Paralympics 2016: Britain equal London 2012 gold medal haul but David Weir misses out again in 1500m
Six gold medals on Tuesday took ParalympicGB's count to 34 golds, but there was a second disappointment for six-time Paralympic champion Weir
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Your support makes all the difference.Swimmer Steph Millward savoured two battles won after clinching one of six Paralympic gold medals for Great Britain in Rio on Tuesday's sixth day.
Libby Clegg and Georgina Hermitage won their second gold medals of Rio 2016 as wheelchair racer David Weir and swimmer Ellie Simmonds surrendered titles they had won at the previous two Games.
Millward claimed her sixth medal and first gold in her third Games, triumphing in the S8 100 metres backstroke in a Paralympic record of one minute 13.02 seconds.
"It's amazing," the 34-year-old from Corsham, who won five medals at London 2012, said.
"Three Paralympic Games, 18 years of multiple sclerosis and here I am with that gold medal I've been striving for for so long.
"I wrote a poem ages ago called 'MS My War'. It said about how we have to keep on striving for winning the war and I think that that swim has just won that war.
"Hopefully I'm an inspiration for anyone with multiple sclerosis, anyone with a chronic illness.
"It doesn't have to be the end of your life even though you have been diagnosed with this thing without a cure.
"You can keep on fighting whatever happens because inside your heart you can keep on going. Even at 30 and a bit you can realise your dreams. I've just proven that."
Matt Wylie added a second gold in the pool, with victory in the S9 50m freestyle in his first Paralympic event.
Earlier in the day Hollie Arnold won the F46 javelin and wheelchair table tennis ace Rob Davies won the Class 1 singles as ParalympicsGB's overall tally of gold climbed to 34.
Britain won 11 medals in all on Tuesday, taking the total to 74.
Six-time Paralympic champion Weir added fourth place in the T54 1,500m to the fifth he recorded over 400m on Monday.
Weir, who won the 1,500m at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, described the contest - won by Thailand's Prawat Wahoram - as "a battle."
"I just didn't get the right wheel," said Weir, who won four golds at London 2012.
"Maybe I should've got Prawat's wheel, but everyone was trying to get his wheel. It's just a battle."
Weir was optimistic, though, with three events to come, beginning with the 800m heats on Wednesday.
He became a father for the fourth time on Sunday when partner Emily gave birth to the couple's third child, Lenny, in the UK. He insisted that momentous event was not a distraction.
"I was a bit gutted that I didn't see him, but now I've seen pictures and I know everything's all right," Weir added.
"I haven't held him yet, but I've got plenty of time to do that and bond with him when I get back. That's not on my mind at all. I'm a happy man."
Simmonds relinquished the S6 400m freestyle title she first won in Beijing aged 13 and again landed four years ago, instead finishing with bronze.
Ukraine's Yelyzaveta Mereshko, the world record holder, won in a Paralympic record of five minutes 17.01 seconds.
Like Simmonds, Clegg made her debut in Beijing. She won her fourth Paralympic medal after a silver at each of her two prior Games.
Clegg, accompanied by guide Chris Clark, had to be reinstated before winning the T11 100m and won 200m gold in 24.51 seconds, but it was not without drama.
Terezinha Guilhermina of Brazil, guided by Rafael Lazarini, was disqualified for a false start.
Clegg said: "The 200m is actually my better event and I love it so I'm so happy that we took the gold in this one."
Hermitage is in her first Paralympics and now has two golds, claiming Britain's first of the day with victory in the T37 400m.
World champion Hermitage, who won T37 100m on day two, surged to victory in a world record of 1min 00.53secs, improving on the mark she set in winning the European title in Grosseto in June.
Two-time world champion Arnold has been struggling with a shoulder injury this year, but she also set a world record, winning with a throw of 43.01 metres.
Twenty-four hours after Bayley's Class 7 singles gold, Davies triumphed.
The wheelchair table tennis ace beat South Korea's Joo Young Dae 3-1 (14-12 4-11 11-9 11-5).
There were silver medals for wheelchair fencer Piers Gilliver, in the men's individual epee category A competition, and for Ollie Hynd, in the S8 100m backstroke.
Stephen Miller took bronze in the F32 club throw and Jamie Burdekin and Andy Lapthorne claimed bronze in the quad doubles tennis competition. Lapthorne goes for singles gold on Wednesday.
Thirty-four gold medals equals ParalympicsGB's haul from London 2012.
PA
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