Simon Richardson of Great Britain proved unbeatable in the Men's Individual Pursuit (LC3) final Tuesday afternoon, taking the gold medal by six seconds from Masaki Fujita of Japan.
The British rider was always favorite for the crown having set a new world and Paralympic record in the heats cropping nearly eight seconds from the previous world best set two years ago at Aigle, Switzerland.
But Richardson didn't have it all his own way. He fell 1.5 seconds behind the Japanese at 1km after Fujita set off at record pace in an attempt to establish an unassailable lead. Richardson refused to be drawn into chasing the Japanese too early and gradually chipped away at Fujita's lead as the Japanese tired down.
By the 2km mark, the lead had changed hands and was always going to stay with the British rider.
Athens gold medalist Thirionet also took an early lead in the third place ride-off against Tobias Graf of Germany, but he failed to maintain the pace and in the end Graf raced back to win by half the back straight.
(BOCOG September 9, 2008)