Storey wins 18th Paralympic gold on ‘appalling’ course

Britain’s Sarah Storey described the Paris Paralympics cycling time trial course as “appalling” after winning her 18th Games gold medal.

Storey won the women’s road event for a fifth successive Paralympics on a C5 event course measuring just 14.1km – the first time she has raced a Games course shorter than 22km.

She is one of 13 British riders competing throughout Wednesday in road time trials, with team-mate Fran Brown winning silver in the women’s C1-3 category.

Storey beat French hope Heidi Gaugain, then said athletes had appealed to Games organisers about the course length for the women’s race but heard nothing back.

“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.

“You’ll have to ask organisers. There’s plenty of time in the day for us to do two laps like the men. Having fought so hard for parity in women’s cycling, to not have it is a real disappointment.

“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.

“It’s a hilly 10km. I do lots of those at home so I have plenty of practice. But in championships you expect a race of minimum 22km, that’s what we’ve done in all the other Paralympic Games.

“Look back to that incredible course in Beijing, Brands Hatch with all the fans, Rio was flat but longer, Tokyo we had the motor circuit… three laps, it was a real challenge.

“This has been the most disappointing in that sense, given what came before it.”

Only one women’s road time trial – the B event for visually impaired athletes – is being contested over the two-lap distance of 28.3km, compared to seven men’s events.

The other six women’s time trials are just one lap of the 14.1km course, as are five men’s races.

When asked if riders had spoken to Paris 2024 organisers, Storey said: “We did ask the question, absolutely. You can ask, you might not hear anything back.”

Asked if the competitors had heard anything, she said they had not.

The 46-year-old from Poynton, Cheshire had trailed Gaugain by more than seven seconds after 5.8km, but she stormed back in the final section to retain the title and win her 13th cycling gold to add to the five she won as a swimmer before switching sports prior to Beijing 2008.

Storey, who is solely competing in road events at Paris 2024, is taking part in her ninth Games – the most ever for a British athlete.

She will look to add a 19th gold in the road race on Friday.

Among active Paralympians, Belarusian swimmer Ihar Boki has overtaken Storey in terms of most gold medals won in a career, reaching 21 after five victories in Paris.

Storey won Wednesday’s time trial in 20 minutes 22.15 seconds, putting her 4.69 seconds ahead of silver medallist Gaugain – 27 years her junior. Alana Forster of Australia won bronze.

In spite of her unhappiness at the course, Storey was delighted to extend her record as Britain’s most decorated Paralympian with her 29th medal.

She first competed in the Games at Barcelona in 1992.

Storey was particularly pleased to win gold while her two children – 11-year-old Louisa and six-year-old Charlie – watched on.

“Louisa said to me last night at dinner, ‘This is the first Games I’m going to remember’,” Storey said.

“I’m utterly delighted. I had a target to get five gold medals [in time trial]. I feel so, so proud.

“You can put the challenges aside, we race the course and prepare for it, but it is brilliant, to have friends and family here, the cheering off the start line. I’m so pleased.”

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.

“I enjoyed it. It was different,” Brown said of the course. “I would have liked a bit of a longer course as well, we are capable of riding a bit further, but we all did the same course on the day so make the most of it.”