Rio Paralympics 2016: Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott take cycling gold in Rio as Team GB success continues

Thornhill and her tandem pilot Scott claimed victory in the women's B one-kilometre time-trial

Sophie Thornhill and her tandem pilot Helen Scott celebrate their gold victory (Getty)

Sophie Thornhill and her tandem pilot Helen Scott won Great Britain's sixth gold of the Paralympics on Friday's second day of competition in Rio.

Dame Sarah Storey's 12th Paralympic gold was the highlight of an opening day which saw Britain win three of the four events in the velodrome as ParalympicsGB emulated the track dominance of Team GB at last month's Olympics.

And Thornhill, who is partially sighted, and Scott claimed victory in the women's B one-kilometre time-trial.

Australia's Jessica Gallagher and her pilot Madison Janssen clocked a Paralympic record of one minute 08.171 seconds to take the lead with just the Britons and Holland to come.

Thornhill and Scott finished second at March's Track World Championships behind Larissa Klaassen and her pilot Haliegh Dolman, so were the penultimate bike to take to the track.

The pair clocked in at 1min 06.283secs - breaking the Paralympic record Gallagher and Janssen set moments earlier.

It meant they were guaranteed at least silver with just the Dutch to ride.

The Dutch pair were behind throughout and finished in 1:07.059 to leave Thornhill and Scott to hug in the track centre, share a few tears and then take in the applause of the crowd.

Ireland's Katie Dunlevy and her pilot Evelyn McCrystal clocked 1:12.332 to finish seventh.

Scott claimed silver in the same event at London 2012 with Aileen McGlynn, while it was the home Paralympics which inspired Thornhill to take to the track.

But the pair joked even the gold was not Thornhill's highlight of the day - that was receiving a good luck tweet from her beloved Manchester United.

"Oh my God, I couldn't believe it," Thornhill said.

Scott added: "That was the highlight of her day, not winning this gold medal."

Thornhill added: "Yes, I got a tweet off Manchester United. I don't care about anything else."

Put to her that she could soon be a pitchside guest at Old Trafford, Thornhill said: "I could die after that. That'd be my life ambition complete."

The 20-year-old from Cheshire won four world titles at her first two World Championships - the first two with pilot Rachel James, who is the elder sister of Olympic medallist Becky.

At the Commonwealth Games Thornhill combined with Scott for England to take two golds and the partnership continued for the 2015 World Championships, where they won two more.

But they finished with two silvers at March's World Championships - the second in the sprint discipline which is no longer part of the Paralympics.

Thornhill was born with oculocutaneous albinism and attended Poynton High School, the same school as Storey.

"It's amazing. After the worlds defeat, we reset, sat down, planned everything out and we knew that if we did what we had planned then it'd be very hard for anybody else to beat us," Thornhill said.

"The moment we saw they didn't beat our time, we screamed. There's no words to describe how happy, relieved, proud we are. It's just incredible.

"We're the best of friends and that helps our training relationship massively. If you don't get on it's so much hard work and luckily we do. It makes it enjoyable and not just all hard work."

Scott, who is 26 and from Halesowen, added: "We've always had a fast opening 500 metres, so we knew if we got out quicker than anybody else it would mean they would have to work double hard to try to catch us. They did at the worlds, they caught us, but today was different."

The pair ride again in the tandem three-kilometre pursuit on Sunday's final day of track action, but team-mates Lora Turnham and her pilot Corrine Hall have a better chance of success there.

PA.