Tag: Sarah Storey

In an as-expected but none-the-less utterly thrilling Women’s C5 Individual Pursuit Sarah Storey racked up the first gold medal for team GB at the London Paralympics. The 34-year-old, hotly tipped for success at The Games and with an impressive string of titles and records already to her name, streaked passed her opponent – Poland’s Anna Harkowska – little over halfway through the 3km event; she had earlier qualified for the final in a time of 3:32.170 seconds – more than a second better than her 2009 best. New Zealand’s Fiona Southorn took the Silver, with GB’s Crystal Lane in fourth position.

It has now been confirmed that Sarah Storey will ride for Great Britain in the team sprint at next month’s Para-Cycling Track World Championships, taking place in Los Angeles. The event is the final opportunity for countries to obtain points and earn qualification places for the London 2012 Paralympics; with international cycling rules now allowing mixed teams, Storey, who was born with a deformed left hand and switched to cycling after a successful career as a Paralympic swimmer (16 medals, including five gold) will line up with Jody Cundy and Darren Kenny.

The 34-year-old was part of the women’s Olympic team pursuit squad before being dropped last month, ending her hopes of becoming Britain’s first ever Paralympic and Olympic athlete. Writing on her website (www.teamstoreysport.com) at the time she said: ‘I have always said that London 2012 is about riding as many events as I am good enough for and so now it is important for me to concentrate on the other events I have at the Games…I always said the Team Pursuit was another opportunity to become the best athlete I could be and it would be a bonus if I was able to make the event work alongside the events in which I am Para-cycling World Champion…’

Rachel Morris, Sarah Storey and David Stone have each scored double-Golds helping GB take a flying start at the first round of the 2011 UCI Para-cycling World Cup in Sydney, Australia (May 4-6). With a total tally of ten medals the British women dominated by bagging eight of them. The event, which this year saw more than 130 athletes from 18 countries battling it out, was only introduced last year by the UCI in order to bring the discipline in line with other cycling disciplines. But with the 2012 Games fast approaching far more than mere medals were at stake with everyone fighting for those valuable UCI Paralympic qualifying points. The World Cup’s next round will take place in Segovia, Spain (June 10-12) before moving on to Baie-Comeau, Canada from July 8-10.

GB’s First Round medal results were:

Gold
Rachel Morris – Women’s H3 Handbike Road Race
David Stone – Men’s T2 Trike Road Race
Sarah Storey – Women’s C5 Road Race
Rachel Morris – Women’s H3 Handbike Time Trial
Sarah Storey – Women’s C5 Time Trial
David Stone – Men’s T2 Trike Time Trial

Silver
Karen Darke – Women’s H2 Handbike Road Race
Lora Turnham (piloted by Fiona Duncan) – Women’s B/Vi Tandem Time Trial
Karen Darke – Women’s H2 Time Trial

Bronze
Lora Turnham (piloted by Fiona Duncan) – Women’s B/Vi Tandem Road Race