Golden ParalympicsGB Team On Cloud Nine After Beating London 2012 Medal Tally

Paul Blake claims 50th gold of the games.

Great Britain’s Paralympians surged past their 2012 medal tally with a haul glittering with nine golds on day nine of the Rio games.

Victory for Paul Blake in the T36 400 metres saw ParalympicsGB take their 50th gold medal of the games, while there was further success on the track for Hannah Cockroft in the T34 800m.

Natasha Baker and Sophie Christiansen took individual freestyle gold medals to secure a hat-trick of titles, capping off a sublime Games for the imperious equestrian team.

Lee Pearson proved a point – after being omitted from the team line-up – with an 11th Paralympic gold medal which saw him draw level with wheelchair racer Tanni Grey-Thompson and swimmer David Roberts.

Victory for Paul Blake in the T36 400 metres saw ParalympicsGB take their 50th gold medal of the games
Victory for Paul Blake in the T36 400 metres saw ParalympicsGB take their 50th gold medal of the games
Andrew Matthews/PA Wire

After claiming doubles silver as a partnership, Gordon Reid met Alfie Hewett in the wheelchair tennis singles final. Wimbledon champion Reid inflicted a 6-1, 6-2 defeat in 54 minutes on his less experienced team-mate to emulate fellow Scot Andy Murray and win on Centre Court on the Rio Olympic Park.

Alice Tai, Claire Cashmore, Steph Slater and Steph Millward won the 34-point 4x100m medley relay in a world record in the swimming pool.

ParalympicsGB finished the day with 126 medals, six more than in London 2012. Nine of Friday’s total of 18 were gold medals to take ParalympicsGB’s total tally of titles to 58 ahead of the penultimate day of competition.

Coming up on Saturday Dame Sarah Storey will bid to join Christiansen, Baker and Cockroft as a three-time champion at Rio 2016 in the C4/C5 road race.

Storey is defending champion and seeking a 14th Paralympic gold at her seventh Games.

Steve Bate and his pilot Adam Duggleby, like Storey, have two titles on the bike from Rio and will bid for a third in the tandem road race.

Lora Turnham and her pilot Corrine Hall have a chance in the corresponding women’s race.

Swimmer Ellie Simmonds will hope to regain the S6 100m freestyle title which she won in Beijing as a 13-year-old. Ellie Robinson will also hope to be in the final.

Ollie Hynd is defending champion in the SM8 200m individual medley and there could be more medals on the final evening in the pool.

Blake will bid for his second gold of the Games in the T36 800m final at the Olympic Stadium.

Sailor Helena Lucas, the first Briton selected for the Olympics or Paralympics, leads the one-person keelboat ahead of the 11th and final race.

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