What to expect from the Scots at the Paralympics on Thursday

Sammi Kinghorn is undoubtedly having the Paralympic games of her life. Perhaps beyond even her own wildest imagination.

The Scot delivered an almighty performance in the Stade de France on Wednesday evening to romp home to her first-ever Paralympic gold medal in the women’s 100m T53 final in Paris.

Paralympic champion.

“I just can’t believe that I’ve done that,” she beamed post-race. “It’s honestly absolutely blowing my mind.”

“I really wanted to give Catherine [Debrunner] a really good race.

“I beat her once this year, but she beat me every other time, but I knew our times were within a tenth of each other, so I just wanted to make sure that my start was really strong.”

As a side note to this iconic win, it was also a Paralympic record time.

In producing that, Kinghorn saw off world record holder Debrunner who went in as favourite to win this race, albeit they are close rivals in this event.

The Melrose-born athlete became the first non-Chinese winner of this event in 20-years, following Tanni Grey-Thompson’s win in Athens 2004.

It has been an astonishing few days for her with two silvers already before this incredible victory.

Her first came in the 800m T53. The second, unexpectedly, by Kinghorn’s own admission in the 1500m, an event she had little elite level experience in until now.

She might even go further with at least one more event in the 400m to follow in Paris in what has evolved into a quite incredible performance

“I just can’t believe that I’ve done that,” Kinghorn said.

“I didn’t want to celebrate too early. I just wanted to definitely make sure that my name was at the top of that screen so it took a little moment to actually compose myself and go, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve actually just done that.’”