Golden wonder: Stadium goes wild as Cockroft smashes record

The Halifax athlete, who has cerebral palsy, lived up to her billing as the pre-race favourite in the T34 100m wheelchair sprint last night as she sped away from the rest of the field to clinch gold.

After powering to victory in a time of 18.06 seconds, which smashed the Paralympic record she set herself earlier in the day, the 20-year-old said: “I want to do it again.”

Her win delivered Great Britain’s first gold medal in track and field and its fourth overall.

The victory is also likely to propel Cockroft, and her wheelchair which she calls ‘Sally’, to superstar status.

In the moments after the race there were 111 tweets a minute mentioning her name on the social networking site Twitter.

Speaking after the race she said: “I was kind of deciding whether to cry or laugh or what to do. It is a bit surreal.

“I have been training for so long then it happens in just 18 seconds. I want to do it again. It was amazing. It erupted in here tonight, it was amazing, phenomenal, I loved it.”

Cockroft has previously broken world records in 400m and 800m events, which are not included in the Paralympics.

She won her heat yesterday by over two seconds, smashing the eight-year-old paralympic record by one-and-a-half seconds.

She was already the first athlete to break a world record in the Olympic Stadium in the T34 100m in May before the Games.

Now she has the chance to compete for a second gold in the 200m sprint.

She added: “The 100m is actually my weakest event. Hopefully I can pick up a better lead in the 200.”