2016 Rio Paralympics: Aussies win seven medals on day three but gold proves elusive

AUSTRALIA has gone gold-less on a day that disgraced cyclist Michael Gallagher was due to shoot for a third successive Paralympic Games victory.

Amanda Reid picked up silver in the women’s C1-2-3 500m time trial.

AUSTRALIA has gone gold-less on a day that disgraced cyclist Michael Gallagher was due to shoot for a third successive Paralympic Games victory in the 4km individual pursuit.

The Aussies dropped to 11th on the medal tally, adding five silvers and two bronzes to their collection, but could not add to the three golds from the opening two days.

At the Olympic Stadium, 1500m runner Deon Kenzie was runner-up in his sole event in his T38 class, improving one place on his bronze at last year’s world championships.

Kenzie stopped the clock at 4min 14.95s, less than a second behind winner Abbes Saidi of Tunisia.

Three of the silvers came at the velodrome, courtesy of Amanda Reid in the women’s C1-2-3 500m time trial, Kyle Bridgewood in the men’s C4 4km pursuit and Alistair Donohoe in the C5 4km pursuit.

Kyle Bridgwood took second in thes C4 4000m individual pursuit.

Donohoe’s maiden medal on Paralympics debut came in the same event good mate Gallagher had been favourite to secure a third gold before his ejection on the eve of the Games for testing positive to blood-boosting drug EPO.

“It’s a dream come true,” Donohoe said of his result.

“You have to wait so many years to get the chance to achieve what you want to achieve, so it’s surreal to be standing here now.”

At the pool, Queenslander Blake Cochrane was left balancing the emotion of winning silver with failing to meet his own expectation of a personal-best time.

The 25-year-old, born with deficiencies in his hands and feet, conceded he was always racing for second against newcomer, Colombian Carlos Serrano Zarate, who set a new world record for the SB7 event by slicing 1.5s off the world mark he set in the earlier heats.

“It was the strongest race I could put together tonight,” Cochrane said.

“I’m a little bit disappointed with the time, but overall happy with the result. Coming away from this, I still got a medal and I can’t do much more than that.

Blake Cochrane took silver but was disappointed with his time.

“My time at nationals was 1.5s quicker than what it was here. To put in six months of hard training with the goal to be able to improve on that and then come here and not quite get there, it’s disappointing.”

Serrano Zarate, who finished more than six seconds ahead of nearest rival Cochrane, is due to undergo reclassification testing next year, which could move him to another class.

Originally published as 2016 Rio Paralympics: Aussies win seven medals on day three but gold proves elusive