Jeanette Chippington and Emma Wiggs clinch ParalympicsGB canoeing golds

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Jeanette Chippington and Emma Wiggs won gold as ParalympicsGB picked up three gold medals in canoeing’s first outing at a Games. Chippington’s gold was her first canoeing title in her sixth Games, 20 years after her prior two golds in the swimming pool.

 

 

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Wiggs won Britain’s second gold with a commanding win in the KL2 race before Anne Dickens celebrated victory in the KL3 women’s event. The 49-year-old, who won Britain’s third gold and fifth medal from five finals, took up the sport after being a Gamesmaker at London 2012.

Canoeing is making its debut at the XV Paralympics in Rio and Chippington, a five-time Paralympian as a swimmer and gold medallist at Atlanta 1996, was victorious at Lagoa, taking Great Britain’s 44th gold medal of the Games, before Wiggs’s success on the water.

The 46-year-old from Berkshire won the women’s KL1 event by 0.114 seconds from Germany’s Edina Muller, benefiting from a fine start before clinging on to win.

The finals came in quick succession on the 200 metres course, with Ian Marsden, a powerlifter until spinal cord injuries in 1992, taking bronze in the KL1 men’s event, 0.136secs behind gold medallist Jakob Tokarz of Poland.

Nick Beighton took bronze in the KL2 men’s final as Australia’s Curtis McGrath claimed gold.

Beighton was a captain in the Royal Engineers of the British Army, on duty in Afghanistan in 2009, when he stood on an explosive device and lost both of his legs. He was fourth in rowing at London 2012.