Britain wins 12 gold medals in stellar Sunday in Paris Paralympics

ParalympicsGB won a whopping 12 gold medals in stellar Sunday in Paris in their biggest haul on a single day this century.

The athletes brought home a dozen first-place medals with the swimmers in particular reigning supreme in the pool with four top of the podium finishes.

There were also fine performances in the rowing and cycling, where British Paralympians won three golds in each discipline, as well as in the Para-athletics with winners in the 100m and shot put.

However, it wasn’t just the gold that brought joy, with ParalympicsGB reelin in four silver and two bronze medals to bring in a stunning 18 medals on Sunday.

It means that Britain – who have already taken 23 golds in Paris and 43 medals overall – lie second in the medal table with only China above them. 

The day started off strong at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium with Lauren Rowles and Gregg Stevenson securing gold in the mixed double sculls and Benjamin Pritchard in the men’s single sculls. The mixed coxed four was not left out either – securing a Paralympic title in their race as well.

Over in the pool at La Defense Arena, Maisie Summers-Newton grabbed a Paralympic title in the SB6 100m Breastroke while her teammates Brock Whiston and Grace Harvey also bagged gold medals.

Glory for Summers-Newton, Whiston and Harvey was followed by success for the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay team made up of William Ellard, Rhys Darbey, Poppy Maskill and Olivia Newman-Baronius.

The four pool triumphs at La Defense Arena added to two golds in athletics.

Hannah Cockroft won her fourth consecutive women’s T34 100m title and Sabrina Fortune pulled off a world record in the women’s F20 shot put to secure gold at the Stade de France.

The final day of action in the velodrome treated Great Britain to three golds with James Ball and pilot Steffan Lloyd taking the men’s B 1,000m time trial title. 

Sophie Unwin and pilot Jenny Holl came first in the women’s B 3,000m individual pursuit and there was success in the open C1-5 750m for Jody Cundy, Jaco Van Gass and Kadeena Cox.

Four silvers and two bronzes were also collected on day four of the Games to propel the team’s overall medal haul to 43, including 23 golds.

Sunday marks the team’s most successful day this century. GB’s previous record for golds won on a single day in recent history was nine, reached at both Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016. 

Summers-Newton, who retained the SM6 200 metres individual medley title, became a double champion for the second consecutive Games by successfully defending the SB6 100 breaststroke crown.

‘My self-belief is quite low sometimes but I’m so happy to get another gold medal and so chuffed, so pleased,’ she said. ‘It’s what dreams are made of.

‘When I was watching Ellie (Simmonds) in London 2012, never ever would I have thought I would come away with one Paralympic medal, let alone four.’

Whiston then battled back to win the SM8 200m individual medley in two minutes 40.37 seconds, having trailed compatriot Alice Tai by more than 10 seconds at the halfway point.

Tai secured bronze behind Russian Viktoriia Ishchiulova to add to the 100m backstroke gold she claimed on Saturday.

Harvey continued the gold rush by upgrading the SB5 100m breaststroke silver she won in Japan in a time of one minute 42.33secs, before the S14 relay team closed the evening with a bang, blowing away their rivals in three minutes 43.05s.

However, there was disappointment for Britain’s wheelchair rugby side as their title defence was ended by the United States.

In a rematch of the Tokyo final, the USA gained revenge with a 50-43 victory, setting up a showdown with Japan and leaving GB in Monday’s bronze medal match against Australia.

Captain Gavin Walker said: ‘Emotions are a little bit low at the moment, but we need to get ourselves back in game mode and best prepared for tomorrow.

‘All our focus, all our efforts are going into that bronze medal game now. There’s nothing to preserve ourselves for. It’s all or nothing really.’

Elsewhere, boccia star David Smith fell short in his pursuit of a hat-trick of individual Paralympic titles.

The BC1 champion from Rio and Tokyo – Britain’s most successful player of the boules-like sport – was beaten 4-3 by South Korea’s Jung Sung-joon in the semi-finals of the BC1 event.

Smith was subsequently denied a podium place by a 5-3 loss to Indonesia’s Muhamad Syafa in the bronze medal match.

Claire Taggart suffered a 5-2 defeat to another Indonesian player, Gischa Zayana, at the same stage of the women’s BC2 individual event.

‘I’m more disappointed about the semi-final, that game was the toss of a coin,’ said Smith.

‘On another day, I would have won that game comfortably 7-0, but the boccia gods were playing with me.’