Medal success for Calderdale's paralympians

Calderdale’s paralympians have been striking gold, silver and bronze in Tokyo.
Hannah Cockroft (Getty Images)Hannah Cockroft (Getty Images)
Hannah Cockroft (Getty Images)

Halifax’s Hannah Cockroft won her sixth paralympic gold medal and set a new world record with her victory in the T34 100m.

Hurricane Hannah won the race in an amazing time of 16.39 seconds.

“I was so excited but so nervous,” she told Channel 4.

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“I haven’t raced any of those girls so I was like ‘I have no idea what any of you has to offer’ so I pulled out the big guns, did everything I could and thankfully it was enough.”

MP for Halifax Holly Lynch said: “Massive congratulations to Hannah on yet another amazing achievement,” she said.

“Once again she has done Halifax and the whole country proud.

“She truly is an inspirational woman.”

Hannah races again on Saturday in the 800m, giving her the opportunity of winning a seventh gold medal.

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There was also a medal for Hebden Bridge-based cyclist Steve Bate, who won silver in the Men’s B 4000m individual pursuit.

He said: “Emotionally it’s disappointing but logically we need to be realistic. We gave everything we had, it just wasn’t good enough.

“I’m just pleased to be standing here with a medal because it could have gone a lot worse.”

Halifax’s Harry Brown is part of the GB men’s wheelchair basketball team who beat Canada this morning to make it through to the semi-finals.

They will play either Australia or Japan on Friday.

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And there was a bronze medal for Todmorden’s table tennis player Megan Shackleton who, together with Sue Bailey, made it through the semi-finals before being beaten by China earlier today.

She described winning a medal at the paralympics as “a dream come true.”