Marathon medals add to British bounty

Matthews added a marathon silver to his track medals

Britain's Paralympians will leave Sydney on Monday boasting the best record of any squad since Seoul 1988, having amassed a total of 131 medals in the 11 days of the Sydney Games.

Flight BA16 will touch down at Heathrow at 04:55 GMT on Tuesday morning carrying the pride of Britain's disabled athletes and the 41 gold, 43 silver and 47 bronze medals they have reaped.

They include the three silvers won by our marathon runners in their various classifications on Sunday, with Bob Matthews adding another silver from the T11 class to the silver and gold won in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres.

Matthews' time in the gruelling event was 2hrs 47mins and 38secs, around nine minutes slower than the new world's best time recorded by Portugal's Carlos Ferreira, who Matthews beat in the 10,000 metres.

Silver

Bristol's Stephen Brunt took silver in the T12 classification behind Poland's Waledemar Kikolski in a time of 2hrs 34mins 10secs.

While Burnley's Mark Brown recorded a time of 2hrs 33mins 02secs when finishing a minute behind Spain's Jose Javier Conde in the T46 classification.

Nottingham's Paul Williams rounded off the British medal haul with his second bronze of the games, finishing in third behind France's Thierry Cibone with a throw of 10.72 metres in the F35 classification of the men's shot putt.

Swiss success

Switzerland's Franz Nietlispach easily defended his title with victory in the open wheelchair division.

Nietlispach, 42, broke away from the pack at the start of the race and was well ahead of the field throughout the 42 kilometres.

South African Krige Schabort edged out another Swiss racer Heinz Frei for the silver medal, although both were four and a half minutes behind the winner.

American Jean Driscoll won the women's open T54 race in the absence of Australian Louise Sauvage, who withdrew before the start with an elbow injury.