Paralympic Games: Gold haul for Britons in sprints

GREAT BRITAIN produced two of the fastest wheelchair athletes of all time at the Paralympic Games in Barcelona last night when Tanni Grey, from Cardiff, and Southport's Andy Hodge won their respective 100 metres categories.

For 23-year-old Grey the gold was expected, but not a world record of 17.55sec. Hodge, 22, destroyed the favourite, John Lindsay of Australia, in a time of 15.74. Chris Hallam, of Cwmbran, took the bronze in the same race.

More British success came from Noel Thatcher, who won the men's B2 class 1500m in a Games record of 3min 56.33sec, 43 seconds slower than his own world record time set last year.

In the B3 class 1500m, Anthony Hamilton won bronze for Britain in 4:04:77, behind the Frenchman Christophe Carayon, who set another Games record of 4:02:24.

Tracey Hinton, a 22-year-old blind 200m runner from Cardiff, won a silver medal, clocking 27.23sec, behind Spain's Precocion Santa Marta's world record 26.04. David Smith, a 22-year-old cerebral palsy cyclist from Dudley, recorded a personal best of 7:36.03 in the 500m but finished fourth.