David Weir won his second gold medal of his home Paralympics in sensational fashion last night.
After the Wallington wheelchair racer secured his 5,000 metre title on Sunday, the 'animal' as he is affectionately known only had three hours sleep before starting his quest for 1,500 metre glory on Monday.
His efforts were rewarded last night when he stormed to gold in the 1,500 metre final and in the process nearly took the roof off the Olympics stadium in Stratford.
He successfully defended the T54 1500m title he won in Beijing four years ago.
The 33-year-old allowed China's Liu Yang to take the race out hard from start, with Thailand's Saichon Wahoram in second. But Weir was just behind, looking ominously dangerous in third place.
He was content to sit there until the last 350m, then hit the front and headed for home with a devastating sprint. By the 200m mark he had established clean air between himself and the desperately chasing pack.
Pushing hard to the end, he delivered the now familiar double-handed salute as he crossed the line in 3:12.09 to make it two wins from two events.
But Weir, who grew up on the Roundshaw Estate in Wallington and trained at Kingsmeadow in Kingston, hasn't finished yet. He returns to action today at 10:25 for the heats of the T54 800m – the other event he won in Beijing – and he goes in the Marathon on Sunday.
"I was just thinking of winning, that was the only thing going through my mind," he said. "The crowd just lifts you, it gives you that little bit extra that lifts you across the line.
"I’ll do my best to win another two golds," he added. "I've been training for this for the last seven years, when I heard the announcement that the Games were coming to London.
"I know my speed is so good at the moment. It shows that all the endurance work I've put in and the speed over the last few months has paid off.
"This is the blue riband event and I've won it twice now. I'm glad I've just got two laps tomorrow and not 12 and half in the 5k."
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