Rio Paralympics 2016: Dame Sarah Storey wins 12th Paralympic gold medal

Dame Sarah Storey has become Great Britain's most successful female Paralympian by winning her 12th gold medal on the opening day in Rio.

The 38-year-old Para-cyclist caught compatriot Crystal Lane, who took silver, after only 1,375 metres of the C5 3,000m individual pursuit final.

Steve Bate - with pilot Adam Duggleby - and Megan Giglia won cycling golds, while swimmers Ollie Hynd and Bethany Firth also took golds.

GB have won five golds and 11 medals.

Swimmers Harriet Lee and Stephanie Millward won silver and bronze respectively, while Jessica-Jane Applegate took bronze behind Firth in the S14 100m backstroke.

Scot Andrew Mullen, 19, won bronze and Jonathan Fox claimed silver.

Read more: GB's roll of honour

Storey passes Grey-Thompson mark

Storey, who had shared the GB women's record for Paralympic titles with former wheelchair racer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, was expected to easily defeat Lane in Thursday's final.

Storey, who was only 14 when she competed as a swimmer at the 1992 Games, is hoping to emulate her haul of four gold medals at London 2012. She will also compete in the C4-5 road race, C5 time trial and C4-5 500m time trial.

"Tanni's still a hero to me," said Storey, who competes in the C5 category in which athletes meet the minimum impairment criteria.

"It's amazing and I don't think it will sink in for a very long time, To go quicker than London after having my daughter Louisa is the icing on the cake."

Storey started out as a swimmer and won two gold medals, three silvers and a bronze in Barcelona. She competed in the pool at three more Games before a series of ear infections persuaded her switch to cycling in 2005.

• Listen to BBC Radio 5 live commentary of Storey's win

Giglia starts track gold rush

Earlier on day one, Giglia won Britain's first medal with a stunning win in the C1-3 3,000m, catching American Jamie Whitmore after 1,875m.

The 31-year-old, who had a brain haemorrhage and stroke at the age of 27, told Channel 4: "It hasn't sunk in yet. I wouldn't be here without my team-mates, and my back-up team behind me.

"I didn't think I would make it to Rio and I thought it was a bit ambitious but I wanted to give it a go.

"Within the British camp, everyone is hyped up and ready to go. I have another three events, so I will enjoy the races with my legs pedalling as fast as I can."

Bate and Duggleby defeated Dutch pair Vincent ter Schure and pilot Timo Fransen in the B 4,000m individual pursuit final.

• Listen to BBC Radio 5 live commentary of Giglia's gold

Analysis

BBC Sport's Elizabeth Hudson in Rio:

Four medals and three golds - it's not been a bad one for the GB cyclists on the opening night in the velodrome. Taking up where Wiggins, Kenny, Trott and company left off, they have made almost the best start imaginable.

Storey became the most decorated British female Paralympian in history and credit to silver medallist Lane, who a month ago was not even on the plane for Rio but earned a late call-up thanks to Russia's ban.

Giglia's determination to turn a negative into a positive after suffering a stroke in January 2013 shone through brightly with her gold medal.

Hynd leads charge in pool

Mansfield-born Hynd set a world record of four minutes 21.89 seconds to win the S8 400m freestyle final - and fulfil his dream of going one better than silver at London 2012.

"There isn't a day that's gone by where I haven't thought about London and it's all been about putting it right," said Hynd, who has neuromuscular myopathy - a condition which weakens his legs.

"I knew I needed to go out and do my own race. Although I'm a little bit disappointed not to go quicker, the gold is the most important thing."

Listen: Hynd 'a little bit disappointed'

Firth, 20, defended her S14 100m backstroke title by breaking her own world record for the second time in a day. The Northern Irish swimmer triumphed in 1:04.05 seconds, with Applegate coming home in 1:08.67.

Lee, 25, took silver in the SB9 100m breaststroke final, which was won by Dutchwoman Lisa Kruger.

Millward won bronze in the S8 400m freestyle final behind winner 17-year-old Australian Lakeisha Patterson.

Teenager Mullen finished second in the S5 200m freestyle final, behind Brazil's Daniel Dias who is his country's poster boy of the Games. Dias has now won 11 gold medals from three Paralympics.

Fox failed to defend his S7 100m backstroke title by fractions as he took silver behind Ukraine's Ievgenii Bogodaiko.

Analysis

Daniel Dias has now won 16 Paralympic medals in total

BBC Sport's Nick Hope in Rio:

What an unbelievable noise from the partisan crowd inside the Aquatics Centre as Dias lived up to his pre-Games hype.

We saw some good crowd numbers and support from the Brazilians on Thursday, but the Games need moments like this to inspire the population.

Brazil - and Rio in particular - has a poor reputation when it comes to supporting disabled people and the Paralympics. Success from athletes like Dias really could be a huge catalyst for change.

Peacock struts to reach 100m final

Briton Jonnie Peacock began the defence of his T44 100m crown by clocking a Paralympic record 10.81 seconds to win his heat.

Brazil's Alan Oliveira - the double amputee world record holder - did not qualify for Friday's final.

New Zealand's Liam Malone was the second fastest in a time of 10.90, with pre-event favourite Jarryd Wallace of the United States third fastest in 11.02.

Elsewhere, Briton Georgina Hermitage, who has cerebral palsy, equalled her world record in her T37 100m heat.

Hermitage gave up the sport as a teenager but returned after the birth of daughter Tilly in late 2012, having been inspired by watching the London Games.

Team-mate Sophie Hahn smashed the eight-year-old Paralympic T38 100m record of 13.43 to win her heat in a time of 12.62.

Both Hermitage and Hahn will be gunning for gold on Friday.

BBC Sport's A-Z of Paralympic sport classifications

Elsewhere in Rio

The basketball competition at the Paralympics got under way on day one

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) says that - at the last count - 1.7m tickets have been for the Games, 300,000 short of its revised target of two million. In August, Rio organisers said that only 12% of tickets had been sold.

In wheelchair basketball, GB's men beat Algeria 93-31 as the women's team lost 43-36 to world champions Canada.

Britain's men's seven-a-side football team were beaten 2-1 by Brazil.

The hosts won their first gold medal of the Games as T11 long jumper Ricardo Costa de Oliveira's final-round leap of 6.52m beat American Lex Gillette.

The first gold of the Paralympics went to Kenya's Samwel Mushai Kimani in the men's T11 5,000m, with Brazil's Odair Santos taking silver.

Among the other winners was 50-year-old swimmer Zulfiya Gabidullina, who broke her own world record to claim the women's 100m freestyle S3 title and win Kazakhstan's first summer Paralympic Games medal.

Meanwhile, a Belarus official who carried a Russian flag into the opening ceremony has been banned from the event by the IPC.

Russia are banned from the Games for state-sponsored doping.

Ricardo Costa de Oliveira won Brazil's first gold of the Rio Paralympics

And finally, Russia set to top the medal table...

Russia has been holding its own 'Paralympic Games' after it was barred from competing in Rio

... at their own Paralympics.

The country is currently holding a two-day competition after it was disqualified from the Rio Paralympics over evidence of state-run doping. A similar competition was held for its Olympians who experienced a similar fate.

This unique event will be broadcast by Russian sports TV channel Match TV, who will not be showing any of the action from Brazil, according to privately-owned talk radio Govorit Moskva (source: BBC Monitoring).

Previously Russian state-owned sports news agency R-Sport announced that it would not be sending any of its reporters to Rio in a show of "support" for the disqualified Russian athletes.

Britwatch on day two

14:00 BST: Cyclists Sophie Thornhill and pilot Helen Scott go in the women's B kilo

14:10 & 22:18: Swimmer Ellie Robinson, 15, in the 50m butterfly S6

20:00: World champion powerlifter Ali Jawad in the -59kg category

20:30: Cyclist Jody Cundy in the combined C4-5 race

21:36: Sprinter Hermitage in the 100m T37 final

21:42: Sprinter Hahn in the 100m T38 final

23:59: Peacock and Wallace go head-to-head in the T44 100m final