Jonnie Peacock strikes London gold again in T44 100m final

Almost five years after bursting into the public consciousness with a stunning victory at the 2012 Paralympic Games, Jonnie Peacock returned to the London Stadium to strike gold again in the T44 100m at the World Para Athletics Championships.

Peacock, who was just 19 when he became one of the faces of the 2012 Paralympic and Olympic summer by winning gold in the blue riband event, had to work hard to hold off the challenge of the USA’s Jarryd Wallace and South Africa’s Johannes Floors but there was still fresh air between the winner and his rivals as he crossed the line.

The 24-year-old could be seen mouthing “Wow” as the roar went up around the stadium when his name was announced in the heats – “It was absolutely phenomenal,” said Peacock of the atmosphere – but as he stormed over the line in a personal best 10.64sec, smiling for the cameras to the right of the track from 30 metres out, it was those in the stands who were left open-mouthed in admiration. The time was just three-hundredths of a second outside the world record.

A challenge to Richard Browne’s mark of 10.61sec seemed on the cards in the final, and though that did not materialise Peacock, who had his right leg amputated below the knee after contracting meningitis at the age of five, still did more than enough to take his second world championship gold.

“I was feeling some serious cramp in the warm up, my hamstring gripped so much, that was why I was stretching‚” said Peacock, who recovered from a sluggish start to come home in 10.75sec. “I was just thankful that I finished the race. When it comes to the final it’s not about the times.

“I definitely could have gone faster. I am always going to look back and think I could have done it, if I had held up better I could have done it. But at the end of the day, I came here for the world title and I’m thankful that I finished the race in one piece.”

Peacock’s gold was Great Britain’s eighth in the first three days of the championship, a tally that sees the team top of the medals table ahead of the USA. In the morning session, Aled Davies had added No7, successfully completing the first half of what he hopes will be a third successive world championship double with gold in the men’s F42 discus.

The 26-year-old Welshman, who won discus and shot put gold at the world championships in 2013 and 2015, will hope to complete the set in the shot next Saturday.

While Davies’ consistency over the years is hugely impressive, he has a fair way to go to match that of Dan Greaves. The 34-year-old F44 discus thrower won his first Paralympic medal, a silver, as a 17-year-old in Sydney in 2000 and went on to equal Tanni Grey-Thompson’s achievement of winning medals in five successive Paralympics.

Greaves immediately set his sights on these championships after a bronze in Rio, his last Games, but the Great Britain co-captain fell agonisingly short of adding to his four world championship medals, with Croatia’s Ivan Katanusic edging him out of the medals by just 32cm.

“I’m feeling very heartbroken; it wasn’t the performance I know I am capable of,” said Greaves, who also was also fourth in the world championships in Doha two years ago.

“I have got to go away and think about this performance because you can’t get emotionally wrapped up in it. I don’t want to bow out on that performance and this feeling.”

Earlier in the evening the Scottish sprinter Maria Lyle added a bronze to the one she won in Rio in the women’s T35 200m. At 17, Lyle is something of a veteran in the event – the Australian gold medal winner, Isis Holt, has just turned 16, while only one athlete in the seven-woman field was older than 19.