Paralympics 2016: Sarah Storey becomes Britain's most decorated female Paralympian on day one gold rush
The comprehensive round-up from all the biggest stories on day one at the Rio Paralympic Games
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Your support makes all the difference.The Paralympics are well and truly back in business. And what a start for Team GB.
Four years after the success of London, where Britain claimed a total of 120 medals, including 34 golds, the nation’s Paralympians face a steep mountain to climb in surpassing such a figure.
But if day one of the XV Paralympics is anything to go by, Britain should be in store for another bumper haul.
Within the space of only a couple of hours Team GB had got its hands on four golds, two silvers and one bronze.
Like their fellow athletes in the Olympics, Britain’s Paralympians asserted their dominance in the velodrome from the off.
Most notably, Sarah Storey raced her way into the history books as she claimed her 12th gold medal to confirm her status as the most successful British female Paralympian of all time.
The 38-year-old comfortably beat fellow Briton Crystal Lane in the Women’s C5 3000m individual pursuit final as she added a seventh cycling gold to her tally.
Storey, who switched from the pool to the cycling track prior to Beijing 2008, surpassed the previous record medal haul set by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson who won 11 gold medals throughout her own career.
But the honour of Britain's first medal at the XV Paralympics went to Megan Giglia, however, who took gold in the C1-2-3 3km individual pursuit moments prior to Storey.
Like Storey, Giglia also set a new world record in the qualifying stage as she clocked in at 4:03.544 minutes, more than eight seconds clear of the United States' Jamie Whitmore, her rival in the final.
It didn’t stop there for Britain though. Steve Bate, who has only a 10% field of vision, was up next in the velodrome with pilot Adam Duggleby. The duo made it three from three as they bagged yet another cycling gold for Britain.
With Bate and Duggleby working together quite literally in tandem, the pair finished more than one second ahead of Dutch pair Vincent her Schure and pilot Timo Fransen in the final of the men’s B 4,000m individual pursuit.
Over at the pool, Mansfield’s Ollie Hynd went one better than London 2012, where he finished second behind China’s Yinan Wang, to seize gold in the Men's S8 400m freestyle.
Hynd obliterated his brother Sam’s Paralympic record, which has stood since Beijing 2008, and left the field for dead with his relentless pace seeing him through to the end.
The 21-year-old admitted afterwards that: “I don't think there's a day gone by when I haven't thought about what happened in London 2012 and to right those wrongs.
"I have worked so hard for this and it means everything. I can't wait to get on the podium.” After four years of waiting, that gold was finally his.
Hynd wasn't the only Briton on the poolside podium on Thursday night.
Harriet Lee put in a stirring performance to squeak home for silver in the women’s SB9 100m breaststroke while Stephanie Millward claimed bronze in the S8 400m freestyle.
Breathless, inspirational, and quite simply incredible - Britain’s Paralympians are back, and they’ve started in style.
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