Fantastic Friday's a gold rush

CYCLING heroes Jaco van Gass and Finlay Graham led a Paralympic medal rush yesterday, with gold and silver in an all-British final.

- Robert Kellaway

The pair were part of a Paris velodrome bonanza as cyclists added two golds, two silvers and two bronzes to ParalympicGB's tally.

Not to be outdone, swimmers Tully Kearney and Maisie SummersNewton struck gold in the 100m freestyle and the 200m individual medley respectively.

It was Tully's second gold of the Games after winning the 200m freestyle on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Brock Whiston, 27, took silver in the women's 100m breaststroke final.

The stunning successes mean ParalympicGB currently top the swimming medal table and are second to China overall.

Delighted Tully, 27, said: "It's pretty incredible. It was such a late night and an early start.

"It was really difficult for all of us.

This crowd is incredible." Maisie, 22, said: "I was really nervous. I come with a lot of self-doubt, no matter how hard we train.

"But when I saw the other girls, I thought, 'No, you're in a really good place here'. I couldn't be happier," In the velodrome, former paratrooper Jaco, 38, who lost a lower arm to a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan in 2009, raced to victory in the men's 3,000m pursuit, defeating fellow Briton Finlay, 24.

Jaco declared that he "overwhelmed, was delighted, and just generally happy it's over, to be honest".