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Paris 2024 Paralympics: Sarah Storey wins 18th gold on ‘appalling’ course

Paris 2024 Paralympics: Sarah Storey wins 18th gold on ‘appalling’ course

While Storey was unhappy with the course Brown was lucky to be on it at all, as she revealed in an Instagram post after winning silver on Wednesday.

“Nothing quite like being knocked off your bike and dislocating your shoulder three days before the most important race of your life to enhance the preparation,” she wrote.

“I had zero more to give today but thanks to the whole British Cycling team who made it possible to race my heart out.

“Once I’ve got over the sleep deprivation I’m sure it’ll feel even more amazing but for now it feels like some crazy dream to get a medal of any kind.”

She is the second British cyclist to medal at these Games days after being injured while riding, after Jaco van Gass revealed he was hit by a car and knocked from his bike in Paris shortly before winning track gold.

On a packed day for the British cycling team, Matthew Robertson came fifth in the men’s C2 event, while Daphne Schrager finished fifth behind Brown in the women’s C1-3.

A day that started with medals for GB ended well too, as Unwin and Fachie both got on the podium – albeit having finished more than a minute behind Ireland’s Katie-George Dunlevy who dominated on her way to gold.

Fachie, who celebrated her 36th birthday on Wednesday as well as her sixth Paralympic medal, added to the bronze she won on the track in Paris in the individual pursuit.

She said: “It’s great to get a second medal of the Games, we left it all out there.”

Pilot Hall added: “It’s definitely been a good day for the women of the team, so bring on the road races in a couple of days.”

There was disappointment for Tokyo Paralympic champion Benjamin Watson in the men’s C3 as he could only come fourth in Paris, finishing 54.1 seconds behind the gold medallist, France’s Thomas Peyroton-Dartet.

Watson finished ahead of team-mates Fin Graham in sixth and van Gass, who took eighth.

“I couldn’t go any harder, but I’m gutted,” Watson said. “I went out hard, then parked a bit in the second lap, while the French guy [Peyroton-Dartet] just accelerated.”

Two-time Rio 2016 gold medallist Stephen Bate, who won silver on the track earlier in these Games, came fifth in the men’s B time trial, as the 47-year-old competes in what may be his final Paralympics.

Archie Atkinson, who missed out on track gold following a last-lap crash, continued the trend of fifth-place British finishes, in the men’s C4, while team-mate Blaine Hunt came 11th in the men’s C5.