Jess Stretton wins Paralympic archery gold to give Britain clean sweep

Kids, eh? No respect for their elders these days. The women’s W1 archery final ended with Jess Stretton, a 16-year-old from Hemel Hempstead, defying the age gap to win her first Paralympic gold at the expense of her 55-year-old ParalympicsGB team-mate, Jo Frith.

A little bit of fun has ended with Stretton becoming a Paralympic champion before she is allowed to vote. By her own admission, she only took up the sport on a casual basis after having a go at it at a junior camp in 2012. She was only 12. Stretton could not have imagined what she would be doing four years later. After all, not many teenagers celebrate completing their GCSEs by winning Paralympic gold in Rio.

Stretton, who uses a wheelchair after being born with cerebral palsy, began the morning by beating another team-mate, Vicky Jenkins, in the semi-final to set up the gold medal match.

While Jenkins was disappointed at being denied a place in the final, she played her part in a productive outing for Paralympics GB’s archers. When she hit the target with her final arrow in her bronze match against South Korean’s Kim Ok-Geum, the 39-year-old’s 125-124 win sealed Britain’s first clean sweep of medals in any sport since they dominated the B7/8 lawn bowls in 1996.

Frith, who won silver in the W1 individual event and gold in the team event in last year’s world championships, was no pushover. She was making her Paralympic debut as well. Previously involved in swimming, Frith was bitten by the archery bug when she saw a training session at her local club after a swim in the pool.

She quickly demonstrated a knack for it and won individual and mixed team titles at the European Championships earlier this year. Frith, who has multiple sclerosis, could be justifiably confident of ruining Stretton’s big day. Instead, however, it was the youngster who gained revenge for her defeat to Frith in the final of the European Championships, showing nervelessness beyond her years to win 137-124. The healthy margin of victory was proof of Stretton’s class and the fear for her rivals is that she will continue to improve.

In the Olympic Stadium, meanwhile, another 16-year-old claimed her third medal in Rio. Maria Lyle won bronze in the T35 200m, having already taken silver and bronze in the 4x100m relay and 100m respectively.

China’s Zhou Xia set a world record of 28.22sec on her way to winning her second gold to add to the 100m title, while Australia’s Isis Holt took silver in 28.79. Lyle, a five-times European champion, finished in 29.35.

“I liked doing the lap of honour because I didn’t do it in the 100m,” Lyle said. “It was a season’s best, which I am chuffed about. It’s brilliant to have won three medals at my first Paralympic Games. I couldn’t compete with the Chinese girl so I just needed to do my best.”