Whitehead storms to 200m Paralympic gold

The 36-year-old was the only athlete to begin the race standing up, and got off to a slow start. But he soon raced ahead in the final 80m to win gold for Para GB.

Greeted by a huge roar from a packed Olympic Stadium, Whitehead clocked 24.38 seconds and won the T42 category title by a huge margin, breaking his own world record.

The double above-the-knee amputee has completed 24 marathons since 2004, but turned to the sprinting after being denied the chance to race the longest distance in London due to International Paralympic Committee regulations.

Whitehead smashed the record for the 200m T42 at the European Championships a month ago and has also run an incredible two hours 42 minutes 54 secs for the marathon.

The 100m and 200m are the only two distances in his class.

The T42 category is for runners with a moderate impairment in one leg, or the loss of limbs.

Cycling gold

Earlier in the day, Neil Fachie and Barney Storey, won Great Britain’s third gold medal in the track cycling programme in the tandem 1km time trial.

Fachie, who is partially sighted and competed in athletics in Beijing in 2008, and his pilot Storey, clocked a world record of 1 minute 01.351 seconds.

But there was heartache at the velodrome for Anthony Kappes and Craig MacLean. They suffered two mishaps and were denied a third opportunity to start by race officials.

The duo, world champions in February, had been scheduled to start last, but two chain failures saw their competition come to an end.