ParalympicsGB Hoping For More Gold After Success Of Jonathan Fox And Sarah Storey

Britain's Paralympians will be hoping to build on yesterday's success as the Games enter their second day.

Cyclist Sarah Storey and swimmer Jonathan Fox ensured Great Britain's home Paralympic Games got off to a golden start.

Former swimmer Storey powered to victory to claim her eighth Paralympic gold of a glittering career, dominating the C5 three-kilometre individual pursuit final.

Great Britain's Sarah Storey celebrates winning Gold in the Women's Individual C5 Pursuit Finals at the Velodrome

Fox, meanwhile, became Britain's first gold medallist in the pool when he won a thrilling S7 100 metres backstroke race.

Friday will see Paralympians in athletics, cycling track, judo, shooting, powerlifting and swimming take their turn to shine.

Medal hopefuls include Hannah Cockroft, a double world champion wheelchair racer, going for gold in the women's T34 100 metres.

Cockroft, from Halifax, showed her potential when she broke four world records at the 2010 British Wheelchair Athletics Association International.

She has continued to set the pace, making history as the first athlete to set a world record in the Olympic Stadium in London in May 2012.

She competed in the T34 100m with a time of 18.56 seconds. She has since reduced that mark to 17.60 at the Swiss National Championships.

In the velodrome Jody Cundy and Jon-Allan Butterworth will hope to emulate Storey's success as they battle for glory in the C4/C5 one-kilometre time-trial.

Double Paralympic cycling champion, Cundy, from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, had his right foot amputated at age three. He was then fitted with an artificial leg and has not looked back since.

Cundy - a former Paralympic swimming champion who switched to para-cycling in 2006 - is aiming to defend his Beijing title in the one kilometre time-trial in London.

But, Butterworth, an ex-RAF serviceman who after losing his left arm while serving in Iraq, will be hoping he can snatch the gold.

The 26-year-old, from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, who now lives in Sale, Cheshire, made his journey to the Games via the battlefield and Help for Heroes' Battle Back scheme.

Inspired by watching athletes such as Sir Chris Hoy in the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 he attended a selection weekend in Newport and was accepted on to the British Paracycling Programme in January 2009.

He won gold and broke the world record in the C5 Kilo at his first World Championships last year, also coming away with a gold medal in this year's event.

Yesterday's silver medal winner in the men's C1-3 one-kilometre Time Trial Mark Colbourne will also be back on the track as he competes in the C1 Individual pursuit.

Ex-soldier Derek Derenalagi is also sure to draw a crowd as he goes for gold in the F57 discus.

His powerful frame and huge upper body strength propelled him to a surprise win in the discus at the European championships and he is now poised to challenge for Paralympic gold.

Fiji-born Derenalagi, of Hertfordshire, had his legs blown off in a Taliban blast in Afghanistan in July 2007.

After being airlifted to the hospital at Camp Bastion he was pronounced dead but amazingly one of the doctors saw a slight pulse movement.

The 37-year-old has been training through the frustrations and pain of adapting to two new prosthetic legs, called a Genium knee, and will be the first double amputee to walk on the Genium knee having only been fitted with them on the day of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.

UK Sport has set ParalympicsGB the minimum target of winning 103 medals from at least 12 different sports, with the overall goal of once again finishing second in the medal table.

Britain won 102 medals, including 42 golds, in Beijing four years ago to claim second place for a third consecutive Paralympic Games.

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