Three golds, one silver and a new World and Paralympic record were set on day nine of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.  

 Ben Sandilands won a sensational gold on his Paralympic debut in World and Paralympic record style.  

The athlete from Fife, coached by Steve Doig, left his opponents in the dust as he turned down the homestretch and sprinted to a new world’s best time in the men’s 1500m T20.  

On the win, Ben said: “It’s an amazing feeling. I’ve put in so much hard work and I want to thank my family and friends, and my coach Steve Doig. I knew I had the speed in me at the end from my training. The timing has to be perfect and I went for it, and the world record means a lot. It’s incredible.” 

Ben clocked a time of 3:45.20 to seal him the Paralympic title on his Games debut.  

Sammi Kinghorn also produced a podium performance alongside teammates Zach Shaw, Jonnie Peacock and Ali Smith in the 4x100m Universal Relay.  

The squad of four raced to a new European Record of 46.01, bettering their own record set in the earlier heat.  

Sammi said: “It’s so exciting. I’m glad I’ve done my individuals now and I can enjoy being part of a team. It’s really special being in the call room with everyone else. We had fun out there, went pretty fast and got a European record so pretty good.” 

Victory didn’t just belong to Ben, as Gordon Reid (with Alfie Hewett) finally got his hands on gold in the men’s wheelchair tennis doubles final.  

The duo won gold in fantastic fashion, comfortably defeating Japan’s Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda, 2-0 (6-2, 6-1). 

“We finally did it, it’s ours. It feels amazing, even if it’s not fully sunk in yet, the emotions and adrenaline are still high,” said the 32-year-old from Hellensburgh. 

“We’ve been desperate this for a long time, we’ve come close twice and felt that heartbreak and pain. Those matches have been some of the toughest moments of my career so sitting here with the gold around our necks is one of the best feelings. Sometimes you need to feel some pain to enjoy the highs when they come, we need to really savour this moment.” 

It was another medal in Paris for Jenny Holl, who piloted Sophie Unwin to an incredible gold in Para cycling (road).  

Jenny and Sophie tactically sat behind Irish silver medallists, Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Linda Kelly, right up until the final 500m. 

Jenny said, “It was just a case of all race make sure we’re still with them and if we were with them with 500m to go, we knew we would be pretty solid.”

The pair took the win by three seconds, clocking a time of 2:37:26 to claim the title in the women’s B road race.

Commenting on their performance in Paris, Jenny said:
“I think the main thing for us is we both know all the time that each of us is working as hard as we possibly can so we have that trust and its really nice to see it show in a set of medals at a Games.” 

In Para canoe, Hope Gordon won her heat to set a new Paralympic Games Best time of 58.25 in the women’s Va’a Single 200m – VL3. The win allows her to advance directly to the Final A race on Saturday (7th).  

Hope was unsuccessful in obtaining an automatic qualification place in the women’s Kayak Single 200m – KL3, final A race. Finishing second in her (with a time of 48.96) means that Hope will advance to the semifinal for another chance of qualifying.  

In Para swimming, Louis Lawlor was in action in the men’s 100m Backstroke S14. Louis swam a storming race in the morning’s heats, setting a new Scottish record with a time of 1:00.41 and a place in the Paralympic final.  

The final was packed and highly competitive, with the Scot finishing seventh.  

The Paris 2024 Paralympics runs from the 28th August – 8th September. You can follow all the action and find out how the 21 Scottish Para athletes get on by following Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, X and Instagram, as well as on the SDS website. You can catch all the action on Channel 4. More information here.