Dame Sarah Storey narrowly missed out on adding a 24th Paralympic medal to her record-breaking haul in the C4-5 time trial this afternoon, being pipped to the podium by teammate Kadeena Cox and Chinese pair Zhou Jufang and Ruan Jianping.
Storey had already created history with her 12th gold medal on Thursday, overtaking Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson as the most successful female British Paralympian of all time.
The 38-year-old was momentarily in the lead following her time of 37.068s, but saw the final three riders knock her off the podium, with the world record being broken twice in the process.
After the event, the swimmer-turned-cyclist spoke to Sports Mole about her performance, the unprecedented level of competition in the sport and the achievements of her gold-medal winning teammate Cox.
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You've just missed out on another Paralympic medal - can you sum up how you're feeling?
"It's exactly what I expected to be honest. Fraction slower than London, but almost an identical time. The sprinters brought their A-game and when the sprinters bring their A-game, as a pursuitor you can expect to be off the podium."
You switched from swimming to cycling 11 years ago now - is the current level of competition the best you have seen in the sport?
"Well we've never had such prolific world records from both C4s and C5s. We obviously had a world record this morning in the C3s and in the C2s, and I think that's the first time we've had a full house at the Paralympics, certainly since the classifications changed just after Beijing so it is an impressive event.
"When you come to an event and you do bang on your personal best and you're beaten by massive world records... Zhou Jufang, the Chinese C5 who I've been sort of battling with all through my career, I've beaten on some occasions, she just took 0.3s off a world record she did at altitude. So it's incredibly impressive and it goes to show how impressive Kadeena is as well. She's come off the track and field, bronze medal on the track last night, and she's come out here and really nailed it on those two laps."
You looked amazed when Kadeena crossed the line in a world-record time. Could you believe that she had gone that fast?
"Well you know, take out the fact that we're here to try to compete for medals, just the actual time... Ruan Jianping, who's bronze medallist here, she was a bronze medallist behind me in London. She's always been one of the most impressive C4 sprinters, but now you see Kadeena coming into that class and she's just taken over a second off that. She didn't even need the factor to win, that's how good it was, and that just makes it all the more impressive."
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With that success, Kadeena is the first Brit for 28 years to win medals in two different sports at the same Games. As a two-sport champion yourself, just how impressive an achievement is that?
"It's very impressive. Maybe it helps that you're competing in two sprint events, but I very much doubt it. The idea of pedalling and running is different, and to be able to come off a bike and run, you'll have to ask her how hard that is! It's just mind-boggling. Only she'll be able to tell you how she's done it. The rest of us just come here and look at her in awe."
You turn your attention to the road races now - how are you feeling going in to that?
"Well the road is where I do 99% of my racing, there isn't a huge amount of racing on the track. The national champs only come round once every 12 months so for me, the road is where I live I suppose. It's going to be a really interesting event, a really beautiful setting, most of the girls that I race with who've come here to the track, they're in professional teams like I am so we've been racing on the road in women's world tour races, professional UCI races, so we're looking forward to seeing them back on the road again."
There was a lot of negative press heading in to Rio, but how have you found the experience in your seventh Paralympic Games?
"I would hope the negative press finished once the Games started - you can see from the excitement of the crowd, very partisan when the Brazilians were qualifying this morning. It's just amazing. They've really embraced the Paralympic Games and I think it really will be their greatest Games and for that we should be very proud."
Barney Corkhill
