17 September 2016 

Maria Lyle’s fairy tale of a Paralympic Games continued this morning, as the 16 year old won her third medal in Rio claiming bronze in the T35 200m to take the team’s tally to 15 gold and 32 medals overall.  

On the final day of track and field action at the Estadio Olimpico, Lyle continued her impressive run of form as she matched her performance from the 100m, where she finished behind Australia’s Isis Holt and China’s Xia Zhou, who set a new world record time of 28.22 (-0.9).

Lyle, who also won T35-38 4x100m silver crossed the line in 29.35 and said afterwards: “I’m pleased; that is a season best for me. I’ve come away with three medals from the Paralympics so I couldn’t have asked for any more. It’s great to see the sport developing and a lot of new athletes coming through. It will only help to keep pushing me to improve and hopefully I’ll be in the mix again in London (at the World ParaAthletics Championships) next year.

“Not everyone gets to come to a Paralympic Games, never mind win a medal so it has been amazing experience. Although it’s a relief to be finally done, now I can enjoy these medals.”  

Sophie Kamlish (Rob Ellchuk) began her campaign in devastating fashion breaking the T44 world record in the heats of the T44 100m to show that she is in the sort of form that will put her in medal contention later on this evening. The Bath-based athlete whose previous best over the distance was 13.26, clocked an astonishing 12.93 (-0.4) to put a real marker down ahead of the final.

Kamlish said: “Well I guess no one was expecting that – maybe I wasn’t expecting that either. I was hoping this Paralympics may take me sub 13 seconds but that was quite an optimistic hope. Obviously in the heats, I’ve never not run as fast as I can so I did that for this one and managed to get a world record.

“It’s given me a lot of confidence. I was pretty nervous because I’ve been running well this year but in terms of personal bests, I was probably ranked around fifth coming into this one. But now I have the world record, maybe there is a bit more pressure but I am really looking forward to it.”

Laura Sugar (Femi Akinsanya) joined her in the final, taking the second fastest loser spot. She faced the toughest headwind of all the heats as well, clocking a time of 13.59 (-1.9).

Sammi Kinghorn (Ian Mirfin) produced one of the performances of her career as she shaved nearly four seconds off her European record to qualify for this evening’s T53 800m final. Going into the heats, the 20 year old was ranked eighth, but showed her true grit and determination to cross the line third in her heat in 1:48.89.

Kinghorn commented: “I actually can’t believe it; I’ve taken a few seconds off my personal best (and European record). I was ranked ninth coming in so I wasn’t even sure I would even make the final. My coach just said go and race it like it’s your last race of the Paralympics.

“It’s probably going to be a fast final as the Chinese like to push the pace on. But I know I’ve got the sprint to pick it up at the end.”  

In the men’s T51 400m final, Stephen Osborne (Jenni Banks) secured another fifth place finish, to go with his fifth in the 100m from London four years ago. Osborne picked off some of his competitors in the final 200m to finish his Paralympic Games in a time of 1:25.05.

Back in action in her final event on the track of the Games was Jade Jones (Ian Thompson/Tanni Grey-Thompson), who gave it her all in blisteringly quick heats of the T54 800m. USA’s Tatyana McFadden, who has won three golds and a silver in Rio so far took victory in Jones’ heat in a Paralympic record time of 1:45.17, with the British athlete coming through in fourth in a time of 1:53.61.  

After representing ParalympicsGB at London 2012 in sitting volleyball, Julie Rogers (Allen Adamson) narrowly missed out on a place in the T42 100m final after finishing fifth in the first of two heats in a time of 17.41.

ParalympicsGB Athletics medal tally: (32)

Gold (15):

Hollie Arnold – F46 Javelin

Paul Blake – T36 400m

Jo Butterfield – F51 Club Throw

Libby Clegg & Chris Clarke – T11 100m and 200m

Kadeena Cox – T38 400m

Hannah Cockroft – T34 100m, 400m and 800m

Aled Davies – F42 Shot Put

Sophie Hahn – T38 100m

Georgie Hermitage – T37 100m and 400m

Jonnie Peacock – T44 100m

Richard Whitehead – T42 200m

Silver (6):

Kare Adenegan – T34 100m

Jonathan Broom-Edwards – T44 High Jump

Toby Gold – T33 100m

Stef Reid – T44 long jump

Richard Whitehead – T42 100m

Women’s T35-38 4x100m relay – (Kadeena Cox, Maria Lyle, Georgie Hermitage and Sophie Hahn)

Bronze (11):

Kare Adenegan – T34 400m

Kadeena Cox – T38 100m and 800m

Sabrina Fortune – F20 shot put

Dan Greaves – F44 discus

David Henson – T42 200m

Maria Lyle – T35 100m and 200m

Stephen Miller – F32 club throw

Gemma Prescott – F32 club throw

Andrew Small – T33 100m