• ParalympicsGB finish top of medals table with five golds
• China make great strides to finish a close second
Peter Walker at the velodrome
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 2 September 2012 23.34 BST
The last anthem to be played in the velodrome following a month of blistering Olympic and Paralympic action was, fittingly, God Save the Queen. However, this was just a scheduling quirk, perhaps deliberate.
In a fitting illustration of Britain's increasing struggle to remain track cycling's top dog, the final race in perhaps the loudest and most dramatic of the venues at London 2012 saw China edge ParalympicsGB's team sprinters out of gold by six hundredths of a second.
It was agonising for Darren Kenny, Rik Waddon and John-Allan Butterworth, the last of whom now has three second places in his first Paralympics. They broke the world record in their heat, to see China to go four thousandths of a second quicker. GB beat that new mark in the final, only for their opponents to go faster still in the three-lap race.
Waddon, 35, who won a silver in the 1km time trial in Beijing, admitted that he had allowed himself to dream about winning gold in London. He said: "We've done a staggering time but we got beaten by another nation. It's something you can't control. It's good competition. The crowd were loving it. We dominated in Beijing but the others have stepped up. We were sort of expecting that. We can only go for Rio now."
The final day of racing at the velodrome was, by any standards, a stunning success for the British riders: three medals events bringing in a gold, two silvers and a bronze. This left Britain on top of the track medals table again, with five golds, the same as China, and 15 medals in all.
But the country's Paralympian cyclists are not judged to normal measures. While in Beijing they won fewer medals, 13,there were 12 golds. Here, it was five.
The fifth and final gold was guaranteed shortly after lunch when both pairings in the men's tandem sprint won through to the final.
The event is arguably the most thrilling of any in the velodrome – the cat and mouse slow-fast-slow-sprint tactics of the individual sprint somehow carried out by two sets of legs in unison.
The final was vindication for Anthony Kappes, who, with his sighted "pilot", the former Olympic rider Craig MacLean, lost the chance to defend his Beijing 1km time trial title on Saturday when their chain slipped on both their two permitted chances to start the heats.
The pair dismissed Neil Fachie and his pilot, Barney Storey – who went on to take gold in the time trial – 2-0 in the best of three sprint final.
Kappes, who is 39, reported that he had spent Saturday feeling "like the cat's died or something". He said: "You don't get many opportunities. Yesterday we blew it. Not our fault, but still. Today was a chance to demonstrate what we can do. Can't complain."
The diminutive Fachie and his hulking pilot, who with their helmets on resemble an absurdly fast father and son team, accepted they were well beaten. "Those guys were better than us. There's no doubt about it," Fachie said.
Defeat in the team event had some consolation, a silver lining for Kenny. The 42-year-old's second place medal makes him the most decorated Paralympian cyclist, ahead of Australia's Christopher Scott, who won six gold medals, two silver and a bronze from 1996 to 2008.
"Chris is one of the nicest guys I know, and he's a big hero of mine," Kenny said. "It's nice to finally nudge him out of the way."
While he will be 46 by the time of the Rio Games, Kenny said he hoped to be there: "It's sunny there, of course. Why wouldn't I? Just buy me a plane ticket and I'll be there. I'll start preparing tomorrow if you like."
Butterworth, meanwhile, now has three silver medals in his debut Games. "Silver again," he said, contemplating the giant, shiny trinket around his neck, "But we couldn't have done any more than we did."
He would probably be well advised not to share his woes with Lora Turnham, who with her sighted pilot Fiona Duncan picked up her second consecutive fourth place, this time in their preferred event, the tandem pursuit.
If only making the bronze medal race was bad enough, they were then beaten by fellow Britons Aileen McGlynn and Helen Scott, themselves smarting from silver in Friday's tandem time trial, for which they were the clear favourites.
Turnham, 24, pointed out that she had already endured two fourth places, at the 2009 world championships: "I found it really annoying then, and it's even more so now."
She will be consoled by Fachie, her boyfriend for the past two years. Asked why so many track riders seem to end up dating each other, Turnham had an endearingly frank reply: "We see so much of each other, and we don't get social lives as we're always training. Where else are we going to meet people?"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/sep/02/paralympics-2012-britain-track-cyclists?CMP=twt_gu
