Hurricane Hannah strikes again for sixth gold

Hannah Cockroft shattered her world 100m T34 record as she flew to a sixth Paralympic Games gold medal on Sunday (29 August) at the National Olympic Stadium.

The wheelchair racer lived up to her ‘Hurricane Hannah’ tag as she stormed down the track in 16.39 seconds to spearhead a British one-two in the T34 event. Kare Adenegan took silver. Australia’s Robyn Lambird was third.

“I’ve already cried, and I’m not a crier. I can’t believe it,” Cockroft said after bagging her third successive gold in the event.

“To get out there, put that time down, I can’t believe it. I did not think I was capable of that time.”

In the women's long jump T12, Ukraine’s Oksana Zubkovska won her fourth Paralympic Games title in a row with another dominant display, taking gold with a leap of 5.54 metres.

Gold by one centimetre

A world-record breaking throw of 44.73m, extending her own leading mark, earned China’s Yao Juan a fifth throwing gold of her career in women’s discus. It was a Chinese one-two with Yue Yang. 

Yao's fellow countrywoman Yiting Shi equalled the world record in the women’s 200m T36 to win gold (28.21), meaning China top the medal table in athletics with eight golds so far.

RPC’s Denis Gnezdilov snatched the men’s shot put F40 gold with a world-record effort of 11.16m on his last attempt, taking the title by just one centimetre ahead of Iraq’s Garrah Tnaisah.

"The reason I was able to win was because I wanted the gold medal at the Paralympic Games,” Gnezdilov said. 

“Winning was the goal. Winning was the reason. These are the Paralympic Games. I was determined to win them and to grab the gold, and also to set the world record.

Elvin Astanov from Azerbaijan won the other gold on offer in the men’s shot put F53 with a Paralympic record of 8.33m.

Competition continues with 18 finals in the evening session on Sunday. All results can be found on Paralympic.org.