Dame Sarah Storey began her quest to become Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian by smashing her own world record en route to retaining C5 3000m individual pursuit gold.

In a repeat of the all-British Rio 2016 final, Storey once more got the better of compatriot Crystal Lane-Wright.

The relentless defending champion laid down a marker earlier on day one of Tokyo 2020 by shaving more than four seconds of her own world record in qualifying, powering over the line in 3:27.057

She did not need to repeat the trick in the deciding race at the Izu Velodrome as she remarkably caught Lane-Wright inside eight laps following a rapid start, leaving her rival to settle for another silver.

In winning her country’s first gold of the Games, Storey took her total haul to 15 Paralympic golds – one short of swimmer Mike Kenny’s British record – and a phenomenal 26 medals overall.

The 43-year-old will have a chance to surpass Kenny next week when she attempts to defend her C5 time trial and C4-5 road race crowns.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Storey arrived in Japan having not performed competitively on the track since January 2020, while she was also without the support bubble of husband and fellow track cyclist Barney, eight-year-old daughter Louisa – who travelled to Rio five years ago – and three-year-old son Charlie.

Storey emphatically overcame those obstacles, but admitted she was overwhelmed by her latest accomplishment: ‘It’s quite overwhelming. Being in an empty stadium we have to be prepared to race like that. Once you finish racing, it hits you that the stands are actually empty.

‘Racing in a pandemic is hard. When you want to celebrate with people, you realise you can’t. Of course you can celebrate with the team but there is a bigger team behind us and they’re really missed.

‘It’s hard to put into words where we are as the Paralympics.

‘For me as an individual, I’ve won a medal at every event. I broke the world record in Beijing, in London, in Rio and then this morning. It’s been overwhelming to keep having to back that up and I never expected to go as fast as that today.’

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