Tokyo Paralympics: Sarah Storey becomes Great Britain’s joint most successful Paralympian with 16th gold

Becoming Great Britain’s joint most successful Paralympian of all time was a “dream come true” for Sarah Storey after she won her 16th gold medal in the C5 time trial in Tokyo.

The 43-year-old, appearing at her eighth Paralympic Games, tied the record held by swimmer Mike Kenny.

She dominated the time trial, winning by 92 seconds as British team-mate Crystal Lane-Wright took silver.

Storey has the opportunity to win a 17th gold in Thursday’s road race.

“I never set out on this journey to be Britain’s greatest Paralympian but to match the best man and to have more other medals is just a dream come true,” said Storey, who has now won 27 Paralympic medals.

“Sweet 16. Can I be 16 again? As I said the other day, I would never have imagined getting to 15.

“It is amazing. It was one of the most perfect days today, the conditions were perfect.

“The course is super quick. The corners were really grippy and I rode a really good line and carried speed. I got caught up in a bit of traffic at times perhaps as I was going a bit quicker than they had anticipated.

“I am just so chuffed. I have been preparing for this for such a long time. There have been so many parts to it, both my bike and physical preparations.”

Storey made her Paralympic debut at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, winning her first five gold medals in swimming before switching to cycling.

From Beijing 2008 onwards, she has won 11 cycling golds on the track and road, never winning a Paralympic medal of another colour in the sport.

The 43-year-old, who won individual pursuit gold earlier in the Tokyo Games, finished the time trial in a time of 36 minutes 8.90 seconds.

Lane-Wright won her second silver medal of the Games, finishing 54 seconds ahead of Germany’s bronze medallist Kerstin Brachtendorf.