Loughborough Shines with More Medals on Electric Day at the Paralympics
Loughborough Lightning Cycling rider Jenny Holl piloted visually impaired Sophie Unwin to a stunning gold in the Women’s B 3000m Individual Pursuit to add to the team’s impressive bronze earlier in the competition.
The duo, who also broke the world record in qualifying, looked in incredible form from the start. A determined and pacey ride in the final saw them hit the top of the podium after clocking 3:19.149.
Ireland’s Katie-George Dunley (Pilot: Eve McCrystal) took silver, with Great Britain’s Lora Fachie (Pilot: Corrine Hall) winning bronze.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Holl said: “We’ve completed the set, when you include our Tokyo medals, we’re done!
“It’s been three or four months and it’s been well hard, it started horrifically and we’re like ‘it’s going to be a disaster’ but we needed to do something new.
“We came second at the World Championships this year and we had nothing more than that, that’s what we had then, and we didn’t want another silver medal.”
Over in athletics at the Stade de France, Loughborough University-based Brent Lakatos won a brilliant silver for Canada in the Men’s T53 Final. The wheelchair racer’s gutsy performance saw him cross the line second in a season’s best 47.24 seconds.
The 44-year-old now has an incredible 12 Paralympic medals to his name following a sterling career in the sport. Earlier in the year, he spoke to Loughborough Sport regarding his hopes for Paris, and with more events to come that medal tally may well grow even higher.