Tokyo Paralympics: Lee Pearson, Andrew Small and Phoebe Paterson Pine claim golds as GB win eight medals
Lee Pearson wins his 14th Paralympic title as Great Britain add eight medals to their Tokyo haul on day six. …
| Venue: Tokyo, Japan Dates: 24 August-5 September Time in Tokyo: BST +8 |
| Coverage: Follow on Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sport website |
Lee Pearson won his 14th Paralympic title as Great Britain won eight medals on day six of Tokyo 2020.
Pearson, on Breezer, won individual freestyle test (grade II) gold with a score of 82.447%, as GB team-mate Georgia Wilson took bronze.
Natasha Baker won silver in the grade III event for her third medal in Tokyo.
Earlier, wheelchair racer Andrew Small won T33 100m gold while archer Phoebe Paterson Pine took archery gold on her Paralympic debut.
Athletes Jonnie Peacock and Harri Jenkins and powerlifter Louise Sugden won bronze medals.
At the end of the sixth day of action, ParalympicsGB remain second in the medal table on 68 medals, including 26 golds.
Pearson wins 14th gold
Pearson is Britain’s third most successful Paralympian behind Mike Kenny and Sarah Storey, and his gold on Monday ensured he would leave Tokyo with a clean sweep of gold medals.
The 47-year-old won individual test gold on Thursday before teaming up with Baker and Sophie Wells to retain the team title that GB have held since the Atlanta Games in 1996.
His score comfortably beat that of Austria’s Pepo Puch, who took silver, while Wilson – on Sakura – won her second bronze medal of the Games with 76.754%.
“I am so proud of my horse. He was like a baby lion in that arena,” Pearson told Channel 4.
“I have been celebrating with the French drinking French wine, so I apologise but I thought it was worthy of the occasion.
“I didn’t care if I didn’t medal. I’m very pleased that I did and I’m pleased it was a gold, but my horse gave me everything. I held his hand, he held mine – he allowed me to ride him and I am unbelievably proud of him.”
Earlier, Baker – a six-time Paralympic champion across three Games – and Lottie won grade II silver with a score of 77.614% as Denmark’s Tobias Thorning Jorgensen took gold.
Small takes athletics gold, bronzes for Jenkins and Peacock
Small’s victory in the T33 100m marked his first Paralympic title, having won bronze in the event five years ago in Rio.
The 28-year-old clocked 17.73 seconds to hold off a late charge to the line by Kuwait’s defending champion Ahmad Almutairi.
Paralympic debutant Jenkins finished in a season’s best of 18.55secs to take bronze, while team-mate James Freeman placed fourth.
“I was born in 1993, I weighed one pound, six ounces. I had a 5% chance of living. To get here is crazy,” said Small.
“To watch London 2012, be inspired by David Weir and Hannah Cockroft, and then be in Rio four years later was a little bit strange.
“It’s the same with this, especially considering the Games weren’t supposed to happen. I’ve got to pinch myself sometimes.”
Two-time Paralympic sprint champion Peacock came to Tokyo looking to add a third consecutive title to his collection but he had to settle for bronze in an astonishing photo finish that saw him share the third-place spot on the podium.
He and Germany’s Johannes Floors were judged to have both clocked 10.786 seconds, after waiting more than three minutes for the decision to be made.
“It’s tough. There’s two ways to take it. I’ve got to be grateful,” Peacock, 28, told Channel 4.
Germany’s Felix Streng won gold in a time of 10.76, while Sherman Isidro Guity Guity took silver – Costa Rica’s first Paralympic medal – in a 10.78 personal best.
Paterson Pine wins archery gold, bronze for powerlifter Sugden
Paterson Pine was a late call-up to the ParalympicsGB squad but she proved herself deserving of a place by winning gold on her Games debut in the women’s individual compound.
The 23-year-old had defeated British team-mate, Rio gold medallist and world record holder Jessica Stretton by one point in the last 16, before wins over French and Italian opponents sealed her place in the final.
There, she defeated Chile’s Mariana Zuniga Varela 134-133.
“I’ve worked incredibly hard for it and there was always a chance just because of the amount of hard work that I have put in,” said Paterson Pine.
“But as an athlete, you’re always not too sure and so I have a lot more confidence in myself now.”
Sugden, competing at her third Paralympics but first as a powerlifter, won GB’s third and final powerlifting medal in Tokyo with bronze in the -86kg division, with a best lift of 131kg.
It followed bronze medals for Micky Yule and Olivia Broome earlier in the Games.
Sugden played wheelchair basketball at the 2008 and 2012 Paralympics before taking up powerlifting in 2017.
“I still think I’m going to wake up at some point,” she said. “I’ve worked really hard and I’m just proud that it’s paid off.”
Elsewhere:
- Great Britain’s men’s wheelchair basketball team finished top of their group with a remarkable 20-point comeback to beat Australia 70-69.
- In athletics, six-time Paralympic champion David Weir and Daniel Sidbury qualified for the men’s T54 1500m final, while Kyron Duke just missed out on a medal in the F41 shot put, placing fourth.
- There was a fourth place finish too for Ellie Challis in the pool, as the 17-year-old just missed out on a second medal of the Games in the women’s S3 100m freestyle.
- Ellie Robinson was unable to defend her women’s S6 50m butterfly title, as she finished fifth, just a quarter of a second outside the medal places.
- In the men’s S5 50m backstroke final, Andrew Mullen placed seventh, while China’s Zheng Tao set a new world record with a time of 31.42 seconds.
- Ten-time Paralympic medallist Stephanie Millward finished ninth in the women’s S9 100m backstroke.
- Shooter Tim Jeffrey finished eighth in the final of the SH2 mixed 10m air rifle standing.
- In wheelchair tennis, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid are through to the quarter-finals of the men’s singles, while Jordanne Whiley is through to the quarters in the women’s.
- Hewett and Reid are also through to the doubles semi-finals.
World watch
Francisca Mardones Sepulveda became the first Chilean woman to win a Paralympic medal with F54 shot put gold, breaking her own world record with a throw of 8.33m.
“I am full of pride for being the first Chilean woman ever to win a medal,” said Mardones Sepulveda, who played wheelchair tennis in London and Rio.
“I want to be an inspiration for other girls that will start approaching the sport to become enthusiastic for it.
“I will tell them to believe in their dreams and in themselves, thinking that whatever goal they have, they can achieve it.”
Tunisia’s Walid Ktila, a four-time world champion and world record holder, won his third consecutive Paralympic gold in the T34 100m.
In the men’s F46 javelin, Dinesh Priyantha Herath Mudiyanselage smashed the world record by almost four metres, while winning Sri Lanka’s first Paralympic title in athletics.
Shooter Avani Lekhara equalled the world record to win gold in the R2 – women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1, becoming the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold.
Australia won two table tennis gold medals in the space of an hour, having waited 37 years to win a Paralympic title in the sport.
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