas Young ran sub-11 seconds for the first time to take gold
Summers-Newton in dream world after another gold
Maisie Summers-Newton topped Thursday’s success in the pool with another gold medal in the SB6 100m breaststroke final, while Ellie Simmonds finished fourth.
The S14 4x100m freestyle relay team won the inaugural event as Reece Dunn, Bethany Firth, Jessica-Jane Applegate and Jordan Catchpole set a new world record in a time of 3:40.63 – five seconds faster than their closest rivals, Australia.
Meanwhile, Grace Harvey won silver in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB5.
Maisie Summers-Newton matched Ellie Simmonds by winning her second gold medal at her maiden Paralympics
Brilliant bronze for Coutya and Yule
Dimitri Coutya won his third wheelchair fencing bronze of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games after narrowly missing a chance for gold in the men’s foil individual category B event.
Coutya had previously won bronze in the individual epee discipline, as well as in the team equivalent alongside ParalympicsGB teammates Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson.
The 23-year-old dominated Russian Paralympic Committee fencer Albert Kamalov with a 15-2 win in the foil B class bronze medal bout on Saturday, shortly after agonisingly missing out on the chance to battle for gold.
Meanwhile, Micky Yule played ‘a dangerous game of poker’ and came up trumps as he captured a brilliant powerlifting bronze medal.
Competing in the men’s -72kg category, Yule opened with success at 180kg before lifting 182kg on his final try to edge out his rivals and snatch a first Paralympic podium finish of his career.
“We played a dangerous game of poker and we won and you know what – we never even had anything in our hand,” laughed a delighted Yule.
Micky Yule claimed bronze in Tokyo
The British wheelchair rugby team won their first Paralympic semi-final with an incredible 55-49 victory over world champions Japan, and will go head-to-head with the United States on Sunday.
In a tight first half, the ParalympicsGB team traded blows with the host nation, as Britain entered half-time with a slender two-point lead.
Jim Roberts then turned on the class in the second half to lead his side to a decisive total, guaranteeing GB a medal and giving them a shot at gold on Sunday.
Will Bayley saved a match point on his way to the Paralympic final
An incredibly relieved Will Bayley reached his third consecutive table tennis men’s singles class 7 Paralympic final courtesy of an enthralling 3-2 semi-final victory over China’s Liao Keli.
Bayley, 33, looked to be steamrolling his way to a guaranteed silver medal at Tokyo 2020 after winning the opening two games 11-6 and 11-9 against an opponent he whitewashed in the group stages five years ago.
But Liao, ranked No.3, fought back superbly and Bayley was forced to save a match point having been pegged back to 2-2 before finally prevailing 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 9-11, 12-10 to put him one win away from defending the gold medal he won at Rio 2016.
Tom Matthews, Jack Hunter-Spivey and Paul Karabardak all took bronze after losing their semi-finals today.
Elsewhere, the women’s basketball team claimed their first win of the Games with a 75-38 win over Australia to secure their place in the quarter-final, while the men had a nail-bitter against the United States with a 64-63 win in the group stages.
However, there was no medal luck in the first day of the triathlon as it was fourth positions for Fran Brown in the PT2 event and Alison Peasgood with guide Nikki Bartlett in the women’s PTVI race.
The men’s equivalent also had no luck for Dave Ellis and guide Luke Pollard who were relegated from medal contention after a snapped bike chain.
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Hannah Cockroft will aim to win her sixth Paralympic gold medal on Sunday
Super Sunday
Sunday offers a whole of new opportunities for ParalympicsGB including the first sightings of two of the team’s superstars.
Hannah Cockroft, the five-time Paralympic champion, will look to add to her collection in the 100m T34 final (2:25am BST) with compatriots Kare Adenegan and Fabienne Andre also looking to get amongst the medals.
And there is more to come in at the National Stadium where Maria Lyle, who already has a bronze medal to her name, will be racing in the final of the 200m T35 (11:44am BST), and world champion Sabrina Fortune goes in the shot put F20 (11am BST).
That’s before we come to Jonnie Peacock, the star of London and Rio, who will kick off his Games in the heats of the 100m T64 (1:29pm BST).
Away from the athletics, perhaps the biggest event of the day will be Will Bayley’s table tennis final when he takes on Shuo Yan of China (3:45am BST) as he bids to retain his Paralympic title.
Over at the Sea Forest Waterway, it is the final day of rowing action where Benjamin Pritchard goes for gold in the men’s single sculls (3:10am BST), while Laurence Whiteley and Lauren Rowles are in the final of the mixed double sculls (3:30am BST).
Rowles and Whiteley are the defending champions, as is the coxed four made up of Ellen Buttrick, Giedre Rakauskaite, James Fox and Ollie Stanhope with cox Erin Kennedy (3:50am BST).
It is a big day in the wheelchair rugby as ParalympicsGB are already guaranteed a first medal but will be hoping it is gold when they take on the USA in the final (10am BST).
In the first events of the day, Claire Cashmore and Lauren Steadman will both be looking to add to their previous Paralympic medals, they go in the triathlon S5 (12:31am BST).
Lee Pearson, Natasha Baker and Sophie Wells will be in action in the dressage team test to music (11:14am BST) and that is just a taste of what promises to be another exciting day in Tokyo.
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