Britain’s Charlotte Henshaw and Laura Sugar both retained their Paralympic titles in impressive style as the Para-canoe events reached their climax in Paris.
Former swimmer Henshaw claimed her second Paris title as she held on to her kayak KL2 crown ahead of team-mate Emma Wiggs at a blustery Vaires-sur-Marne.
Sugar, a former sprinter, added to the GB gold medal haul as she secured back-to-back KL3 titles with fellow Briton Hope Gordon fifth.
And former Mr England Jack Eyers clinched va’a VL3 silver after being edged out by Ukraine’s Vladyslav Yepifanov.
Henshaw, 37, who underwent elbow surgery a year ago, had powered to a Paralympic record in her win in the VL3 final on Saturday.
And she was strong from the start in Sunday’s race, quickly building an advantage over Katalin Varga of Hungary and cross the line in another Games best of 49.07 seconds.
Varga momentarily stopped paddling mid-race allowing Wiggs to overtake her and finish in 51.56 to add silver to her VL2 title.
“That was probably the hardest 200 metres weather-wise that I’ve ever had to do at a major,” Henshaw said.
“It was not pretty, probably not my best delivery in terms of how it looked but I’m really proud of how I managed to think quickly, draw on all my experience of water sports and managed to get that kayak to do what I wanted it to do and get over the line first.”
Sugar was involved in a battle early on against home favourite and Tokyo silver medallist Nelia Barbosa but once the 33-year-old got ahead of her rival she was not going to be stopped.
Her time of 46.66 seconds – 1.25secs ahead of the Frenchwoman – was a new Paralympic best.
“It won’t sink in for a little while as you are so focused in on the race but I’m really proud,” said Sugar.
“We were well prepared as we train in Nottingham but it’s still a bit uneasy as you’d like it to be perfect flat. I just had to back myself in the first half to keep the boat moving, the second half got a bit windy but I had to use my experience and almost not try too hard. We’ve had a horrible winter at home but I think that put us in good stead.”
Of the other Britons in action, Jeanette Chippington – the oldest member of the ParalympicsGB squad in Paris at 54 and competing at her eighth Games – was seventh in the KL1 final while Ed Clifton finished in the same spot in the men’s VL2.
