Dame Sarah Storey has hit out at Paralympics organisers after winning gold in the women’s C5 time trial.
The 46-year-old won the 18th Paralympic gold medal of her career on Wednesday after finishing first in the event for the fifth Games in a row.
But Storey, who is Britain’s most successful Paralympian of all time, was furious with the decision to shorten the women’s course around Clichy-sous-Bois in the eastern suburbs of France’s capital to 14.1 kilometres.
In contrast, the men’s C5 race, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday afternoon, is two laps of the same course which doubles the distance to 28.3km.
At the Olympics in Paris earlier this summer, both the course for the men’s and women’s race was 32.4km.
‘This is the shortest Paralympic time-trial we’ve ever had,’ Storey said after her gold medal win.
‘It’s a real shame because you don’t get to showcase para-sport in the way that you want to, so I hope this is the only time it’s less than 20k.
‘You have to ask the organisers, but there’s plenty of time in the day for us to do two laps like the men. And having fought so hard for parity in women’s cycling, to not have it in para-cycling after what we had in Glasgow last year is a real disappointment.
‘I’ve had to put that disappointment aside and just concentrate on what I can control because I couldn’t control the race distance.
‘But I really hope that they never do this to the women again because I think it’s been appalling.’
According to PA news agency, Paralympics organisers decided to shorten the distance of some courses due the busy schedule on Wednesday with 19 races due to take place.