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Sabtu, 01 September 2012

Richard Whitehead thrills crowd with astonishing 200m victory to win Paralympic gold

Whitehead, one of Britain’s most remarkable and versatile track athletes, sprinted to the home nation’s second gold of the athletics programme, after wheelchair racer Hannah Cockroft’s T34 100m victory on Friday, with a breathtaking half-lap performance which saw him storm from last off the bend to a dominant triumph in the T42 class.

Yet when he stormed through the field, his prosthetic limbs swinging dramatically, it was one of the most amazing sights so far of these astounding Games as he roared through to win in a new world record of 24.38sec, slicing over half a second off the record of 24.93sec he set in Holland in June at the European Championships. Shaquille Vance, the American runner-up, was 1.17sec adrift.

And what a man. Whitehead has become such an astonishingly versatile athlete that he holds the world record for both the 200m and the marathon. “I am living proof, that with enough desire and determination, any obstacle can be overcome," said the man who competed in the Turin Paralympics in the UK sledge hockey team.

What an achievement for the former county council sports co-ordinator in schools who was once told when he was a kid at his junior school in Lowdham that he could not compete alongside his school friends because he had artificial limbs.

Even in his Paralympic career, he has had huge setbacks, discovering, after breaking the marathon world record for T42 athletes in Chicago in 2008, that the 26-mile event was not an official event at the Paralympics. So he turned to a track event to land his dream of Paralympic gold.

The victory was also a triumph for his family, who catered for Richard’s out-of-school activities and ended up setting up their own club for people with disabilities, which they ran for 20 years.

"Today I came and saw and conquered. That's why I gave the two-gun salute at the end," said Whitehead, who revealed his feats had been achieved despite a "headache and a bit of a temperature.

"I know a lot of the guys had trained hard for the [first] 150 metres. It was a bit choppy at the end but I held it together.

"Today was about giving back everyone here a performance. I've got all the support around me and that is why I'm successful. I'd like to dedicate the gold to my mum and dad and my girlfriend."

"I've still got the 100 to come which will be about putting my foot down."

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