PARALYMPIC WORLD CUP
Venue: Manchester Dates: 20-25 May Coverage: Listen on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra 1415-1615 BST on Friday; Watch live swimming plus highlights from elsewhere on BBC Two, 1500-1715 BST, Monday 25 May; Daily reports on the BBC Sport website By Elizabeth Hudson
BBC Sport in Manchester |
  Kenny will be going for gold in the 3km pursuit |
Paralympic champion Darren Kenny led the gold rush as Britain's cyclists dominated the medals at the Paralympic World Cup on Thursday. Kenny won gold in the time trial, leading home a British clean sweep, and then triumphed in the pursuit. "I'm pleased. It's been a good day's work," said the Bournemouth rider, who won four golds and a silver in Beijing. "It's rolled on nicely from Beijing and gone much to plan. It would be nice to win Friday's team sprint as well." Kenny triumphed in the LC3/LC4/CP3 kilo time trial in one minute 10.534 seconds, with Rik Waddon taking silver and Simon Richardson bronze. He then beat Japan's Masashi Ishii by almost four seconds to win the category's 3km pursuit crown. "I was unsure about what to expect coming into the competition," Kenny told BBC Sport. "I had trained during the winter to break the world hour record and had not done much specific track work. "I knew I had the form coming in here but I didn't know whether I had the finishing touches."  | 606: DEBATE BBC Sport's Elizabeth Hudson |
There were also golds at the Manchester velodrome for Jody Cundy, Sarah Storey and the tandem pairings of Simon Jackson and Barney Storey and Aileen McGlynn and Vicky Begg. Cundy clocked a time of 1:06.030 to win the LC1/LC2 CP4 kilo with California-based Briton Mark Bristow setting a new world record for his LC1 category with 1:08.917 for third. "The kilo is my number one event but we've done some work with my bike since Beijing," explained Cundy, who will bid for a world record in the flying 200m event on Friday. "Although my time was a bit slower, until we get the data we won't really know whether it was a good move or a bad move," he added. "This is my first event since Beijing and it is a good one to help me blow the cobwebs away. I've won every cycling race I've competed in at the Paralympic World Cup so it has been a good event for me." | In the first half we controlled the game and should have put them away but then Australia showed why they are Paralympic champions Great Britain wheelchair basketball team coach Murray Treseder |
Former Paralympic judo champion Jackson was forced to retire from the sport through a back injury in 2005 but the visually-impaired 36-year-old has made a successful switch to tandem cycling with pilot Barney Storey, who partnered Anthony Kappes to gold in Beijing. The pair beat former sprinter Neil Fachie and his partner Dave Readle, who had only qualified for the event earlier this week, by a second and a half. "Last year I won two silvers at this event after only training for three weeks but I've been training full-time since January and I've improved my personal best by a second here and there is more to come," said the Rochdale rider, who is due to get married in a couple of weeks. "Hopefully this will put me on the road to London 2012 and winning gold in another sport. "It hurt me not to be in Beijing last year but I vowed I would never ever sit at home and watch a Paralympics again as long as I have the opportunity to compete in one. I'm born to be a competitor and I love the pressure." Meanwhile, Great Britain coach Murray Treseder was left frustrated after his experimental side lost 64-56 to Paralympic champions Australia in the men's wheelchair basketball event. GB led 34-25 at half-time but slowly the Australians came back into the game and Shaun Norris gave them the lead with 5:43 left and they pulled away after that, despite Jon Hall's 19 points. "In the first half we controlled the game and should have put them away but then Australia showed why they are Paralympic champions," said Treseder. "Justin Everson, who is one of the top players in the world, took over for them and without some of our key players we struggled. "Although our first half performance was promising, we committed too many errors in the second half. "Some of the players we thought would play well did and some of the players who we thought might struggle did but being involved in games like that is the only way they can get more experience and improve." Treseder's side were then edged out 54-53 by Germany in their final round-robin game while the GB women were also narrowly defeated 47-46 by the Netherlands with Caroline Matthews heading the GB scoring with 13 points.
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