Sascha grabs second gold

SWIMMER Sascha Kindred is emerging as the star of the Great Britain Paralympic team in Beijing.

The 30-year-old, who was raised in Limeside, Oldham, claimed his second gold medal after victory in the 100m breaststroke.

Kindred, who suffers from cerebral palsy, smashed the world record with a time of 1min 22.18sec to complete a hat-trick of wins in the event after successes in Sydney and Athens.

But it was a close call as Kindred, who now lives in Hereford, came from behind to edge out Australia’s Blake Cochrane and Rudy Garcia Tolson, of the United States.

“I knew it was going to be a tough one as my breaststroke has not been going too well in the last 12 months, but I managed to pull it together at the right time,” explained Kindred, who has now collected 10 medals - including six golds - at the last four Paralympics.

He had earlier won the 200m individual medley gold for a third successive Paralympics.

It was not a perfect day, however, as Kindred’s partner Nyree Lewis could only take silver in the women’s 100m backstroke, despite being the defending champion.

The pair earned the nickname ‘the golden couple’ in Athens after both triumphed on Lewis’ 24th birthday.

Great Britain’s cyclists were on course to extend their dominance of the Laoshan Velodrome after qualifying for three Paralympic finals in Beijing today.

The sprint team, Sarah Storey and Anthony Kappes, with tandem pilot Barney Storey, Sarah’s husband, are all on target to add to Britain’s haul of nine track cycling gold medals in the first three days – more than half of the available titles so far.

Kappes and Storey, aiming for their second title, qualified fastest for the men’s B&VI 1–3 sprint in a Paralympic record of 10.536 seconds.

Sarah Storey – the 30–year–old former swimmer who is competing in her fifth Games but first on a bike – smashed her own individual pursuit world record by eight seconds.

But despite lowering the mark to three minutes 40.492secs, Storey, who was born without a fully formed left hand, was only ranked second going into the final.

American Jennifer Schuble is the top–ranked rider as she is in a different category to Storey and her heat time – a world record of 4mins 01.243secs – was factored.

Darren Kenny is on course for his third title – with the two road races to come – and colleagues Mark Bristow and Jody Cundy are in line for their second golds after qualifying in 49.561secs for the team sprint final.

The trio will meet China in the final after the hosts recorded a time of 51.233.