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Golden repeat for Pearson
Sep 22 2004
Paralympics
Rider Lee Pearson recovered from an early error to win Great Britain's second gold medal of day four at the Paralympics in Athens in the dressage competition.
The 30-year-old from Staffordshire, a triple gold medallist in Sydney, claimed another top prize in the Grade I individual event at the Markopoulo equestrian centre.
Pearson, riding Blue Circle Boy, recorded a score of 77.263 per cent to finish well clear of Australia's Jan Pike. Ascot's Sophie Christiansen, who at 16 is the youngest member of the equestrian team, took bronze. Anne Dunham, from Wiltshire, was sixth.
"I made a mistake at the beginning of my programme, but luckily I corrected myself. I thought I had thrown away my chance of the gold medal," said Pearson afterwards.
"Winning here was more emotional than in Sydney because I was riding my own horse. He is such a talented horse and he has certainly earned his space in the field when he retires." The results of Pearson, Christiansen and Dunham bode well for Britain's attempts to secure their third successive team dressage title on Sunday.
Pearson's gold came after Stephen Miller smashed the world record by over seven metres to clinch gold in the club throw.
The 24-year-old from Newcastle's second throw of 33.53 metres was the longest, and easily eclipsed the previous world record of 26m set by Radim Boles of the Czech Republic in 2000.
The three medals took Britain's total to 26, with 11 of those gold.
Swimmers Sascha Kindred, Nyree Lewis and Jim Anderson all reached finals in impressive style.
Kindred, already a gold medallist here, set a new Paralympic record of one minute 24.51 seconds in the men's SB7 breaststroke heats, while Lewis - Kindred's partner who is 24 today - did the same in qualifying for the S6 100m backstroke final.
Elsewhere, Troye Collins scored 19 goals as Britain's wheelchair rugby side made it three wins out of three, defeating Germany 41-30, while the wheelchair basketball team kept their medal hopes alive with their first win, a 75-43 rout of France.
