Dame Sarah Storey wins remarkable 18th Paralympic gold in C5 time trial

Dame Sarah Storey continued her historic pursuit of gold upon gold on Wednesday morning, claiming her 18th Paralympic victory over nine Games as she won the women’s C5 time trial, but hit out at organisers for creating a course that was just half the length of the men’s.

Storey won the time trial by 4.69 seconds from Heidi Gaugain of France, having been seven seconds behind at the initial checkpoint at 5.8km. But that was the only check on the entire course, which ran just 14.2km in total, half the length of the race to be completed by male athletes later in the day.

“This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we’ve ever had and I think it’s a real shame because you don’t get to showcase parasport in the way that you want to”, she said after the race. “I’m very happy. I’m over the moon. But I know that there’s always ways to improve things.

“There’s plenty of time in the day for us to do two laps like the men. And having fought so hard for parity in women’s cycling to not have it in para-cycling after what we had in Glasgow [at the world championships] last year, is a real disappointment.”

Storey said that submissions had been made to organisers ahead of the Games over the length of the course but athletes had not received an explanation as to why the decision had been made.

This is now the fifth Games in a row that Storey has won the time trial title, and the brevity of the course appeared to work in her favour as she blew away her rivals over the course of two climbs squeezed into the second half of the course.

“I’ve always been powerful,” she said. “So I knew that the climbs would be quite crucial to make sure that you really were on the rivet and pushing as hard as you can. You don’t really need to have recovery in a race that’s 20 minutes. So, yeah, it’s a hilly 10, if you like.

“We do lots of those at home, so I’ve got plenty of practice opportunities. But at championships you expect to race a minimum of 22km and I think that’s what we’ve done in all the other Paralympic Games. You look back to that incredible course in Beijing, Brands Hatch and all the fans, Rio, although it was flat, it was longer. And then Tokyo, we had the motor circuit and no one there anyway. But we had three laps there and it was a real challenge. So I think this is the most disappointing in that sense, after what came before it. And I hope it’s something that doesn’t happen again.”

It is understood organisers opted to hold some time trials over the shorter distance due to there being 19 races on Wednesday’s busy schedule, in addition to medal ceremonies.

In the women’s C1-3 time trial Britain’s Frances Brown picked up a silver medal, behind Germany’s Maike Hausberger, while Sophie Unwin and Lora Fachie won silver and bronze in the women’s B time trial.