05 September 2012

While finals were in short supply and only on the field, there was quite a lot of heat action in the Olympic stadium on Wednesday morning with plenty of successful British athletes.

In the T54 800m heats David Weir (Jenny Archer) showed no signs of tiredness from his gold medal performance of the night before with another superb tactical ride. He controlled the last 200m, which he covered in 22.40 seconds and his time of 1:37.09 was the fastest of the morning.

He said, "It was a bit tough this morning. I had a tough heat again. I just had to get through in the first two places. I didn’t want to get through as the fastest loser and I felt a bit tired this morning. I did not get enough to eat last night. I need to go home now and eat and recover."

On whether he can win three golds he remains cautious."It’s potentially there. But if you look at Zhang and Kim Gyu Dae, it’s going to be tough. "That’s why you have to train 20 per cent harder. These guys are younger than me and I have had to up my game in the last 10 weeks to get some more endurance."

In the T37 200m heats, there was a superb run from Bethany Woodward (Jonas Dodoo) who finished second in her heat in an European record of 29.50 to qualify as second fastest overall to the Namibian Johanna Benson who passed Woodward in the last 50 metres.

She said,  “I was planning to come out with something like that. It was a really good run for me. I wasn’t tired at all from the relay last night, For some reason I got a solid seven and a half hours sleep, so this morning I was raring to go. That crowd was incredible. Paralympic sport hasn’t seen anything like this before. I just hope that after this Games more people come to our events because it really helps us."

Jenny McLoughlin (Dareel Maynard) was close behind on 29.73 to smash her PB too.

She said, " It was quite hard being out on my own but I am very happy with my PB. It’s my strongest event but It was hard to come down from the relay last night, but we knew months ago what the schedule was. In the final I am going to go out an blast it. It’s going to be close and tight. But I am ready for it."

Katrina Hart (Rob Ellchuk) missed out though and she timed 31.04 fof fifth in her heat.

She said, “I don’t know what’s wrong, I just didn’t have the spark I usually have.”

In the T44 200m heats, both Britons qualified for the final.

Sophie Kamlish (Rob Ellchuk) finished third in her heat in a PB  29.62 to get an automatic spot in the final.

“That was all I was looking for, a PB, even if I came last. I was hoping if I beat the girl next to me I could qualify.Now I’m just looking to better that again in the final and hopefully set another PB. Just to get to the final of the 200m is great as it’s not my favourite event”

Stef Reid (Keith Antoine), who won bronze for Canada in the 2008 Paralympics, went even faster and her 28.97 season’s best missed her PB by just 0.01. She finshed fourth and qualified as a fastest loser and sixth quickest overall. Netherlands’ Marlou van Rhijn set a world record of 26.97.