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Jumat, 31 Agustus 2012

Paralympics: Britons Chase More Gold Medals

Britain's Paralympians are aiming high on the second day of the Games after a seven-medal haul in the first 24 hours.

Friday's medal hopefuls include Hannah Cockroft, a double world champion wheelchair racer, who is going for gold in the women's T34 100 metres.

The team will seek to follow the success on Day One, when cyclist Sarah Storey and swimmer Jonathan Fox both bagged gold medals, and three silver and two bronze medals were also won for Britain.

Cockroft, from Halifax, has smashed four world records at the 2010 British Wheelchair Athletics Association International.

She also made history as the first athlete to set a world record in the Olympic Stadium in London in May 2012.

:: Click here to see the medals table

In the velodrome, double Paralympic cycling champion Jody Cundy and Jon-Allan Butterworth will battle it out in the C4/C5 one-kilometre time-trial.

Cundy, from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, had his right foot amputated at age three and was then fitted with an artificial leg.

A former Paralympic swimming champion who switched to para-cycling in 2006 is aiming to defend his Beijing title but Butterworth, an ex-RAF serviceman who lost his left arm serving in Iraq, will be hoping he can snatch the gold.

Martine Wright Martine Wright, injured in the 7/7 bombs, is playing sitting volleyball

The 26-year-old from Sutton Coldfield made his journey to the Games via the battlefield and Help for Heroes' Battle Back scheme.

Inspired by watching athletes like Sir Chris Hoy in the 2008 Olympics, he went to a selection weekend in Newport and was accepted on to the British Paracycling Programme in January 2009.

He won gold and broke the world record in the C5 Kilo at his first World Championships last year and then also came away with a gold medal in this year's event.

Thursday's silver medal winner in the men's C1-3 one-kilometre Time Trial, Mark Colbourne, will also be back on the track as he competes in the C1 Individual pursuit.

Ex-soldier Derek Derenalagi, who lost his legs in Taliban blash in Afghanistan in 2007, is also sure to draw a crowd as he goes for gold in the F57 discus.

Derenalagi, who was born in Fiji but now lives in Hertfordshire, had his legs blown off in a Taliban blast in Afghanistan in July 2007.

After being airlifted to the hospital at Camp Bastion he was pronounced dead but amazingly one of the doctors saw a slight pulse movement.

Following a painful recovery and with two new prosthetic legs, the former soldier pulled off a surprise win at the European championships and is now hoping for Paralympic glory.

UK Sport has set ParalympicsGB the minimum target of winning 103 medals from at least 12 different sports, with the overall goal of once again finishing second in the medal table.

Britain is currently third after one day of competition. It finished second for the third time in a row in Beijing after bagging 102 medals, including 42 golds.

One of the biggest hopes for gold, swimmer Ellie Simmonds, will compete at the weekend - but her race has been hit by controversy after a row over reclassification.

World record holder and American paralympic swimmer Victoria Arlen was declassified on Monday after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) ruled she was not disabled enough.

But the 17-year-old was reinstated on Thursday after an appeal by the US team was upheld. A final decision will now be made by the IPC after she has competed.