'I'm getting quicker' - Hurricane Hannah Cockroft has Tanni Grey-Thompson's Paralympic golden record in her sights

How about these for a couple more numbers? Two – the number of Paralympic Games Hannah Cockroft is still targeting competing at, and 11, the total amount of Paralympic gold medals Tanni Grey-Thompson won, the most by a track and field athlete in British history.

“I’ve got a bit of catching up to do,” laughs Cockroft, when it is put to her that the record is within reach.

“Tanni Grey raced in a time when she could race everything from the 100 up to a marathon.

“It’s definitely a much bigger challenge for me because I only do the 100m and 800m, if I was to try and beat that. But I’m not going to say never, I’d love to try and get there, but the competition is getting harder each year.”

Continue at her current trajectory and she can match Grey-Thompson’s 11 golds in the 100m and 800m in Paris next summer and Los Angeles in 2028 when the ‘Hurricane from Halifax’ would still only be 36 – Tanni Grey was 35 when she won her last.

There could also be more chances for Cockroft in a new universal relay that is being experimented with at the World Para-Athletics Championships in Paris this week.

Much like the new mixed triathlon that has entered the able-bodied Olympic programme in Tokyo, this sees two men and two women compete together, one blind runner, one amputee runner, one cerebral palsy and one wheelchair racer.

The evolution of the sport may eventually catch up with her, but if we have learned anything about this redoubtable athlete over the past decade or so it’s that everything that is thrown at her she uses to her advantage.

Take out the 400m race she won in the 2016 Paralympic programme and Cockroft will just race faster in the 100 and 800.

Challenge her from within her own country as Kare Adenegan did, and Cockroft will find that extra gear.

Throw a coaching change in mid-Paralympic cycle and Cockroft will respond, as she did in Dubai in February when she lowered four world records in three days.

“That went incredibly well,” she says modestly. “I’d only been with my new coach (Paul Moseley) for three months so we entered it as a ‘let’s see how this goes, see how my training is going’.

"Going in with a mindset of trying to break records is something I’ve had to really move away from.

“But in Dubai it was just opportunity that spurred me on. I was racing in mixed classification races, my class is a lower class which means I’m more disabled and I don’t get to race against quicker girls very often. Out in Dubai they let me do it, so when you get thrown into that situation you either keep up or you get left behind. My only option was to keep up.”

Her new coach Moseley is actually her old coach from way back when she was a promising teen on the track at Leeds Athletics Club. “I’ve known Paul for 16 years,” Cockroft told The Yorkshire Post.

“He really stepped up last year to help out when my coach left and it’s worked out well so far.

“I’ve always used him as a behind-the-scenes friend, another pair of eyes on what I’ve been doing.

“Training has changed quite a lot. With my old coach there was a lot of road training, with Paul we’re pretty much on the track every day, which sounds silly but it’s been a lot to get used to.

“For the last however many years it’s been the same routine every year, I did it because it worked and it was a case of if it isn’t broken, why fix it. But it was always a case of ‘what am I missing, what am I now working on?’”

Cockroft looks to put that training to good use at the world championships in Paris this week. She races the 100m on Thursday and the 800m on Sunday, the same day as the universal relay, if she is picked.

Then next summer is the big one, another world championships in Kobe, Japan, in May followed by the Paralympics at the end of August.

“There’s a lot going on, two world championships and the Paralympics, and within all that we’ve got to qualify for these events as well,” she says.

“At the moment it feels quite daunting because we’ve had a relatively quiet few years with Covid, so this feels like a big challenge.”

Cockroft adds: “I always thought Tokyo would be my last Paralympics, it had always been the plan, but I got there and thought this cannot be my last, I’m not ready to leave and I can’t leave in front of no crowd.

“We’re now a year out from Paris and I’m just not done, I’m getting quicker, I’ve got so many things I can improve on.

“Moreover I still enjoy it. You’ve got to enjoy it to do well. I’d like to say I can get to LA, I think it will be a challenge, I think that will be a huge Games – so watch this space.”

And watch out Tanni Grey-Thompson.