Kare Adenegan proud of her fight after second Paris 2024 silver medal

By Milly McEvoy at the Stade de France

Kare Adenegan was proud of her fight as she claimed her second silver of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

The Coventry native finished over seven seconds behind ParalympicsGB teammate Hannah Cockroft but was comfortably ahead of Eva Houston of the USA to claim her seventh Paralympic medal at just 23 years old.

Since winning two bronzes at Rio 2016, Adenegan has won silver in every Paralympic race she has contested, finishing behind Paralympic great Cockroft each time.

“I feel so happy, I feel really blessed because that 800 was hard,” said Adenegan, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.

“I was having to give absolutely everything at the end.

“My arms were dying. I feel so proud of that because I felt I had to fight for it.

“I spoke with my coach. We always had a plan. I had to go off hard, kick when I tell you to kick and that was it.

“I don’t know how much I really had left for the kick, but I tried to go up a notch. We had a plan and stuck to it.

“You want to be nice and smooth and high and I could tell my arms were getting shorter and shorter. But in the 800 you just have to dig deep and whatever you have got left at the end.”

Adenegan was pleased to meet the expectations she gave herself prior to competing at Paris 2024.

However, she knows greater challenges to come with Cockroft showing no signs of calling it quits after her ninth title aged 32.

Furthermore, the rest of the T34 class are catching her up, with Fabienne André not far behind Houston in fourth.

She added: “Coming in here, I wanted at least two silvers. I set quite a high standard for myself, I wanted to at least do as well as I did in Tokyo.

“So I’m really glad that I did that. The times were a bit slow, but across the board we were a bit slow.

“When you come to the Paralympics, it’s about the medals so I’m really pleased that I was able to get more medals.

“I think things are getting closer. Hannah is still relatively ahead of us but I think everybody behind at the moment, we are getting a lot closer.

“Eva was only two seconds behind, when we finished the first lap, I heard the bell for her and then not long after, I heard it for her.

“People are getting closer but it’s about me going back and trying to open that gap as much as I can, and try to chase Hannah down as well.”

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