Paralympics day #1 and #2

Working for ITN - logging the events and getting to watch some top-notch sport in the process.

Paralympics blog: day #1

Records are tumbling in the pool and preconceived stuff is surely joining the records in the history books.

The Paralympics are here and it's all about showcasing disabled athletes - who are athletes foremost and disabled second.

Factored times. It might be something that ill informed people would cry is a conspiracy - but for the cycling, in particular, factored times have been quite important. As the athletes are categorised according to the severity of their disability. C1-3 with C standing for cycling and 1 to 3 denoting the level of disability, the more disabled athletes get a 'factored time', which can be as much as 80% of their time. This means 20% of their time can be taken off their actual time. 

Confusing?

Could be.

There's no confusion about uni-hand Sarah Storey who absolutely smashed her Polish opponent in winning gold in the pursuit.

She didn't even need half of the designated distance to beat her opponent, catching her which wins the race.

Day #2

Well there's no doubt who stole the show today. And unfortunately it wasn't for sporting prowess.

Jody Cundy - gold medallist in Bei Jing in the 1km time trial with a time of 1 minute 5.466 seconds - was a hot medal prospect and, going as one of the last riders, all eyes were on him as fellow Brit Jon-Allan Butterworth had only attained silver medal slot.

It has come to light that Cundy was, in fact, at fault and the ruling was correct. But, with other riders false starting, including the American Joseph Berenyi who went on to get gold, questions have to be asked to why video isn't called in to clarify.

As Cundy was heart exclaiming: "I've wasted f***ing four years".

Quite right.

He may have been in the wrong, but if others are getting away with the same offences, there are legitimate claims into the fairness of the judging systems in place.

But McFly fanatic Hannah Cockroft, the fastest woman on 3 wheels in the world, claimed gold in the 100m wheelchair sprint and fair-play to her. 

She goes out of her way to seem normal but she's anything but.

She's a 'Superhuman'.