LONDON 2017 THROWBACK: COCKROFT LIGHTS UP THE TRACK WITH 100M RECORD

After all the build-up to the highly anticipated 2017 World Para Athletics Championships, the action got underway on Friday 14^th July with Hannah Cockroft billed as the star of the show on the opening night.

She lived up to the hype as she won Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s first gold medal of a successful championship and did so in a world record much to the crowd’s delight.

For Cockroft, she arrived at the London Stadium having played a leading role in the drama of the 2012 Paralympic Games, winning two titles. The 200m gold coming on the famous ‘Thriller Thursday’ which will go down in history as one of the finest evening’s of British sport of all-time as Jonnie Peacock and David Weir joined her on the top of the podium.

So, with seven world titles already on her resume coming into the 2017 edition of the championships, the prospect of adding three more over the next few days of action was tantalising.

First up was the 100m, an event she had won gold in at every edition of the worlds stretching back to 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand.

With Gemma Prescott winning bronze in the F32 club throw earlier in the session, the Yorkshire-born athlete was the first British athlete to compete in a final on the track, so all eyes were on her as she lined up in lane seven.

With her compatriot, Kare Adenegan, lining up in lane two having dipped under 18 seconds for the first time in her young career in the weeks prior to this final, this was shaping up to be an entertaining contest.

As the gun went off, Adenegan and Cockroft both enjoyed excellent starts, neck and neck over the first 40-50 metres of the contest, but then the latter showed all her experience and quality as she moved away over the second half of the race, sealing the title in a world record mark of 17.18.

After holding the previous best of 17.25, it was another landmark moment for Cockroft and the event in general, while Adenegan took home the silver medal in 18.01, another big breakthrough for the young British star.

This was Cockroft’s eighth world title and she would go on to win two more over 400m and 800m later in the championship. Adding two more in Dubai two years later, Cockroft sits as an all-time great in the sport with her London 2017 memories high on her list of achievements.