Storey stuns the Velodrome as GB end on a gold-rush

By Paul Carter

Sarah Storey overcame the earlier disappointment of falling victim to the controversial “factoring” system to smash her own world record on her way to winning the LC1-2/CP4 women’s individual pursuit.

On the first day of the competition, Storey had criticised the multi-disability classification she had to compete in.

But on the final day of competition at the Velodrome she produced arguably one of the finest cycling performances of the Games, posting a time so fast that she still claimed the gold even after the factoring had come in to play.

The former swimmer completed the 3,000m in 3:36.637 to beat American Jessica Schuble - a time that would have achieved a top-eight finish among the all-conquering non-disabled cyclists at the Olympics.

“I can’t even believe I rode that fast. We targeted 3:38 and we thought that would be enough. It didn’t seem possible this morning, it’s amazing,” she said.

“The fact that a Paralympian can finish in that sort of time and that sort of position is amazing.”

Storey’s husband Barney was also among the medals once again as he piloted Anthony Kappes to victory over Australia in the B&VI sprint.

The duo outrode their rivals in a typically tactical best-of-three affair to claim a 2-0 victory.

Kappes said: “We crashed three weeks ago and that really hindered our progress. As a result we concentrated on the kilo and the sprint fell by the wayside a little bit.

“This morning’s race felt like we were blowing cobwebs away. The last couple of laps really hurt, but that’s racing.”

The day finished with three world record-holders lining up for Great Britain in the men’s team sprint.

Darren Kenny, Jody Cundy and Mark Bristow took to the track to beat China to gold and follow in the Olympic team’s footsteps.

The Chinese were leading by 0.253 after the first lap, but pulled it back over the next two to win by a margin of 1.157 seconds.

Cundy said: “We’ve been working together towards this and it’s great that it all came together on the day. We’ve taken six tenths off the time we did in Manchester, it’s amazing.”

It means that Britain finish off in the Laoshan Velodrome with a haul of 13 medals, 12 of them gold, more than half of the 21 golds available.