TeamGB blows competition out of the water during this weekend's Paralympics "Gold Rush"

It's almost certainly always a good thing to see race results announced in all capital letters and there is proof of this in Sunday's notice from the ParalympicsGB social media. "That makes it TWELVE GOLD MEDALS today." The thread boasted as the team of Ellard, Newman-Baronius. Darbey and Maskill clinched the race in the 4x100M freestyle relay. Team Great Britain accomplished astounding feats this past weekend and here are the highlights.

"Another golden day"

The ParalympicsGB website did not hide its excitement at all on September 1. One summary said that "accuracy and precision were the skills of the day as Stephen McGuire, Jodie Grinham, and Nathan Macqueen struck a double gold at the Paralympics." It was a day of firsts, of broken records, and happy endings for athletes in different disciplines.

Consider Jodie Grinham who had already won a bronze medal in an individual archery event. When teamed up for mixed team archery with Nathan Macqueen, they received incredible marks to clinch the victory over the team from Iran. She is competing while seven months pregnant, a challenging situation for any person, much less one engaged in international competition of this kind. Partner Macqueen commented that "We are both parents now and there is a lot of sacrifice being a high-performance athlete being away from your children."

Stephen McGuire won in Boccia in his fourth Paralympics in a performance that attested to his nickname of "Mr. Strategy." The sport is only played in the Paralympics and is played by athletes "with a disability affecting locomotor function. It's a game of control, accuracy and tactics and McGuire loves outthinking rivals." Said McGuire, "Any sport where i can think a few moves ahead I love. My whole game is about tactics, my power is not the best, so I love getting the strategy right."

"A bit unreal"

Megan Richter, gold medalist in the PTS4 triathlon, quipped that her shock was "off the scale" in the moment of triumph:

"I could feel my legs starting to go but I knew I needed to get to the end...Things just came together and I'm so happy, the timing has been perfect."

Teammate Dave Ellis won the event in the men's PTVI division supported both by family and friends in red and blue shirts and his guide Luke Pollard. Of the victory, Ellis said, "You don't know how many Paralympic races you'll get in your career so that added extra nerves and it just feels special to have pulled it off." His partner, Claire Cashmore, took the women's silver in PTS5 just ahead of Team Great Britain's Lauren Steadman and asked how he had fared in his race. "I felt so stressed not being able to watch him, but I'm so pleased he got his moment," she said in the midst of her own triumph. What great sportsmanship within a relationship.

Making another splash

If it is true to that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame, Team Great Britain made the best use of theirs in years. At La Defense Arena, they won two swimming gold medals in that short timeframe. Tokyo silver medalists Ellie Challis and Louise Fiddes are now Paris gold medals, as Challis won the women's S3 50m backstroke and Fiddes won in the S14m 100m breaststroke. The latter claimed to have been inspired by her close friend's performance, saying, "If she can do it, I can do it."

David Bethell hoped to take gold in badminton, but he again won a silver medal in parabadminton.

High excitement in the Stade de France

The first medal in para athletics was a silver medal in the wheelchair racing 800m T53. She recounts that fellow teammate Hannah Cockroft embraced her and encouraged her with a simple statement: "Believe in yourself, you got it." Cockroft defended her title in the T34 100m title in 16.80s. The silver went to British athlete Kare Adenegan, who trailed by 1.19 seconds.

Meanwhile, Sabrina Fortune won shot put gold in the F20 competition. Fortune, who is on her fourth Paralympics, felt nerves, but says that the support helped

"My wheels were buzzing, I was trying to find my grip. The last time I felt like that was London 2012 and I couldn't be upset, look at those stands, they are full which is what we want."

- Sabrina Fortune

On a winning streak

There is always talk of defending titles when the Paralympics come around and the mixed coxed four team of Ed Fuller, Giedre Rakauskaite, Josh O'Brien, and Frankie Allen were coxed by Erin Kennedy" to extend the longest winning streak in British sport." This team has won 25 titles since 2010. Rakauskaite triumphed on the 18th anniversary of her disabling car accident and had this to say on inspiration:

"Every single year we have been pushing ourselves on and we've taken trust from team-mates before us...There has always been an overlap of at least one or two team-mates from previous Games and we just drew on everything we could from them, trying to make them proud as well as our friends and family."

- Giedre Rakauskaite

Also in rowing, Lauren Rowles and Gregg Stevenson won mixed double sculls. Rowles is the first rower to win thrice in the Paralympics. Asked Rowles, "What feels better than making history, right?" Stevenson won his first gold in this race. He commented that "It's the commitment, I've struggled with that previously, to turn up and work hard. I just want to be a role model for my kids."

Benjamin Pritchard finished fifth in the men's single sculls during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, but worked through a "three-year process in which we've broken down the 2000m race course" to take the gold medal over Italy's Giacomo Perini. "For everything to pay off like that and to win in style is pretty special."

The silver medal in mixed double sculls went to Sam Murray and Annie Caddick. Murray returned to the sport after a 5-year hiatus and described the experience of coming to Paris to be "quite surreal," since "the Paralympics wasn't even on my horizon."

Many athletes advanced in their sports and we look forward to seeing their hard work pay off in days to come.