Hannah Cockroft: 100m, 400m and 800m gold medals in Rio
THE track and field athletics at the 2016 Paralympics proved to be an outstanding success for Britain, who finished third in the medal table. Going into the event, the official UK Sport athletics medal target was 28-32 medals with 10-12 golds. UKA head Paralympic coach Paula Dunn pronounced herself “exceptionally pleased with how the team performed”, adding: “The guys have all stepped up.”
Despite fears the event would not be well organised, or even cancelled due to cash concerns, Brazil hosted the event well. Security and transport worked well. The volunteers were great and the friendliness of the Brazilian people shone through everywhere.
Libby Clegg: double sprint gold with her guide Chris Clarke
The attendance was good – some morning sessions of the athletics seemed to have more spectators than morning Olympic sessions. But what was more important was how engaged the crowd was.
Dunn described the crowd as “exceptionally noisy”, adding “the atmosphere was great”.
Brazil’s serial Paralympic medal winner Terezinha Guilhermina said: “When I was in London (2012) I was hoping that we’d have a similar kind of support, but I have to admit that it was better here. They were a lot happier and more affectionate, and much closer, not just because of the language.”
Kadeena Cox: 400m gold in athletics and made the cycling podium as well
That was a fair assessment. While the Brazilian crowd lacked the event knowledge of a British athletics crowd, they surpassed it in noise and enthusiasm.
Every Brazilian athlete was literally roared on. Equally, every high jumper – from any country – who cleared the bar received an encouraging cheer from the spectators in that part of the stadium.
STELLAR GB PERFORMANCES
HANNAH COCKROFT quite simply dominates the T34 wheelchair race events. In London 2012 and in the 2011 and 2013 World Championships she won the 100m and 200m races. When, at the 2015 World Championships, the 200m was replaced by the 400m and the 800m was added, she won all three. In Rio she again won the three events.
Kadeena Cox (right) carried the flag at the closing ceremony
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About Athletics Weekly
EVENTS
16 CROSS COUNTRY GUIDE
Six pages of fixtures for this winter
ACTION
6 RIO PARALYMPICS
Part two of our coverage from
Brazil with more medals for GB
40 BRITISH MASTERS
Steve Peters, Pat Logan and Arthur
Thomson are among the winners
PERFORMANCE
32 Sports science news
34 Coach Insight – James Thie
36 Developing lower limbs stiffness
38 Products – compression garments
NEWS
26 Libby Clegg on Rio double
28 Hackers target Olympic champs
28 Tirunesh Dibaba to race in Britain
PREVIEWS
55 Preview of the Great Bristol
Half-marathon, plus TV guide
RESULTS & FIXTURES
46 Results round-up
57 What’s On – events coming up
REGULARS
22 Young Athlete
24 Your Say
61 Quiz – test your athletics knowledge
62 Dip Finish