British gold rush comes to an end

Sep 16 2008 From Matt McGeehan in Beijing

GREAT Britain’s gold rush came to a halt as throwers Daniel Greaves and Stephen Miller were unsuccessful in the defence of their Paralympic titles in Beijing yesterday.

Having surpassed UK Sport’s pre-Games target by moving to 41 golds on day eight, silver was the order of the day as Miller and swimmers Jim Anderson, Robert Welbourn and Fran Williamson finished second, while Greaves and Natalie Jones, in the pool, won bronze.

The first day without a gold left Britain four short of the century mark and second in the medal table behind China, who have 80 golds and 187 in all – but the athletics team are well adrift of their target of 30.

Wheelchair racer David Weir, who is still to contest the 1,500 metres final and the marathon, remains the only British athlete to triumph, with five silvers and six bronze from competition at the Bird’s Nest Stadium.

Greaves and Miller were expected to succeed in the defence of the titles claimed in Athens but fell short.

Miller had his 12-year unbeaten Paralympics run ended in his fourth Games.

The 28-year-old Gateshead Harrier, who has cerebral palsy, finished second in the men’s F32/51 club throw with a best of 34.37 metres as Tunisia’s Mourad Idoudi set a world record of 35.77m.

Greaves became the first Paralympian to represent Britain in an able-bodied event when selected for the junior national team and expectations were high after he won discus silver in Sydney aged 17 and gold four years later in Greece.

But the 25-year-old from Anstey, Leicestershire, could not defend his title, winning bronze in the men’s F44 discus with a best throw of 53.04 metres, 2.08m behind gold medal winner Jeremy Campbell of the United States.