Brennan leads British gold rush

The British team have enjoyed a superb Paralympics

British success at the Sydney Paralympics continued unabated on Wednesday as the stars of the track came to the fore.

After Tuesday's eight-gold haul, Telford's Deborah Brennan kick-started the latest British effort by winning the T34 classification of the women's 200 metres in a time of 33.87secs - over a second inside the previous world record.

"It was unreal," said Brennan. "I just thought I'd blast out and see what happened."

And Scotland's Caroline Innes achieved a golden double by winning the T36 classification of the 200 metres to add to the 400m she landed earlier in the week.

Record

There was further British glory in the men's T35 classification 100 metres as Essex teenager Lloyd Upsdell and Richard White of West Bromwich took gold and bronze.

As in the 200 metres, Upsdell also broke the world record with a new standard of 13.46 secs.

However, there was disappointment for Hazel Robson who finished second to Innes only to be disqualified for running out of her lane. Innes' winning time of 32.90 seconds was a new Paralympic record.

Cramlington's Stephen Miller retained gold in the F51 classification club throw with a new world record throw of 27.74 metres.

Jim Richardson from Birtley, Co Durham, finished fifth with a best throw of 25.73 metres.

Protests

Britain have the chance of another gold following the T11 classification of the men's 5000 metres, in which 10,000 metre champion Bob Matthews finished behind Kenya's Henry Wanyoike.

However, protests from the United States and Great Britain regarding the classification of the Kenyan in the race are currently being considered by the protest committee.

Athletes are classified in events according to their disabilities and should an athlete prove to have been wrongly classified they can be thrown out of an event.

Javelin

The men's F33 classification javelin event ended with Nottingham's Christopher Martin finishing in second place to take the silver.

Martin threw 18.53 metres but had to give best to the Czech athlete Roman Musil, who threw a new world record of 23.44 metres.

Away from track and field, Britain's women's archery team came within one point of gold when they were beaten by Italy 199-198.

Britain's men's wheelchair basketball team qualified for a semi-final tie against favourites Canada when they beat France 67-56 in a quarter-final watched by a crowd of 15,007 in the Sydney Superdome.