Kadeena Cox completes first leg of dual-sport Paralympic title defences with world record performance in Tokyo 2020 velodrome
Multi-sport Paralympic champion Kadeena Cox set a new world record as the Briton defended her track cycling C4-5 500m time trial crown today at Tokyo 2020.
Cox, who is also the reigning T38 400m champion in athletics, beat Canada’s Kate O’Brien in the final to claim ParalympicsGB’s ninth medal in the Izu Velodrome.
“I knew if I put everything together that me and my coach have worked on, it would be amazing and that’s what happened, so I am so happy,” said Cox.
“I was not paying attention to what anyone else was doing, I was just listening to my gospel music and just reading messages from my family and focussing on that. I got up and did my own thing.”
Cox, who has multiple sclerosis, is part of a highly-fancied British trio set to go in the team sprint tomorrow before turning her attention to the athletics track.
“I think today I executed a race that was near-perfect and maybe I will go quicker tomorrow [in the mixed team sprint] with the boys either side of me,” 30-year-old Cox added.
Jaco van Gass, another member of the team sprint line-up, added bronze in the C1-3 1,000m time trial to yesterday’s individual pursuit gold.
The Afghanistan veteran turned adventurer and sportsman set a new C3 world record but it wasn’t enough to overcome China’s Li Zhangyu and Frenchman Alexandre Leaute, who set new C1 and C2 world records respectively.
“The legs felt a little bit heavy, especially that last lap. Felt like treacle. But I gave it my all,” said Van Gass.
“The game plan for today was always the world record, that was my goal. If it came with a medal like it did then it was a bonus. So I’m very happy.
“Kadeena Cox rode a fantastic opening lap, sub-20 seconds. It’s going to be very hard work staying behind her and delivering Jody [Cundy] at a very high speed. It’s all about recovery now, and go again tomorrow.”