Woodhall Wins First Paralympic Gold, Storey Takes 19th

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Sep, 2024) Hunter Woodhall, the double amputee sprinter who is one half an Olympic-Paralympic power couple, charged to gold in the 400m on Friday while British cyclist Sarah Storey won the 19th title of her career.

American Woodhall, who is married to Olympic women's long jump champion Tara Woodhall-Davis, timed 46.36sec to hold off world record holder Johannes Floors of Germany and ran straight into the arms of his wife in the Stade de France.

It was a reversal of the roles when Woodhall-Davis won Olympic gold in the same stadium on August 8 and embraced her husband.

Earlier, Storey beat French teenager Heidi Gaugain in an exciting sprint finish to the cycling road race.

It was 46-year-old Storey's 30th Paralympic medal, earned across two sports and in the nine Paralympic Games she has contested since Barcelona 1992.

"It's amazing, really amazing it's not sunk in at all. I'm delighted my wheel was at the front at the finish," Storey told reporters.

"It was just a matter of holding her as she continued her acceleration, it was a long way out.

"I'm still nippy for a 46-year-old but I use it wisely," she added.

Storey refused to rule out competing at her 10th Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

"I need to enjoy this one first, never say never to anything," she said.

- Golden slam -

In wheelchair tennis, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid won gold for Britain in the men's doubles final, beating Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda 6-2, 6-1 on the clay of Roland Garros.

Reid and Hewett have won 21 Grand Slam titles since starting to play together in 2016, but they were clear the Paralympic title was the one that they wanted the most.

They became the first men's pair to win the "golden slam".

In other athletics action, double amputee Dutch sprinter Fleur Jong added the T64 women's 100m gold to the long jump title she won earlier in these Games.

She led home Dutch teammates Kimberly Alkemade and Marlene van Gansewinkel for the first clean sweep by one country of any athletics event at Paris Games.

"It's the one I've been dreaming of," Jong said. "The long jump is my love, and the 100m is my biggest challenge, so I really wanted this one."

Italian swimmer Simone Barlaam, who was born with a congenital condition which resulted in an under-developed right leg, won his second gold in Paris with victory in the men's 100m butterfly.

Brazil's Gabrielzinho, one of the faces of the Paris Paralympics, was in action again on Friday but failed to make the final after moving into a different category.

The Brazilian, who has stumps for arms and atrophied legs, has won three gold medals at these Games but had warned that when he moved into the S3 class, he would struggle.

So it proved as he finished fifth in his 50m freestyle heat won by Serhii Palamarchuk of Ukraine, leaving him outside the eighth fastest swimmers from the two heats who qualified for the final.

With several events still to finish on Friday, China led the medals table on 80 golds with Great Britain advancing to 42 and the USA third with 31.

The Netherlands are fourth with 24 golds and Italy overtook France to sit fifth on 20 golds.