With a stunning world-record ride in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Kadeena Cox of the United Kingdom successfully defended her C4-5 500m Paralympic title on Friday. The 30-year-old beat Canadian world champion Kate O’Brien’s time of 35.830 seconds. She also won gold in cycling and athletics at the Rio Olympics. Britain won its seventh gold medal at the Olympics with this victory.
She broke her previous record by 0.411 seconds with a time of 34.812 seconds. “I knew I had to do something special,” Kadeena told the BBC, “and that if I put everything together that me and my coach had worked on, it would be amazing.”
Hannah Russell and Reece Dunn, both swimmers, were gold medalists for the United Kingdom. Reece won his first Paralympic gold in the S14 200m freestyle, while Hannah defended her S12 100m backstroke title against Daria Pikalova of Russia.
Bethany Firth, on the other hand, finished second in the S14 200m freestyle after failing to defend her title. The bronze medal went to Jessica-Jane Applegate of the United Kingdom, who came in third.
Britain’s Jaco van Gass won his second medal of the Games, a bronze medal in the C1-3 1000m time trial, on the velodrome, which was easier earlier in the day. Even though Jaco van Gass, a gold medalist in pursuit, set a world record, he was unable to win.
Britain’s wheelchair fencing epee team of Piers Gilliver, Dimitri Coutya, and Oliver Lam-Watson, sprinter Maria Lyle, and powerlifting debutant Olivia Broome brought home three more bronze medals.
Lam-Watson was competing in his first Paralympic Games, while Gilliver and Coutya were competing in their second.
In the T35 100m, Lyle finished third behind China’s Xia Zhou, who set a new world record. Broome, on the other hand, set a personal best with a 107kg lift in the -50kg event.