Storey extends record as GB win 31st gold in Paris

Dame Sarah Storey extended her record as Great Britain's most-decorated Paralympian as she won her 18th career gold medal on day seven at Paris 2024.

Storey, 46, won the women's C5 road cycling time trial by more than more four seconds to secure ParalympicsGB's 31st gold medal of the Games.

It came 32 years after her first Paralympics medal in 1992.

Fran Brown won silver in the women's C1-C3 time trial.

GB have now won 63 medals in Paris, putting them second in the medal table. Only China have more medals than Great Britain, winning 118 medals, including 55 golds.

Storey kicked things off for ParalympicsGB on Wednesday morning by extending her record as Great Britain's most decorated Paralympian.

An astonishing 32 years on from her Paralympic debut at Barcelona in 1992, Storey won by 4.69 seconds from France's Heidi Gaugain, 27 years Storey's junior.

Gaugain, 19, was born in November 2004 - by then Storey had already won 16 Paralympic meals, all of which came in Para-Swimming.

She subsequently switched to Para-Cycling and Wednesday's win means she now has 29 Paralympic medals in all.

Her 18th Paralympic gold puts her among a group of six Paralympic athletes who have won that many.

Storey's victory came on what she described as an "appalling" course which was just 14.1km long.

It was her first race under 22km in the event at the Paralympics, which she has now won for five straight Games.

"It's a short race. This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we have ever had, and I think it's a real shame because we don't get to showcase Para-sport in the way we want to," Storey said.

"I've had to put that aside and focus on what I could control, because I couldn't control the race distance. But I hope they never do this to the women again, because it has been appalling."

Storey is back in action on Friday in the road race, looking to pick up her 19th gold medal.

Elsewhere in road cycling, Brown secured a silver medal in Women's C1-3 individual time trial.

She is back in road race action on Saturday, as is fellow Brit Daphne Scharger, who finished in fifth place on Wednesday.

Great Britain have the chance to add to their medal tally on the track on Wednesday afternoon.

Blaine Hunt and Archie Atkinson are both in men's individual time trial finals.

Jaco van Gass, Fin Graham and Ben Watson are all in the men's C3 individual time final, while the trio of Lizzy Jordan, Lora Fachie and Sophie Unwin all feature in the women's B individual time trial.

There was another busy morning in the pool for GB.

Of the 63 medals won by Great Britain at the 2024 Paralympics so far, 20 have come in the pool, a number which is likely to increase further on Wednesday night, with all of 10 ParalympicsGB's swimmers in Wednesday's heats reaching their finals.

In the men's S12 100m freestyle, Stephen Clegg was the fastest across the two heats. His final starts at 16:30 BST.

The trio of Rhys Darbey, William Ellard and Cameron Vearncombe are all in the men's SM14 200m individual medley final after finishing among the top six in qualifying. That final starts at 16:42 BST.

Olivia Newman-Baronius was fastest in qualifying for the women's SM14 200m individual final, starting at 16:50, while Poppy Maskill and Alice Tai have also made it.

Toni Shaw completed a perfect morning of qualifying as she reached the final of the women's S9 100m freestyle final.

Clegg, Matt Redfern, Becky Redfern and Scarlett Humphrey will feature in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay final at 18:58 BST.

Great Britain's medal hope in the T38 men's long jump was Karim Chan.

Chan was second at the halfway mark with a jump of 6.32m, behind only China's Zhong Huanghao, who leaped 6.50m in the second round.

Khetag Khinchagov of the Neutral Paralympic Athletes took the lead with a jump of 6.52m before Chan was also overtaken in the final round by Colombia's Jose Gregorio Lemos Rivas, who posted a jump of 6.40m.

Chan came close to moving back into the medal positions with his final jump, but on his Paralympic debut, his final jump of 6.39m saw him miss out on a medal by just one centimetre.

Khinchagov had already done enough to win the gold medal, with silver going to Zhong and bronze to Lemos Rivas.

Great Britain could pick up gold in the quad doubles wheelchair tennis, with Andy Lapthorne and Gregory Slade facing the Netherlands' Sam Schroder and Niels Vink.

Lapthorne and Slade booked their place in the final on Sunday with a straight-sets victory over Brazil's Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva.

Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett are in action in the men's singles quarter-finals and later on Wednesday will team up in the men's doubles semi-finals against the French duo of Frederic Cattaneo and Stephane Houdet.