Sauvage leads Australia's perfect ten

Gold medal winner Louise Sauvage is congratulated by silver medallist Jean Driscoll (left)

Louise Sauvage, the new star of Australian sport, held her nerve in a thrilling 1500m showdown to help the host nation surge clear at the top of the medal table on day seven.

Sauvage, denied a chance by a court ruling to re-run her controversial 800-metre wheelchair loss to Chantal Petitclerc earlier in the Games, got her revenge on the track with a supreme victory in the 1500m T54 race on Wednesday.

Her exploits enabled Australia to claim 10 golds on Wednesday, but Great Britain kept in touch by winning five more golds of their own.

Three days ago, Sauvage lost out to Petitclerc in the 800m, only for the referee to call for a re-run because of interference at the back of the pack.

But the Canadians successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), ensuring that Petitclerc's gold medal stood and a re-run was not required.

Tactical

Sauvage, however, remained unaffected by the furore as she pushed the perfect tactical race in the 1500m, leaving Petitclerc a distant fifth.

Sauvage, the reigning World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability, claimed seven gold medals at the Barcelona and Atlanta Paralympics and the Sydneysider admitted feeling under pressure in front of her home crowd.

But she added: "The court decision is fine. I had nothing to do with it. We didn't disagree with anything that happened. That's the way it goes."

Delighted

"I'm just delighted to get a gold medal after all and I'm determined to enjoy it."

Petitclerc, who was clearly unhappy after the race, said she had shaken hands with Sauvage to congratulate her.

"We are both competitive. We respect each other. We are not close friends," Petitclerc said.

"She had a smart race. She deserved it, like I did in the 800."

American Jean Driscoll was second and Mexican Ariadne Hernandez took bronze.

Matthews and his guide head for silver

Elsewhere, Sauvage's compatriot, Neil Fuller, surged home on the inside of American Brian Frasure - who trains with sprint star Marion Jones - to pinch the T44 200m amputee final.

French swimming queen Beatrice Hess won her fourth individual gold medal with a world record in the 50m S5 backstroke of 41.54 secs.

Hess, 38, who claimed six gold medals at the Atlanta Paralympics, had earlier won the 200m SM6 individual medley, 50m S5 butterfly and 200m S5 freestyle.

Spanish duo Manuel Diaz and Oscar De La Cruz won the men's tandem on the opening day of the road cycling competition.

Sprint finish

They beat Jan Mulder and Pascal Schoots of the Netherlands in a sprint to the finish line in the 118.4km race.

Italy scooped the team archery competition, with the women winning gold by the barest of margins.

The Italian women beat Great Britain 199-198 while the men beat France 218-210 to finish the competition with three golds and one bronze medal.

Prawat Wahoram stormed home in the straight to win the men's 5000 metres wheelchair final and earn Thailand's second gold medal at the Paralympics.

Prawat, 19, finished brilliantly to overhaul Russian Alexei Ivanov and win the T54 category final in 10 minutes 54.99 seconds.

We are competitive and we respect each other - but we are not good friends

  Chantal Petitclerc

Reigning Paralympic wheelchair basketball champions Australia went down 62-54 to the United States before a world record crowd of 16,409 for the sport.

The loss meant the Rollers cannot finish any higher than fifth place.

But the story of the day arrived on the track, when Henry Wanyoike, a blind Kenyan runner, was within sight of a world record in the T11 5000m.

His guide fell ill towards the end of the race and the record chance vanished - but Wanyoike held on for gold.

Even so, the British team, whose runner Bob Matthews collected silver, launched an appeal, arguing that Wanyoike should not have been in the section for the highest degree of blindness.

After nine hours of deliberations, the appeal was thrown out. "The British protested because they wanted to spoil our party," said Wanyoike.