Hannah Cockroft lowers four world records in one day

The 28-year-old five-time Paralympic gold medallist underlined her status as the leading wheelchair sprinter at the British Wheelchair Athletic Association Grand Prix in Stoke Mandeville.

It was an event that was not sanctioned by ParaAthletics so therefore the times do not stand as world record.

One of the largest improvements came in the 800m as she pushed to a magnificent PB of 1:49.85 which improved her previous best of 1:55.73 set back in 2017.

After regaining the T34 100m world record on her way to the World Para Athletics Championship title in November last year, Cockroft took a further 0.06 seconds off that mark on Saturday, lowering the global best to 16.71 (+1.6 m/s).

Over the 400m it was a similar outcome to the race at the Müller British Athletics Championships last Friday as Cockroft came out on top against Sammi Kinghorn in a huge personal best of 55.98.

The 200m world record was particularly sweet for the 12-time world champion as she revised her best from 2015, clocking 30.09 (-1.1) a 0.42s improvement.

“There was no pressure, no expectations, it was all about going out there and doing what we love to do,” said Cockroft. “I think that really helped me going into the 800m. Obviously Sammi (Kinghorn) was there. I always look to Sammi as being the one to chase down – I’m not normally in front of her.

“We said whoever gets to the line first (after 400m) takes the pole and whoever tires, we will just go around them. We both wanted to go for it and see what we could do. I’m pretty sure the whole women’s 800m field got PBs.

“It was a great race – we just powered through. It was pretty impressive!

“I didn’t even look at the clock (at the halfway stage). Sammi started pulling out at 300m in, so I was kind of watching how she was moving out. Normally the clock would be the first thing I would look at, but I didn’t even look up. So, we kept going. I was holding over 18 mph on the back straight, so I was thinking ‘this is pretty quick’. At 200m to go, Sammi was telling me I had to kick so we just went. It helped me to have someone there to push me.”

Reflecting on the 2020 season, Cockroft added: “That’s it for me this year. I have no more races.

“Everything is still unknown – we didn’t know if we would get any of these races in over the last few weeks.”

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James Mitchinson