Sarah Storey storms to landmark 11th Paralympics gold
Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport
Sarah Storey equalled the British record for modern Paralympic victories as she routed the C4-5 road race field to secure her fourth London 2012 gold.
The 34-year-old joins swimmer Dave Roberts and wheelchair racer Baroness Grey-Thompson in winning 11 titles.
Storey, who had already won the road time trial, the 500m time trial and the individual pursuit earlier in the Games, seized control from the gun.
She finished alone, over seven minutes ahead of Anna Harkowska.
"The records are lovely things to talk about but each race is an achievement in its own, each is hard fought," she told BBC Radio 5 live.
"Just being able to say that you have won for your country is a great honour."
Storey - who is still five golds short of the 16 won by compatriot Mike Kenny before the start of the modern Paralympics - won her first medals as a 14-year-old swimmer at Barcelona 20 years ago.
Since then she has won another four in the pool before switching to cycling in 2005 following a chronic ear infection that prevented her training in the water.
Each of her three success in London has come by a considerable margin, but her fourth and final victory was perhaps the most emphatic.
Fellow Briton Mark Cavendish believed his attempt to win the Olympic road race fell victim to the strength of British cycling, with other riders unwilling to help the favourites chase down a breakaway.
Storey's superiority over an admittedly smaller field meant she did not need to worry about a repeat.
She leapt off the front off the pack after just five minutes of the 64km race and it was the last the competition saw of the Manchester rider.
Storey had a lead of more than four minutes 51 seconds by halfway and, after waving to the partisan crowds all the way down the Brands Hatch home straight, rolled over the finishline in leisurely style.
Poland's Harkowska, who was also second in the road time trial and individual pursuit, collected silver behind Storey for the third time at the Games.
"You can never take anything for granted, there could be other riders or punctures, but I had to stay upright and make sure I finished," added Storey.
"Sixty-four kilometres is never easy, whatever it looked like."
Mark Colbourne, like Storey, was aiming for his fourth medal of London 2012, but came home 24th in the men's C1-3 road race with fellow Briton Shaun McKeown 21st.
Britain's Jon-Allan Butterworth also failed in his hunt for a fourth medal.
The 26-year-old Iraq veteran, who picked up three silver medals in the velodrome, dropped out of the C4-5 race as he struggled with injuries sustained in a previous training crash.
Comments
Join the conversation
If they had competitions for shopkeepers and she turned out to be the best shopkeeper in the world then they'd make her a Dame wouldn't they.
Just ask Sir Terry Leahy.
Cycling in volves as much pulling into the bars to increase the downforce on the pedals. Hand stregth is crucial here and it must obviously be balanced. Alternatively in kayaking the legs are used to grip against the inside of the hull to provide both stability for the torso and the same counterforce against the arm stroke
to Sarah Storey.
Dr.Cajetan Coelho
Thank you to all of you for showing what can be done.
In the 1976 paralympic breaststroke 25M, there were only 5 entrants, in 1980 there were 4 and in 1984 there were 3 (three), Mike Kenny won gold in all 3. Are you going to compare that with Jesse Owens?
Mike Kenny competed in a time of true amateurism and his achievements are astonishing, but it's not fair to compare that era with this.
Yes it was in its infancy,Mike Kenny had no sponsership,his Wife used to check his times with her stopwatch,now athletes are having vast amounts of money to help them,there is more competition now.204 nations competed in the 2008 games.In 1936 there were only 49 nations entered,you wont find many people saying that Jessie Owens didn't have much competition.
In 2011 knighthoods were given to all members of society, including a beekeeper, the brigde master at Tower bridge......and a number of shop workers and other non paralympic athletes :-).
(That is not an allusion to anything untowards!)
But to win by such a wide margin by riding solo against the rest of the pack shows she must have been the strongest rider by a country mile