Henshaw and Sugar retain Paralympic titles

Britain’s Charlotte Henshaw and Laura Sugar both retained their Paralympic titles in impressive style as the Para-canoe events reached their climax in Paris.

Former swimmer Henshaw claimed her second Paris title as she held on to her kayak KL2 crown ahead of team-mate Emma Wiggs at a blustery Vaires-sur-Marne.

Sugar, a former sprinter, added to the GB gold medal haul as she secured back-to-back KL3 titles with fellow Briton Hope Gordon fifth.

And former Mr England Jack Eyers clinched va’a VL3 silver after being edged out by Ukraine’s Vladyslav Yepifanov.

Henshaw, 37, who underwent elbow surgery a year ago, had powered to a Paralympic record in her win in the VL3 final on Saturday.

And she was strong from the start in Sunday’s race, quickly building an advantage over Katalin Varga of Hungary and cross the line in another Games best of 49.07 seconds.

Varga momentarily stopped paddling mid-race allowing Wiggs to overtake her and finish in 51.56 to add silver to her VL2 title.

“I raced last summer with a really unhappy elbow and it was that toss up between ‘do I do it now and hope that I’ll be back in form for the Games?’ or ‘do we risk it and risk not being here at all?'” Henshaw told Channel 4.

“I’m so grateful that people advised me to do it when we could and when we did.

“I was a one-eventer in swimming so I only ever got the opportunity to race for one medal and when it came to this Games, I thought ‘isn’t it going to be nice to get two bites of the cherry?’

“The two golds was the ultimate icing on the cake and to achieve that is just unbelievable, I’m just immensely grateful.”

Sugar was involved in a battle early on against home favourite and Tokyo silver medallist Nelia Barbosa but once the 33-year-old got ahead of her rival she was not going to be stopped.

Her time of 46.66 seconds – 1.25secs ahead of the Frenchwoman – was a new Paralympic best.

Of the other Britons in action, Jeanette Chippington – the oldest member of the ParalympicsGB squad in Paris at 54 and competing at her eighth Games – was seventh in the KL1 final while Ed Clifton finished in the same spot in the men’s VL2.

Related links