Paralympics GB Win 7 Golds And Take Second Place In Medals Table

7 golds already.
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ParalympicsGB have roared into second place in the medals table after winning a flurry of events on day two of the Rio Paralympics.

The British team took seven golds among 16 medals on the second day of competition, taking the overall tally to 12 gold and 27 medals, leaving GB behind only China in the medal table.

Four of those gold medals came in athletics, with Jonnie Peacock repeating his success from London 2012 as he won arguably the blue riband event on the track after asking the partisan crowd for quiet. 

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Jonnie Peacock of Britain wins the Men's 100m - T44 Final.
Jason Cairnduff / Reuters

He took a second straight T44 100m title in a time of 10.81 seconds, equalling the Paralympic record he set in Thursday’s heat.

Afterwards he described the result as “unbelievable”, adding: “I’ve always said that nothing’s ever going to top London as a personal achievement. But Rio as a sporting achievement is so much greater.

“The Paralympic movement as a whole is progressing so much. Part of me thinks that’s what London 2012 did, how that shocked Paralympic sport through the roof.

 

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Great Britain's Sophie Thornhill (left) and Helen Scott on the podium after winning gold in the Women's B 1000m Time Trial.
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“You see the repercussions here now. World records getting broken.

“Every four years Paralympic sport evolves and it gets bigger and better.

“It means so much to come here and four years later to still have this.”

Another golden day for ParalympicsGB began in the velodrome with Sophie Thornhill and her pilot Helen Scott winning the B 1km time trial, while Jody Cundy added a cathartic win in the C4/C5 event, four years after his explosive reaction to being denied at London 2012. 

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Great Britain's Georgina Hermitage celebrates winning Gold in the Women's 100m - T37.
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Moments later Georgina Hermitage won the T37 100m final at the Olympic Stadium, and in the next final Sophie Hahn claimed victory in the T38 100m.

Britain’s 10th gold soon followed as 15-year-old Ellie Robinson won the S6 50m butterfly in the swimming pool, and Libby Clegg, with her guide Chris Clark, brushed aside a disqualification and subsequent reinstatement to win the T11 100m.

Hermitage’s success was Britain’s first track and field gold of the games.

 

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Great Britain's Ellie Robinson with her Gold medal during the medal ceremony for the Women's 50m Butterfly S6.
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Kadeena Cox claimed bronze behind Hahn and later on Saturday will bid for gold on the cycling track. She is among the favourites for the C4/C5 500m time trial, which also features 12-time gold medallist Dame Sarah Storey.

Should Cox win a medal at the velodrome she will become the first Briton since Isabel Barr in 1988 to win Paralympic medals in two sports at the same games.

“I’m really looking forward to it and I hope to make the history I set out to make,” said the 25-year-old from Leeds, who had a stroke in May 2014.

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Great Britain's Sophie Hahn (gold) and Kadeena Cox (Bronze) celebrate after the Women's 100m - T38 final.
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Like Hermitage and Hahn, Clegg’s was her first Paralympic gold, but her third medal in her third games.

Robinson won her maiden Paralympic title. Like Ellie Simmonds, the Northampton schoolgirl has achondroplasia. She was inspired by Simmonds at London 2012 and competes in the same class. Now she too has a Paralympic gold.

Ireland’s first medals arrived on day two.

There was a gold for Jason Smyth - his third in succession - in the T13 100m on the athletics track, and Eoghan Clifford took bronze in the velodrome in the men’s C3 3km individual pursuit.