'Hurricane Hannah' blows away spectators winning Britain's first paralympic gold on the track... and breaks new record

By DAVID WILLIAMS and LOUISE ECCLES

Jubilant: Hannah Cockcroft celebrates her record-breaking victory in the T34 100m

Hannah Cockcroft won Britain’s first Paralympic gold on the track last night in a stunning display that saw her smash the Paralympic record.
The 20-year-old wheelchair racer – nicknamed ‘Hurricane Hannah’ – and one of the ‘faces’ of London 2012 stormed to the T34 100m title to the delight and roars of 80,000 packed in the Olympic Stadium for the opening day of athletics.
A strong pre-race favourite, Cockcroft, who has a condition similar to cerebral palsy, led from the front on a dry, warm night to easily win her first Paralympic medal in a time of 18.06 seconds.

Wheels on fire: Hannah Cockcroft, front left, on track to victory during the Women's 100m at the Olympic Stadium

Her win came on a mixed day for Paralympic GB that saw cyclist Mark Colbourne win gold in the Velodrome but Jody Cundy, a seven times Paralympic champion and favourite for another cycling gold, was controversially disqualified.
Jon-Allan Butterworth, Aileen McGlynn, and Shaun McKeown won silvers in the cycling while Darren Kenny bronze took a bronze in the Velodrome.

Winning smile: Hannah Cockcroft, pictured at the age of five, has a condition similar to cerebral palsy

While in the pool there were five silvers for Oliver Hynd, whose brother Sam Hynd took bronze , Stephanie Millward, James Crisp, Heather Frederiksen and Aaron Moores. In the stadium there was a bronze for Aled Davies in the shotput.
Cockcroft’s appearance had been one of the most anticipated of the Paralympics with many tipping her to be the track star of the Games.

Defying the odds: Hannah is already a multiple world record holder - despite doctors saying she would never be able to do anything with her life when she was born

From her teens, when her father, an engineer, built a training “roller” for her racing chair in the basement of the family home in Halifax, she has had to contend with being described as Britain’s ‘new Tanni Grey-Thompson’ – the record- breaking 11 time Paralympic champion.
Cockcroft suffered two heart attacks due to an infection she contracted when in the womb.
As a result of this, her brain was starved of oxygen – leaving part of her brain damaged and affected her back, legs, hips and part of her hands, which means she has problems with fine motor skills, mobility and balance.



Her mother Rachel, 49, who watched her daughter’s first gold last night, said: ‘It’s very much like cerebral palsy but Hannah doesn’t get the stiffness. She’s able to get about but not very far.’
She said her daughter took a little longer to start walking than other children her age, and ‘was in her buggy a lot longer than normal children would be’.
When Hannah started school, her mother Rachel said the disability didn’t particularly affect her. She added: ‘She looked differently and she walked differently and there were limitations in PE.
‘But it didn’t hold her back. It didn’t affect her schooling – it was more the little sort of things – she can’t tie her shoelaces for instance. There were frustrations, because she couldn’t walk far she couldn’t always go into town with her friends.’

source: dailymail