Great Britain beat London 2012 medal tally at 2016 Rio Paralympics
By Mark Ashenden
Last Updated: 19/09/16 7:37am
GB's Paralympians had another golden day in Rio as they surpassed the number of medals won at the London 2012 Games, with two days still remaining.
Hannah Cockroft's T34 800m athletics gold - her third of the Rio Games - saw Britain match their haul of 120 medals from London four years ago.
And her 15-year-old team-mate Kare Adenegan finished with bronze to move ParalympicsGB above the London haul, meeting the target set by funding partners UK Sport.
The successes took Britain's total to 58 gold medals, including three equestrian titles on Friday's ninth day of competition taking the total medal tally to 126.
Paul Blake, son of a Star Wars actor, began Friday by grabbing the headlines after securing GB's 50th gold by winning his third Paralympic medal and first gold in the T36 400m, clocking 54.49 seconds.
Blake's father, also called Paul, is an actor who was bounty hunter Greedo in Star Wars, while his mother Kate was a dancer with the Royal Ballet.
The glory continued as Equestrian ace Lee Pearson won his 11th Paralympic title in the grade Ib individual freestyle test and David Smith won boccia gold as the team's gold tally climbed to 52.
It was proving to be another fabulous day for GB in Brazil following their six golds - three in canoeing and three in equestrian - on Thursday which took ParalympicsGB's gold medal tally to 49 and 108 in all.
Pearson was overlooked for the team event, which Britain won to extend a world, European and Paralympic unbeaten streak dating from 1996, but he responded with a gold medal in a fifth successive Games.
The tally of 11 golds saw Pearson draw level with wheelchair racer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and swimmer David Roberts.
The 26-year-old Blake from Dorchester, 400m silver medallist and 800m bronze winner at London 2012, benefited from the absence of the 2012 champion Evgenii Shvetsov, who beat him at last year's World Championships in Doha and is the world record holder.
Russia are banned from the Rio Paralympics for state-sponsored doping - a scenario that part explains Britain's extraordinary medal collection.
Blake, who has cerebral palsy, told Channel 4: "I'm lost for words. In 2012 I was fortunate enough to get silver and bronze but I've finally done it and got gold and all the hard work has paid off.
"It's not the ideal lane running from lane eight but I just got on with it. I was aware we were on 49 gold medals, it's incredible for us to get so many gold medals and for me to help out with that tally is great."
Natasha Baker emulated Christiansen by winning her third Paralympic gold, with victory in the grade II freestyle event.
It was Britain's seventh equestrian gold medal of the Games. Baker, on Cabral, won with a score of 77.850 per cent and now has five Paralympic titles, after taking two at London 2012.
And Gordon Reid beat team-mate Alfie Hewett in the men's wheelchair tennis singles final.
Sophie Wells and Anne Dunham also took equestrian silvers on Friday, while David Stone claimed T1-2 cycling road race silver. Class 6-8 bronze in the team table tennis - for Will Bayley, Aaron McKibbin and Ross Wilson - saw Britain's total rise to 119 before Cockroft and Adenegan delivered.
John Walker then won individual compound gold, to ensure Britain had won a gold medal in archery, as well as athletics, boccia, cycling, canoe, equestrian, rowing, swimming, triathlon, table tennis and wheelchair tennis. Britain won gold medals in seven sports at London 2012; it is 11 here.
The day ended with Steph Millward winning her second gold, anchoring the 34-point 4x100m medley relay team which included Alice Tai, Claire Cashmore and Steph Slater to victory in a world record time.
