Paralympic round-up: Lucas strikes gold to end British sailing's barren run

Helena Lucas finished first in the 2.4mR class sailing (PA)

Helena Lucas could not hide her relief after securing gold on a historic day for British sailing.

Britain is the most successful nation in Olympic sailing history but, somewhat surprisingly, their Paralympic counterparts came into London 2012 without a medal since the sport's introduction 12 years ago.

However, that barren spell ended yesterday as, with the final race of the series cancelled because of a lack of wind, medals were awarded on the standings after the opening 10 races. As a result, Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell took SKUD bronze and Lucas won gold in the 2.4mR class after a week of domination from the only woman in the 16-boat fleet.

"Oh gosh, at the moment is just a sense of relief," Lucas said. "A lot of years have gone into this and finally, finally I have done it.

Britain's men's table tennis team beat Italy 3-0 at the ExCeL to book a semi-final against Poland or Belgium.

The British sitting volleyball women's team lost their seventh and eighth-place play-off game 3-0 to Japan, while Great Britain's women's basketball team will play off for seventh and eighth against Mexico tomorrow after losing 72-55 against China.