Calderdale's Paralympians on the Rio medals trail

Hannah Cockroft. PA Wire. INSET: Harry Brown. Simon Cooper/PA Wire

It’s hard not to feel a swell of pride at the amazing achievements of Calderdale’s Paralympians representing Great Britain in Rio.

In what has been a phenomenal week, Hannah Cockfroft, Steve Bate and Karen Darke all stormed to success. At the time of writing, wheelchair basketball player Harry Brown (right) was also gearing up for a semi-final match against Spain on Thursday night.

‘Hurricane Hannah’ Cockroft’s Rio winning streak began on Sunday, when she won her third Paralympic gold medal and first of the Rio Games at the Olympic Stadium.

The 24-year-old, from Mount Tabor and a former student of Trinity School, Holmfield, retained her 100m T34 title in a Paralympic record time of 17.42 seconds.

She then scooped her second gold medal of the 2016 games on Wednesday, when she she rode to victory in the T34 400m in a world-record time of 58.78 seconds.

Cockroft will compete in the 800m final tonight at 10.15pm.

Steve Bate, who lives in Mytholmroyd, has also done Calderdale proud.

In a glorious start to the Paralympics last Thursday, Bate and his pilot Adam Duggleby, scooped their gold medals in the men’s B 4,000m individual pursuit track cycling event

Speaking at the time, he said: “It’s hard to back up a world record ride like this morning but I was super stoked to be able to do it by winning gold.

“This guy (Duggleby) is world class and I can’t thank him enough.”

In another triumphant result, the pair won Britain’s third cycling gold of Wednesday with victory in the tandem road time-trial.

Wednesday proved to be a great day for Karen Darke, also from Mytholmroyd, when she went one better than the London 2012 Paralympics by winning gold in the H1-3 time trial.

She continued her good form this season and triumphed in the road cycling event in 33 minutes 44.93 seconds. Darke also competed in the H 1-2-3-4 Women’s Road Race at 4.20pm yesterday (Thursday).

Harry Brown and the men’s Team GB wheelchair basketball lost a match against Spain last night, but will go into a match with other semi-finalists to compete for a bronze medal.