Mitcham’s Corinne Hall piloted Lora Turnham to gold in the Rio velodrome yesterday as south west London athletes won their first medals of the Paralympic Games.
Hall and Turnham impressively won the tandem pursuit B final by nearly three seconds from silver medalists New Zealand, clocking three minutes, 28.050 seconds.
Hall, from Mitcham, dedicated the gold to her father who died two years ago, and will team up with Turnham again in the time trail on Wednesday and road race on Saturday.
PARALYMPIC CHAMPIONS! Thank you @loraturnham for letting me share this moment with you! #wedidit pic.twitter.com/IUNYLiDeEl
— Corrine Hall (@Corrinehall) September 11, 2016
There was also a silver medal for Toby Gold in the T33 100m on Saturday.
The Kingston AC and Polytechnic Harriers wheelchair athlete, who trains in Richmond, clocked 17.84 seconds on his Paralympic debut to claim the medal.
He said: “Seeing my family on the victory lap was pretty special.
“Everything has come together perfectly, I’m really happy with how I executed that race, to do it at my first Paralympics is really special.”
Richmond’s Abbie Hunnisett just missed out on the medals in the F32 club throw as she finished fourth, Mickey Bushell came seventh in the T53 100m final, Mo Jomni eighth in the T53 400m final and Aaron McKibbin lost in the quarter-finals of the table tennis class 8 event.
Hammersmith’s Andy Lapthorne plays David Wagner in the wheelchair tennis quad singles semi-finals today after beating Alberto Corradi 6-2 6-3 in the first round and Heath Davidson 6-1 6-2 in the quarter-finals.
He and partner Jamie Burdekin lost in the semi-finals of the quad doubles though, 6-1 6-2 to Davidson and his partner Dylan Alcott.
Lapthorne and Burdekin will play Israeli pair Itai Erenlib and Shraga Weinberg for bronze.
Wallington’s David Weir goes for his first gold of the Paralympics at 2.16pm today in the T54 400m final having qualified third fastest from the heats.
He will have extra reason to celebrate if he claims a seventh Paralympic gold, after his fourth child Lenny was born over the weekend.
Welcome to the world Lenny Weir sorry I wasn’t there to see you born love you with all heart ❤
— David Weir CBE (@davidweir2012) September 11, 2016
Feature image courtesy of Channel 4, via Youtube, with thanks
