Tanni captures third gold

Peddle raises his fist after breaking the world record

Tanni Grey-Thompson powered to her third gold of the Games when taking the T53 classification of the women's 200m.

Grey-Thompson won in a time of 30.88 seconds to give the British team their eighth gold of the day and underline their second place in the medal table.

That position had been reached when Sasha Kindred took the SB7 classification of the men's 100m breaststroke in a time of one minute25.13secs.

Matthew Walker took bronze in 1:32.56.

Powerlifter Anthony Peddle hoisted 165 kg - almost four times his own body weight - to take the under-48 kg class gold.

Boccia

Leamington Spa's Nigel Murray chalked up gold to win his country's first ever boccia medal on what was becoming a memorable day for the British at the Paralympics in Sydney today.

Boccia is a sport based on the popular French game of boules and is played exclusively by wheelchair users.

Cerebral palsy sufferer Murray needed all his powers of concentration to come back after falling behind 2-0 to Korea's Jin-Woo Lee in the first `time' - boccia's equivalent of a set.

The 36-year-old fought back in style to deny his rival any further points and land the individual mixed BC with a 5-2 scoreline.

"I felt a bit shaky at the start but held it together and now we have to concentrate on the team competition tomorrow," said Murray.

As Murray celebrated his success, Ireland's Gabriel Shelley celebrated his 32nd birthday by grabbing his country's second gold of the games in the mixed BC1 classification.

Frenzy

The County Carlow representative won a closely fought contest against Spain's Antonio Cid by just one point, with a 4-3 scoreline sending his supporters into a frenzy.

Harlow's Noel Thatcher smashed his own world record in the T12 classification of the men's 500m with a time of 14:56.47 in beating his 10,000m conqueror Moises Beristan.

In the pool, Scotland's Maggie McEleny added gold to the bronze she won earlier in the week when taking the 50m breaststroke for women.

Elsewhere, Sally Reddin climbed out of her sick bed to land gold in the shot putt.

Reddin spent her first 10 days in Australia in hospital after encountering breathing problems on arrival at Brisbane airport and missed vital work at Britain's Gold Coast training headquarters.

But despite missing her first two events, the discus and javelin, the Holbeach mature student was determined to take part in the F52/F54 classification of the women's shot putt, which she won with a throw of 6.28 metres, a new Paralympic record.

"I'm over the moon, delighted," she enthused afterwards.

"My best throw was the last one, I was hoping but didn't know if I could win gold.

I'm over the moon, delighted. That last throw was just heaven

  Sally Reddin

"I knew two of the opposition but not the others so it was unknown territory for me. That last throw was just heaven."

Archers

Britain's women archers took the limelight in Tuesday morning's competition at the Sydney International Archery Park.

Doncaster housewife Anita Chapman, whose husband Bernard is the team's coordinator, struck gold in the women's individual standing event while Kathy Smith of Abingdon took silver in the W1, W2 classification.

Chapman defeated Ukraine's Olena Skubak in the semi-finals before emerging the victor over Poland's Malgorzata Olejnik in the final.

She was overjoyed at landing gold after taking a bronze and silver in Atlanta in 1996.

Fantastic

"It's fantastic, there's no other word for it," Chapman said.

"I've shot against the Ukrainian several times in the past. In Atlanta she beat me into silver and I swore she was never going to do it to me again.

"I wanted this gold so badly and it is fantastic to have got it."