Earning his second gold of the Games following the dramatic 5,000m win on Sunday (September 2), the 33-year-old Londoner still has two more opportunities to add to his total in what he says is likely to be his last Paralympics as he looks ahead to the crazily disparate challenges of the 800m and the marathon.

"I'm very proud," Weir (pictured top) told Channel 4's Sonja McLaughlan after taking the lead in a cagey race with less than a lap remaining and coming home just over a wheelchair's length clear of Thailand's Prawat Wahoram in a time of 3min 12.09sec to thunderous acclaim from the 80,000-capacity crowd.

"It was a shock, because the field for the 1,500m has been so strong this year.

"I've only won a couple of races, and on paper I was probably only the fourth fastest in the field.

"But I knew from my training I had a good top speed, and on the warm-up track I was going even quicker.

"It may have been because I wasn't so nervous tonight.

"The plan was to hopefully win on the first night, and I did.

"So you get more relaxed – once you've got one under your belt you get more relaxed really and you can do your talking on the track."

Weir said he has been benefiting from spending time training with professional cyclists in Richmond Park.


"They have been a massive help," he said.

"They have taken me up to another level which I didn't think I'd have.

"It's paying off.

"I showed tonight my speed is fine – better than everyone else's.

"My mum's here, my dad's here, and I only see him once a year because he lives in Northern Ireland and he's never seen me compete in a big stadium."

Introduced to the crowd a little later in the evening, Weir added: "I have been dreaming about these Games for the last seven years, and they have been amazing.

"Now I am just thinking of winning.

"I'm going to try my best to get two more golds."

Speaking to insideworldparasport in February this year, Weir was cautious in stating his ambitions as he looked ahead to the Games that had been secured for his home city in 2005.


"Although there are four chances to win, you would have to be stupid to think that that meant four golds," he said.

"I'm in London, and it could be my last Paralympics, and I just want to be standing on top of the podium there.

"If I get one gold from one of my four races I will be a happy man."

He now qualifies as a doubly happy man having equalled his gold total from the Beijing Games, where he won the 800m and the 1,500m.

Switzerland's world record holder Marcel Hug, the fastest qualifier in 3:11.17, had to settle for fourth place as South Korea's Gyu Dae Kim came through for bronze in 3:12.57.

After the previous day's qualifying heats, Weir had reported that he felt "quite fresh" despite having had only three hours' sleep in the aftermath of his gold medal performance, adding: "When they upped the pace I didn't feel like I was struggling at all.

"I still had bags of speed in my arms, which just shows how fit I am."

It was a characteristically alpha male response from the Londoner, who comes from a boxing family and sometimes gives the impression that he would relish a weigh-in type confrontation with each and every one of his rivals.

Tonight he delivered another knockout blow.


Abderrahim Zhiou (pictured above, second right) of Tunisia, a T12 runner, set the first world record of the night as – just 24 hours after taking the 5,000m silver – he won the T13 1,500m final in 3:48.43 ahead of Kenya's David Korir, whose time of 3:48.84 was also a world record for the event.

Bronze went to Britain's David Devine in a European record time of 3:49.79.

"To be honest, the time doesn't bother me," said Devine, who had recovered from food poisoning two weeks beforehand.

"I knew I could get a medal, but the Kenyan made it easy.

"I knew that I just had to sit behind him until the bell rang and then make sure no one passed me.

"When one runner passed me on the home straight I thought to myself 'I'd better make sure no one else does that' and dug in.

"In this race they were just better than me.

"But I know I can go faster than them.

"I'm going to be training to be the fastest next year," added Devine, who will now turn his attention to the 800m, which gets underway tomorrow.

Britain's world champion Paul Blake (pictured below, centre) overcame the Ukraine's defending champion and world record holder Roman Pavlyk in the men's T36 400m as he produced a personal best of 54.22, but eventually finished second behind Russia's Evgenii Shvetcov (pictured below, left), who set a new world mark of 53.31.


Both gold and silver medallists finished with arm movements acknowledging and further encouraging the spectator support.

Blake, who developed cerebral palsy after birth complications, has promising genes for an athlete – his mother, Kate, was a dancer with the Royal Ballet and his grandfather played tennis at Wimbledon.

His father, also called Paul, played a bounty hunter called Greedo in Star Wars who was shot by Harrison Ford's character, Han Solo.

But tonight the force was with Blake.

Britain took bronze in the final track event of the night, the women's 4x100m T35/38 relay, although they might have had gold after arriving at the final changeover in the lead, only for a delay in the changeover to lose them their advantage, enabling Russia to come through and win.

Other track world records came from Abraham Tarbei of Kenya, who held off Ethiopia's Wondiye Fikre Indelbu in the men's T46 1,500m final in a time of 3:50.15, Walid Ktila of Tunisia, who clocked 27.98  in the men's 200m T34 final,  Annalisa Minetti of Italy, who recorded 4:48.88 for the T11 class as she finished third in the women's T12 1,500m final behind Russia's gold medallist Elena Pautova, who was a clear winner in 4:37.65, and Yohansson Nascimento of Brazil recorded a T45 world record of 49.21 in finishing second to Austria's T46 runner Günther Matzinger in the men's T46 400m final.

There were world records too in the field, where Morocco's Azeddine Nouiri won the men's F34 shot put with 13.10m, and Zhiming Wang of China reached 45.78m in the men's F40 discus.


France's defending champion in the women's T12 400m, Assia El Hannouni (pictured above), marked what will be her final Paralympics with victory in 55.39 in a race where the Brazilian racer Terezinha Guilhermina and her guide came to grief 30m from the line, both lying flat on their backs in opposite positions for a few moments before getting to their feet and crossing the line to warm applause.

Surely, no one in this stadium has relished their medals more than the Brazilian pair of Felipe Gomez and Daniel Silva, respectively gold and silver medallists in the men's T11 200m.

Silva leapt with abandon on the podium, cocking his ear to the crowd, before kneeling theatrically to receive his medal and then bobbling all over Britain's Tessa Sanderson, Olympic javelin champion of 1984, as she presented him with his flowers while he stood alongside his guide.

Gomez marked his arrival on the podium in similarly exuberant fashion, leaping onto his guide's back before dismounting joyously for his golden moment.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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