London: After wooing the nation on Saturday, on another rousing night in the Aquatics Centre it looked like winning was becoming a habit for Ellie Simmonds as she collected her second gold of the Paralympics.
Such was the dominance of the 17-year-old that she even survived the presence of the prime minister, David Cameron, whose attendance in the steepling stands became something of a bad omen during the Olympics.
And Britain’s track and field Paralympians, who underperformed in Beijing with just two gold medals, took their total to five in the Olympic Stadium with victory for Mickey Bushell in the T53 100m.
Bushell went one better than the silver he secured in Beijing and equalled the achievement of Hannah Cockroft in the T34 wheelchair category on Friday night.
Bushell, who cruised to victory in 14.74 seconds, was born without seven vertebrae in his back and was spotted by the Paralympian Deborah Brennan when playing dodgeball at school.
“I have waited four years for this. I nearly cried coming across the line,” said Bushell, who watched his friend David Weir win his 5,000m race in the Paralympic village on Sunday night.
“I was in my room watching the race and was just bouncing off the walls.”
As in the stadium, Britain’s swimmers appear to be thriving in the hothouse atmosphere and using the noise of the crowd to inspire rather than intimidate.
After effortlessly overhauling the German Verena Schott in the final length of the women’s 200m individual medley in a new world record time, Simmonds will be aiming to make it a hat-trick of gold medals on Tuesday in the 50m freestyle.
When she touched the end of the pool on Saturday night after a close duel with American rival Victoria Arlen, Simmonds couldn’t stop the tears flowing. But as she claimed her second gold of the Games in more emphatic fashion, she simply beamed.
“It was 50/50 whether I got that [first] gold medal. So when I touched and to do a five second PB it was quite emotional,” said the 17-year-old.
“I knew I was on form this morning and I knew it was going to be tough, but really I was going to be racing against myself. I show my emotions in different ways and tonight I’m just so excited and so pleased and so happy.”
Simmonds, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, was again cheered home by a raucous crowd. She said she was trying to remain in “a bubble” and was avoiding Twitter and Facebook, but couldn’t help but be aware of the wave of public support.
“Apparently 3.3 million people watched my race which is amazing not just for me but for getting the Paralympics out there. Hopefully people out there will get inspired by us and get into sport. It’s great that people are watching the Paralympics,” she said.
Channel 4 said that viewing figures for its coverage had continued to rise, peaking at 4.4m on Sunday night for Alan Oliveira’s shock defeat of Oscar Pistorius in the T43/44 200m.
Cameron, who was taking time out from working on his cabinet reshuffle to watch the evening’s action, provoked a mixture of boos and cheers as he emerged to give Simmonds her medal. Britain’s Natalie Jones took bronze.
Susannah Rodgers, who was inspired to compete after watching Simmonds win two gold medals in Beijing as a then unknown 13-year-old, was on the podium herself in London after coming third in the women’s 100m freestyle S7.
And Sascha Kindred, a six-time Paralympic champion competing in his fifth Games, added a silver medal to his collection.
The Chinese swimmer Qing Xu needed a world record time to beat him, and Kindred said afterwards he was happy with an achievement that matched that of his wife Nyree, who won silver in the pool on the opening day of the Games.
It may have cost 269m, but the Aquatics Centre is delivering in terms of precious metal during these Paralympic Games.
Britain’s Paralympic swimmers have been too polite to acknowledge it, but they have put the achievements of their Olympic counterparts in the shade.
It is one of the ironies of the fallout from the Olympics that the inquest into the British team, who secured just one silver and two bronze medals, is being chaired by ParalympicsGB chef de mission Craig Hunter.
He said that ParalympicsGB as a whole were on track to hit their target of 103 medals and second in the medal table.
“We’re 11 ahead of where we were this time in Beijing. We’re recognising it’s incredibly tough out there but in terms of the target of 103, second on the medal table and more medals across more sports, it’s looking good,” he said.
But there was disappointment on Monday for Lee Pearson, the dressage rider who had nine gold medals in his locker coming into the Games and was one of the most recognisable faces of the build-up.
Pearson won bronze at Greenwich Park, but had he won the Grade Ib freestyle competition, the 38-year-old from Staffordshire would have joined Tanni Grey-Thompson and swimmer David Roberts with 11 Paralympic golds.
Hunter also said that the depth of competition was improving all the time. In addition to the dominance of the Chinese, it is notable that countries including Australia, Ukraine and Brazil are performing better than ever before.
“Athletes are coming from nowhere to an extent. It’s just fantastic and improves the profile of Paralympic sport and makes it incredibly exciting,” said Hunter.
But with the increased profile has come increased scrutiny. Aside from the ongoing controversy sparked by the comments made by Pistorius after he was beaten into second place on Sunday night by Oliveira, there were more tough questions over classification and a medal mix up.
The International Paralympic Committee said that in line with its strategic goal to make classification easier to understand, it would aim to drop combined classes in athletics by the time of the next Games in Rio.
By separating out combined classes, for example for single and double amputees, the IPC hopes to avoid the scenario where an athlete can set a world record in their class but finish outside the medals.
