Cyclist Sarah Storey yesterday stormed to her eighth Paralympic gold, taking the women’s C5 individual 3km pursuit after a lightning-quick qualifying time that would have won her a non-disabled title.
The 34-year-old rider’s winning performance, which opened the hosts’ gold account, came on a day of new world bests in the Velodrome and in swimming, as China took the first gold of the Games in the first day of competition.
Storey, who won five Paralympic swimming golds before switching to the bike in 2008 and winning two more in Beijing four years ago, lapped Poland’s Anna Harkowska with just under half of the 12-lap race to go.
The British cyclist earlier clocked a new world best of 3min 32.170sec, which would have won her gold at the World Championships earlier this year and the UCI Track Cycling World Cup at the same venue in February.
That World Cup race, a test event for the Olympic Velodrome, was won by her British compatriot Joanna Rowsell in 3min 32.364sec.
Rowsell took Olympic gold earlier this month in the team pursuit.
Storey, who was born without a functioning left hand, said afterwards: “I always thought that if I could get off to a great start it would set up the week and hopefully that’s the case.
“To get the gold medal is a dream come true.”
Fiona Southorn, of New Zealand, took bronze after beating Britain’s Crystal Lane.
In the women’s C1-2-3 pursuit, China’s Zeng Sini broke the world best in qualifying and beat Australia’s Simone Kennedy to take gold.
In the equivalent men’s race, China’s Li Zhang Yu was too strong for Britain’s Mark Lee Colbourne, while Germany’s Tobias Graf finished in third place.
Susan Powell, who also lowered the world record in the women’s C4 3km individual pursuit qualifiers, won Australia’s first gold of the Games, beating Megan Fisher of the United States.
Alexandra Green, also of Australia, took bronze.
Australia was also guaranteed the top two spots in the men’s blind and visually impaired 4km tandem pursuit, with Kieran Modra and Scott McPhee up against compatriots Bryce Lindores and Sean Finning.
In the pool, Britain’s Jonathan Fox signalled his intent to upgrade his 100m backstroke S7 Paralympic silver, lowering his own previous world best by 0:59sec to 1:09.86.
US swimmer Lantz Lamback, the defending champion from Beijing, failed to qualify after finishing 10th quickest overall.
New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe meanwhile set a new world best of 2min 28.73sec in the women’s 200m individual medley.
The end of a morning of swimming heats coincided with the final of the women’s R2 10m air rifle at the Royal Artillery Barracks, which saw China’s Zhang Cuiping win the Games’ first gold, scoring 104.9 for an overall score of 500.9.