Fin Graham wins road race gold for GB as Paralympics medal flurry continues

Fin Graham has had his fair share of close finishes at these Games. In the velodrome he had to settle for silver after being edged out by his teammate Jaco van Gass in the final of the men’s C3 individual pursuit. In the road time trial on Wednesday fewer than 20 seconds over those 28.3km separated him from a second medal.
But on Saturday he finally came out on the winning side of a close call, taking gold in the men’s C1-3 road race in Clichy-sous-Bois by a whisker from France’s Thomas Peyroton-Dartet.
A breakaway group of Graham, Peyroton-Dartet and his France teammate Alexandre Leaute dominated the race, establishing a safe lead over the field, with the Graham and Peyroton-Dartet eventually shedding Leaute to set up a two-horse race for gold as they entered the final kilometre.
A partisan home crowd roared on Peyroton-Dartet, the time trial champion, into the final straight but it was the rider from Manchester who proved the stronger in the sprint, crossing the line barely a bike’s length ahead of his rival.
“The French made it hard because it was two against one the whole race,” said Graham, who takes home a gold and a silver medal from the Games. “I didn’t really know what their plan was because they were talking in French. I have got world titles and stuff but Paralympic gold, nothing compares to it.”
Swimmer Alice Tai came into these Games with numbers on her mind: six surgeries on three limbs in two and a half years. She leaves with a very different set of figures: two bronzes, one silver and two golds, after third place in the women’s S8 100m butterfly on Saturday.
The 25-year-old from Poole led for the first 80 metres of the race only to be overhauled by one of the all-time greats, the USA’s Jessica Long whose win meant an astonishing 18th Paraympic gold, her 31st medal overall.
“That last five metres was rough,” Tai told Channel 4. “Man, am I tired. When Jess went past me I knew the other girls were going to be close – I was just hanging on. So I’m really happy with bronze. I left everything in that pool.”
Faye Rogers also took an early lead, after the opening butterfly leg of the women’s SM10 200m individual medley – unsurprisingly after her gold in the 100m event – but finished fourth, with China’s Meng Zhang taking gold.
There was a silver for Daniel Powell in the men’s J1 -90kg judo, the Liverpudlian missing out to Brazil’s Arthur Cavalcante da Silva in the gold medal match.
In the equestrian individual freestyle event at the Château de Versailles Sophie Wells won her second bronze of the Games in the Grade V, while Mari Durward-Akhurst took a bronze in the Grade I, Natasha Baker a bronze in the Grade III – also her second of the Games – and Georgia Wilson silver in the Grade II competition.
At the Stade de France, Britain’s Zach Skinner narrowly missed out on a medal in the men’s T13 long jump. Skinner, the son of former England rugby player Mick Skinner, leapt out to 6.83m, 37cm short of the bronze medallist Paulo Henrique Andrade Dos Reis of Brazil.