Richardson gets GB's gold-rush on track

By Paul Carter

Cyclist Simon Richardson has kicked off Great Britain’s medal haul by winning a shock first gold of the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing’s Laoshan Velodrome.

Richardson also set a new world record in the LC3-4 1km time trial with a time of 1:14.936, leaving Masaki Fujita of Japan and world champion Greg Ball of Australia in second and third respectively.

“I’m totally shocked,” said Richardson.

“This is a completely unexpected gold medal. This race was really a warm up for the 3km, so I went into it thinking ‘whatever we get’.”

Later in the day, Aileen McGlynn and Darren Kenny also picked up golds to mark an impressive first day hat-trick.

McGlynn, along with pilot Ellen Hunter, successfully defended her Paralympic title in the women’s 1km time trial, shaving over a second off her own world record with a time of 1:09.066.

“It was a hard one, but really, really good,” she said. “We’ve been working so hard over the last year building up to these games. It’s purely head-down and pedal as hard as you can, but we knew we had it in the bank to do a good time,” she said.

“I’m a proud Scot so it’s great that I can fly the flag for Scotland, just like Chris Hoy.”

Kenny, who is bidding for five medals at this Paralympics, blasted his way to victory in the CP3 individual pursuit, overtaking his Korean opponent inside the first lap to take gold.

“I’m overjoyed and relieved,” said Kenny. “I’ve not won a race as quickly as that before. This track feels fast, the crowd are great, I feel great. It’s like it’s downhill all the way round.”

With plenty of races still to come on the track, and big performances expected from other cyclists such as Sarah Storey and Jody Cundy, Great Britain’s cyclists look to extend the Olympic success in the velodrome into the Paralympics.