Hannah Cockroft top of the world after leading GB medal sweep in 800m
Hannah Cockroft led a British sweep of the medals in the women’s T34 800m final at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha.
Cockroft claimed her second gold ahead of Mel Nicholls and the 14-year-old Kare Adenegan on a profitable day in Qatar for Great Britain.
The Paralympic champion, Richard Whitehead, equalled his own world record to defend his 200m T42 title as Team GB won a total of eight medals on Wednesday to swell their tally for the championships to 23. Aled Davies also won gold in the discuss throw F42 and set a world record of 49.59m.
“I don’t think any of us can believe that was a British 1-2-3,” Cockroft said. “We are the ones to beat now heading into Rio, which is very exciting.”
Cockroft won gold in the T34 100m on the opening day and will set her sights on a hat-trick of titles when she goes in the 400m on Saturday. “The pressure is always there as I am always one of the ones to watch,” she said. “Sometimes that can get to your head but I think I proved today I can deal with it. I had to play the race to my strengths – I was pretty confident with going with 200m left.”
Whitehead set his world mark of 24.10sec in Tuesday’s semi-final and reproduced the time in the final to confirm himself as a three-times world champion. “It’s a pressure-cooker environment and it’s about delivering medals to make sure the tally keeps ticking over,” he said. “People keep reminding me that I am 39 but I feel like I’ve got two great years still to come.”
Davies was happy with the way he had competed throughout the competition on his way to the gold medal. He also paid tribute to the team medical staff who had helped him in his recovery from a hernia.
“I’m delighted because it was one of the most consistent competitions ever for me,” he said. “Six of the throws were in and four of them were over the old world record. I’m pain free as well, which is the main thing. It was a tough competition for me – Guofeng Kang [of China] set a personal best so I knew he was in good shape and could be dangerous.
“I never thought I would be here 10 weeks ago so I probably owe both my gold medals to the British Athletics medical team because they have put a lot of hard work in and without them, I wouldn’t have done it.”
Dan Bramall and Toby Gold claimed silver and bronze medals respectively in the men’s T33 100m while Kyron Duke threw a season’s best 37.99m to claim third in the men’s F41 javelin final.
Graeme Ballard won his T36 100m semi-final in 12.37sec to qualify for Thursday’s final. “There’s only one thing on my mind now and that’s the gold medal,” he said. “I’ve got every chance of doing that and I’m buzzing to be in the final.”