September 2008 Archives

Catching up on Four Years of Sleep

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"I am going to catch up on four years of sleep" that was the plan revealed this morning by Darren on BBC breakfast. It has been a hectic few weeks, not only for Darren but for all of the ParalympicsGB athletes in Beijing.

They arrived back yesterday in a Gold nosed British Airways plane to cheering crowds at Heathrow's Terminal 5. The athletes were 'released' in small groups to allow time for photographs and Darren barely had time to snatch a hug and kiss from the family before being whisked off to a photo op. The Families then went to the first class lounge to wait. After a while they were back for another round of hugs and kisses before off for a press conference. Press conference over and almost 2 hours after the plane had landed the athletes finally belonged to their families again and it was time to prepare for the journey home. For some it was on to another plane, for others there was long drive ahead, the lucky ones were already close to home.

From a family point of view a big thank you to the British Airways staff for all their help and hospitality during the waiting times.

Day Seven - 13 September 2008

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Today was the last day of cycling for ParalympicsGB, a fact I am sure that will be welcomed by the other countries.

Darren was in the final race to start of the day, the Men's Individual. Road Race LC 3/LC 4/CP 3, along with fellow ParalympicsGBer Simon Richardson. Towards the end of the 60.5 Km race there were just two riders that had broken away from the pack, no surprises that they were Darren and Javier.

Darren dug into his reserves in the last 150 meters to finish 1.74 seconds ahead of Javier and claim Gold in his final event of the games. Simon Richardson finished 10th.

Darren said later "It's an honour to race with Ochoa. It makes winning even more special"

Taking into account the 2 Golds and 1 Silver won in Athens 2004 and the 4 Golds and 1 Silver in Beijing, Darren is now the most sucessful British Paralympic cyclist ever.

There was Gold to today for David Stone in the Mixed Road Race (CP1/CP2) , coming home a full 3 minutes before his nearest opponents.

Rachel Morris finished in sixth place in the individual hand cycling road race (HC A-C) and Mark Bristow finished 24th in the LC1-2/CP4 road race.

That brings ParalympicsGB medal total on the Road to 5 Gold, the teams 17th Gold for these games.

Day Six - 12 September 2008

When you are racing on the road and your main rival has previously won stages of the Tour de France you are going to have a tough time. There was only 2 names in the frame for Gold in the Men's Individual Time Trial CP 3 on the road today; Darren Kenny and Javier Ochoa, the last two riders in the race.

Darren was the penultimate rider and completed the 24.8km in 37:38.42 a clear minute ahead of the nearest rival, Yong-Sik Jin and setting the pace for Ochoa.In a repeat of the outcome at Athens 2004 Ochoa pulled a time of 37:26.47 to win Gold with Darren taking Silver and Yong-Sik winning bronze.

Silver was the colour for Simon Richardson as well, with the double Gold Medal winning LC3 rider coming second to Laurent Thirionet of France.

Sarah Storey gained her second Gold of the games on the road with a nail biting finish in the Women's Individual Time Trial LC 1/LC 2/CP 4 beating Jennifer Schuble of USA.

All these names are familiar if you have followed the action in the Velodrome, but ParalympicsGB had fresh Muscle to bring to the road.

Rachel Morris took Gold in the Women's Individual Time Trial (HCA/HCB/HCC) and David Stone took Gold in the Mixed Time Trial (CP1/CP2).

With two scorching days left of the cycling programme ParalympicsGB has won 15 Gold and 3 Silver medals.

Veni Vici Velodrome

Yesterday afternoon I finally managed to speak to Darren, having received a text message in the morning from him thanking everyone for their support. I was a bit noisy as he was in the front of a Taxi (not in a Bradley Wiggins way) just going back to the village after finishing things off in style in the velodrome.

There have been no cycling events today, just preparation for the three days of Road ahead, so maybe it is a good time to point you to some of the press coverage of ParalympicsGB at the velodrome.

The British Cycling Website has daily reports and pictures.

The Official Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games Web Site has a cycling headlnes section that makes great reading.

China View also has good coverage of the games in general.

There are few quotes that I have liked, apparently everybody wants to know the ParalympicsGB cycling team secrets. Ellen Hunter said: 'They ask what I had for breakfast. I tell them cornflakes. We're not giving much away.'

But the final quote must go to my nephew Brandon. When interviewed on 5 live he was ask what he thought about Darren's performance 'It's brilliant - I'm going to go and buy my dad a Superman t-shirt'

BBC Television Coverage

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On the BBC Sports Editor Blog there is news that they have freed up some time in the schedules for Thursday and Friday and have moved some of the Red Button coverage to BBC2 from 1030 BST to 12 noon before reverting back to the Red Button.

One interesting fact is that the viewing figures for the Opening Ceremony was much higher than for the last couple of live England football matches.

If you live in the UK and want to watch Darren race then you can watch episodes of Games today on BBC iPlayer. Darren is featured on Day Three and Day Four shows.

Day Four - 10 September 2008

Today was the last day of track cycling and at the Laoshan Velodrome with tomorrow a day of preparation before the start of the Road Racing. Out of the 4 possible Gold's avilable today ParalympicsGB was contesting 3 of them.

First on the podium was Sarah Storey in the Women's Ind. Pursuit (LC 3-4/CP 3), winning in world record time just ahead of Jennifer Schuble.

Next came Antony Kappes & Barney Storey in the Men's Sprint (B&VI 1-3), besting Austrila 2-0 to bring their medal total to 2.

The final velodrome event was the Men's Team Sprint (LC1-4 CP3/4) and was tightly fought between Darren Kenny, Jody Cundy and Mark Bristow and the host nation, well three of them at least; Zhang Kuidong, Zhang Lu and Zheng Yuanchao. The chinese trio pushed hard, losing ground on the last lap to finish less than a second behind.

Friday is the start of the Road racing with Darren Kenny, Sarah Storey, Mark Bristow and Simon Richardson looking for Gold in the shadow of the Great Wall along with fellow road specialists David Stone and Rachel Morris.

Day Three - 9 September 2008

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Everyone is in agreement, Great Britain is dominating the cycling. Today the Paralympic cycling teams Gold medal count surpassed the outstanding results of the Olympic team a few weeks ago and there are still events to go, both in the Velodrome and on the road.

In the 1Km Time Trial (CP3) Rik Waddon took 2 seconds off Darren's world record set at the 2007 Championships in France, only to see Darren within the space of a few minutes shave another 1.5 seconds off Rik's time to become the first CP3 rider ever to ride the 1Km in under 1:10. A second Gold and World Record for Darren in this games with a Silver medal for Rik.

Darren was not the only double Gold, double World Record cyclist in ParalympicsGB today. Simon Richardson followed Darren's example in the 3KM Men's Individual Pusuit (LC3) by shaving 6 seconds off the World Record in the heats and winning Gold in the Final.

Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter also added another Gold in the Women's Individual Pursuit (B&VI) speeding away from the Australians Lindy Hou and Toireasa Gallagher to finish 1.5 seconds ahead.

The next Gold of the day came from Mark Bristow in the Men's 1Km Time Trail (LC1), flying round the track and trimming 0.2 seconds from the previous world record.

Final Gold of the day came from former paralympic swimmer Jody Cundy setting a new world record in the Men's 1Km Time Trail (LC2), beating the previous record by some 3 seconds, 5 seconds ahead of Jiri Kezek of the Czech Republic.

Day Two - 8 September 2008

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No events in the Velodrome today for Darren, the schedule had just 2 events for the GB cycling team; Men's 1Km Time Trial (B&VI) and the Women's 500m Time Trial (LC1-2/CP 4).

Once again the team of Antony Kappes and Barney Storey proved to be unstopple, breaking the world record by over a second and well clear of Australia's Ben Demery and Shaun Hopkins.

Sarah Storey managed a personal best of 38.356, good enough for a podium finish in a single class race, but once the other riders disability class had been factored in Sarah moved down to 5th place.

Day One - 7 September 2008

Well Darren started his race to the podium by shaving nearly 6 seconds of his previous World Record time in the Men's Individual Pursuit against Javier Ochoa of Spain, catching him in under 1250 meters and finishing in 3:36.875.

Darren then had a long wait until the final while Simon Richardson (LC3) brought home ParalympicsGB first Gold of the games in the 1KM Time Trial with a world record time of 1:14.936. This was closely followed by Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter bring home another Gold in the B&VI 1KM Time Trial, shaving over a second off their previous Paralympic Record time.

In the final Darren was racing against Yong-Sik Jin of Korea (Javier Ochoa having been disqualified for continuing to push after Darren had caught him in the heats), a rider that whose time was a almost a full 22 seconds behind Darren in the heats. By the end of the first 1KM Darren had caught up with Yong-Sik and ParalympicsGB 3 Gold of the day was in the bag.

Over the 5 possible medals that could have been won in the velodrome today ParalympicsGB had riders competing for 3 of them all were sucessful, not only in bring home the Gold but also by setting new records.

Having Trouble Finding Paralympic TV Coverage?

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There is a lot less TV coverage of the Paralympics than there is of the Olympics. The BBC has some 'Red Button' coverage, which requires digital TV and does not start until 17:00 Beijing time, there is also a highlights show each evening.

America has it worse, no live coverage at all, just a series of highlights starting October 8, see the New York times post where Americans can watch the paralympics.

Some help is at hand however, I watched the British cycling Golds via the International Paralympic Committee's Paralympic Sport TV streaming video site.

Let the Games Begin

Today saw the opening of the 2008 Paralympic games in Beijing.

The 3 hour event, broadcast live by the BBC in the UK, saw 4,000 athletes from 148 countries parade into the Bird's Nest Stadium to watch the opening show. What a show it was, showcasing disabled performers from China.

Just how the Paralympic flame was going to be lit was the subject of much speculation in the media, but I do not think anyone expected Hou Bin to hoist himself plus wheelchair up into the air to light the flame.

With the opening festivities over, the time for work has begun. Tomorrow sees Darren competing to retain his title in the CP3 individual pursuit.

Darren's schedule over the games is as follows:

  • Sunday 7 September

    Track: Individual Pusuit

  • Tuesday 9 September

    Track: Kilo

  • Wednesday 10 September

    Track: Team Sprint

  • Friday 12 September

    Road: Time Trial

  • Saturday 13 September

    Road: Road Race

Recent Entries

  • Catching up on Four Years of Sleep

    "I am going to catch up on four years of sleep" that was the plan revealed this morning by Darren on BBC breakfast. It has

  • Day Seven - 13 September 2008

    Today was the last day of cycling for ParalympicsGB, a fact I am sure that will be welcomed by the other countries. Darren was in

  • Day Six - 12 September 2008

    When you are racing on the road and your main rival has previously won stages of the Tour de France you are going to have

  • Veni Vici Velodrome

    Yesterday afternoon I finally managed to speak to Darren, having received a text message in the morning from him thanking everyone for their support. I

  • BBC Television Coverage

    On the BBC Sports Editor Blog there is news that they have freed up some time in the schedules for Thursday and Friday and have

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