Sarah's fairy Storey: Runaway win lands gold No 11 to equal Tanni's medal haul
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We are often told to imagine boxing’s weight classes when striving to understand the different disability categories at the Paralympics. But for Sarah Storey’s opponents in London, the fight has never seemed fair.
While the impairments may be equal, the talent is not; Storey is a heavyweight, swatting away her would-be combatants with unrelenting athleticism as if they weighed in at feather.
Flying the flag: Storey celebrates after winning her fourth gold medal of the Games
She won her fourth gold of the London Games on Thursday by treating the 64km road race around Brands Hatch like a personal time trial, dropping the peloton after two kilometres and riding out on her own to win by a mammoth seven minutes and 22 seconds.
It was her 11th Paralympic gold medal won across a 20-year career in the pool and on her bike to take her level with Baroness Grey-Thompson and swimmer Dave Roberts. She surpasses them both by virtue of eight silvers and three bronzes. Swimmer Mike Kenny won 16 golds and two silvers between 1976 and 1988 but, given all Storey has achieved at two sports, in this era of elitism, she is surely the greatest Paralympian Britain has produced. An upgrade on her OBE beckons.
She said: ‘To win 11 golds, to make today a clean sweep for this week, is just a dream come true. I don’t know if it will ever sink in. I just can’t thank enough people. To equal Tanni is a huge honour. Her career was absolutely immense and I can’t wait to give her a big hug. I spoke to her and she said how proud of me she was. She said it would have been easy to sit in the group and go for the sprint at the end. But I went as fast as I could.’
That she did. What else did we expect after the beatings she has been handing out here? After one lap of the eight she was 41 seconds ahead, after two laps the lead had extended to 2min 48sec. It was a procession of regal proportions for the newly crowned Paralympic queen.
On the final straight she waved to the crowd and plucked a Union flag from a supporter to wave aloft as she crossed the line. She looked back to make sure she finished before the men’s C1-3 race, which had set off two minutes ahead of the women.
‘I’ve been going off the front of road races all year and I always knew there would be a chance to get away at some point,’ she said. ‘Today, it was 62km on my own. I knew that I had it in me to be on my own for that length of time.’
There is no doubt that 34-year-old Storey will head to Rio in four years but what of the Olympic team pursuit, which will be expanded to a four-person race over 4km?
She trains with the London 2012 champion trio and was in the squad until as recently as December.
Home favourite: The crowd were full of adulation for the British star
Class act: Storey claimed her 11th Paralympic gold medal after storming to victory at Brands Hatch
A Brit special: Storey paid her respects to the home crowd who cheered her all the way home
‘I can’t wait to see what the future holds,’ Storey smiled. ‘Nobody’s ever questioned my endurance and now my speed has come through a bit. Who knows? The jigsaw has to be put together over the next four years.’
Surely nobody would bet against Storey being the final piece.
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