Kinghorn gold caps dream Games after successful day for Scots

Sammi Kinghorn is undoubtedly having the Paralympic Games of a lifetime, beyond even his wildest dreams.

The Scot produced a masterful performance at the Stade de France on Wednesday night to win her first ever Paralympic gold medal in the women’s 100m T53 final in Paris.

Paralympic champion.

“I can’t believe I did that,” she said after the race. “It’s really mind-blowing.”

“I really wanted to give Catherine (Debrunner) a very good race.

“I beat her once this year, but she beat me every time, but I knew our times were within a tenth of each other, so I just wanted to make sure my start was really strong.”

Alongside this iconic victory, it was also a Paralympic record.

In doing so, Kinghorn eliminated world record holder Debrunner, who was favourite to win this race, although they are close rivals in this event.

The Melrose-born athlete became the first non-Chinese winner of the event in 20 years, following Tanni Grey-Thompson’s victory in Athens in 2004.

It was an amazing few days for her with two silver medals already before this incredible victory.

Her first success came in the T53 800m. The second, unexpectedly by Kinghorn’s own admission, came in the 1,500m, an event in which she had until then had little experience at the highest level.

She could go even further with at least one more 400m event to follow in Paris in what has become a pretty incredible performance.

“I can’t believe I managed to do this,” Kinghorn said.

“I didn’t want to celebrate too early. I just wanted to make sure my name was at the top of the screen, so it took me a little while to pull myself together and be like, ‘Oh my God, I just did it.'”

Reid is far from finished on the field

At Roland Garros, Gordon Reid He initially disappointed in singles, losing his quarter-final to Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez in three sets.

Despite this, he then responded in doubles alongside his partner Alfie Hewett.

The pair got the better of local favourites Federic Cattaneo and Stephane Houdet 6-4, 6-3 to reach a third Paralympic final and guarantee at least a silver medal.

But it is gold they are desperately seeking after missing out on the previous two finals.

“We’ve left nothing to chance and we’ve given ourselves the best chance now to go a little further,” Reid told BBC Scotland.

“We know it’s sport, we know anything can happen, but we’re ready to give it everything we’ve got.”

Reid, 32, also confirmed that whatever the result, he had no intention of making this his last Paralympics.

“I’m definitely going to be playing in LA in four years, so it depends on whether Alfie dumps me or not,” he said.

“I have no intention of stopping. I think in wheelchair tennis maybe we can go a little further in this sport.”

Paracycling silver but narrowly missed out

There was more good news in the women’s para-cycling B individual road time trial where Jenny Holl won a silver medal while riding Sophie Unwin as the pair added to their gold and bronze medals.

However, let it simmer Stephen Clegg missed the chance to add two more medals to his gold medal won earlier this week in the S12 100m backstroke.

The 28-year-old from Edinburgh finished fourth in both the S12 100m freestyle final and the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay – 49 points final.

Also at the Paris La Défense Arena, Aberdeen’s Toni Shaw reached the final of the women’s 100m freestyle S9 but finished eighth.