Great Britain beats London 2012 medal haul with 9 more Paralympic golds in Rio

Great Britain have smashed their medal target at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, bettering the tally of London 2012, with two days of competition still to go.

Hannah Cockroft's third gold medal of these Games in the T34 800m was one of nine golds won on day nine of competition, lifting Team GB's haul to 126 medals, including 58 golds.

That followed another dominant day from GB's equestrian team. Sophie Christiansen and Natasha Baker, having clinched gold on Thursday, added another each in their events to make it seven golds in Rio for the equestrian team, who extended an undefeated Paralympic streak that dates back to 1996.

Lee Pearson was left out of the team that won dressage gold, but responded in fine fashion to finish first in the grade Ib individual freestyle event, sealing his 11<sup>th Paralympic gold medal.

Team GB started the day on 49 golds and were guaranteed at least one more at the start of the day with Britons Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewitt competing in the wheelchair tennis final.

Number 50 came much earlier than that, however, with Paul Blake taking gold early in the day in his T36 400m final with a superb time of 54.49 seconds.

John Walker meanwhile won the archery event, while David Smith secured boccia gold.

After wheelchair tennis ace Reid saw off countryman Hewitt to seal his first Paralympic medal, while Steph Millward brought the curtains down on the day with her second gold medal of the summer, clinching victory in the 34-point 4x100 medley relay event alongside teammate Alice Tai, Claire Cashmore and Steph Slater.