‘YOU HAVE TO CHANNEL THOSE NERVES'

SHE SMASHED HER OWN WORLD RECORD IN TOKYO MAKING DAME SARAH STOREY TEAM GB’S MOST SUCCESSFUL PARALYMPIAN EVER – BUT SHE STILL HAS MORE TO GIVE

- LISA MARKS

World records are there to be broken, and no one knows that better than Dame Sarah Storey. The 43-year-old Paralympian will probably need scaffolding to shore up her medals cabinet after winning yet another spectacular gold for cycling in the current Tokyo Paralympics.

Just as she did in Rio 2016, the athlete, who began her Paralympic journey as a swimmer, knocked four seconds off her own record in the individual pursuit.

Her latest win takes her awe-inspiring total to 15 golds – that’s now 26 medals overall – making her Team GB’s most decorated female Paralympian athlete.

All that was missing from her latest moment of glory was her cyclist coach husband Barney and their two children, eight-year-old Louisa and Charlie, three, to cheer her on in person. Because of the restrictions of the pandemic, there are no crowds in Tokyo.

“Once you finish racing, that’s when it hits you – the stands are literally empty,” she said, after the medal was placed around her neck. “Racing in a pandemic is hard – when you want to celebrate with people, you realise you don’t have your friends and family here.”