Paralympic Games: Australia strike gold as Tiffany Thomas Kane, Scott Reardon and Curtis McGrath shine

AUSTRALIA’S gold rush finally arrived on day eight of the Rio Paralympic Games, as the Aussies stormed into a top-five medal spot with four more golds.

Tiffany Thomas Kane all smiles after winning the 100m breaststroke — SB6 gold in Rio.

AUSTRALIA’S gold rush finally arrived on day eight of the Paralympic Games in Rio, as the Aussies stormed into a top-five medal spot with four more golds.

Swimmer Tiffany Thomas Kane ended her run of bronze finishes to claim her maiden Paralympics gold in her 100m breaststroke class, inspiring the women’s 4x100m relay team led by Ellie Cole to combine for an Aussie double in the pool.

Those victories followed a track gold to Scott Reardon in his 100m sprint at his second Paralympics, and a dominant canoe-sprint triumph to team debutant and wounded Afghanistan soldier Curtis McGrath.

On easily Australia’s most productive day of competition in Rio, the nation moved to 14 golds, two clear of sixth-placed Germany, to slot into outright fifth on the overall medal tally.

The Aussies remained a distant fifth behind the power four of China, Great Britain, Ukraine and the United States, but well placed to retain its streak of top-five finishes that dates back to the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Thomas Kane, who entered a staggering nine events this Games, was the reigning world champion in the 100m breaststroke and said scoring a breakthrough gold in her pet event was a dream come true.

“I’m really so happy. I wanted to win that medal. I wanted to get the gold,” she said.

“I was very nervous considering it was my main event and I just had a lot of pressure on me, but I thought of it as ‘try your best’. I wanted to do my best time.

Thomas Kane broke her run of bronzes with 100m breaststroke — SB6 gold.

“Thinking I had to wait for this event for four years, and through this whole carnival that I’ve been in, I’m so happy that it’s finally done and I have this gold medal.”

The 4x100m (34 points) relay team of Cole, Lakeisha Patterson, Maddison Elliott and Ashleigh McConnell retained the crown won by Australia at the 2012 London Games.

Australia also claimed three silvers, through 400m S10 freestyler Monique Murphy, KL3 para-canoeist Amanda Reynolds and the 4x400m track relay team of Angela Ballard, Madison de Rozario, Jemima Moore and Christie Dawes.

The track relay was shrouded in confusion after a series of protests stemming from the final at Olympic Stadium.

Australia finished third but was then disqualified, before an appeal by the Aussies ended in the United States’ disqualification and Australia’s reinstatement, to second.

Turkey was also disqualified from the final. A jury was considering another appeal by the United States.

Originally published as Paralympic Games: Australia strike gold as Tiffany Thomas Kane, Scott Reardon and Curtis McGrath shine