It was sprinter Smyth who took centre stage first as he produced a stunning display to retain his 100 metres T13 title in a world record 10.46sec, remarkably his second such achievement of the competition.

The 25-year-old from Derry in Northern Ireland, who just missed out on qualifying for the Olympics, put down a major marker of what was to come as he set a new world benchmark of 10.54 in last night's heat.

The huge pre-race favourite destroyed the competition to claim a comfortable victory to the delight of the huge bank of Irish supporters among the 80,000 spectators at a full-house Olympic Stadium.

Cuba's Luis Felipe Gutierrez finished a distant second in 11.02 while South African Jonathan Ntutu took the bronze in 11.03.

But it was a race that belonged to Smyth (pictured below), who will again be huge favourite to defend his other Paralympic title in the 200m next week.


"This just goes to show that if you work hard and apply yourself you can achieve at the greatest level," said Smyth.

"Coming into the championships I knew I was under pressure to retain my title so I wanted to do that first and foremost, and thankfully I was able to do that.

"Of course there was the added bonus of a world record."

McKillop then took to the track to replicate his compatriot's achievement by successfully defending his 800m T37 title.

The 22-year-old from Ballymena coasted home in a time of 1min 57.22sec as Mohamed Charmi of Tunisia claimed silver in 2:01.45 and Australian Brad Scott bronze in 2:02.04.

"It's just a relief – it means the world to me to win," he said.

"Last night I was struggling to sleep – you question yourself if you're good enough."

McKillop, who became the first male athlete to break a world record in the Olympic Stadium in the test event earlier this year, will now be looking to achieve a notable middle-distance double in the 1500m T37.


The duo's successes marked a golden day for the Irish, with swimmer Darragh McDonald claiming victory in the men's 400m freestyle S6.

The twin wins followed on the heels of a superb morning session in the stadium which saw Britain's Richard Whitehead (pictured above) secure a phenomenal gold medal in the men's 200m T42.

The 36-year-old double-leg amputee from Nottingham blew away the field with a world record of 24.38 to add the Paralympic crown to the World Championship title he won last year.

Whitehead came home ahead of silver medallist Shaquille Vance of the United States and Germany's Heinrich Popow who claimed bronze.

"That wasn't for me, that wasn't for Richard Whitehead, it was for everyone who has supported me," said Whitehead, who became Britain's second athletics gold medallist of the Games following Hannah Cockroft's 100m T34 gold last night.

"I was fighting back tears towards the end and I had to take a couple of minutes to pull myself together."


It was a day of world records in the Olympic Stadium with none more popular than the new 200m T44 mark set by Oscar Pistorius, the double-leg amputee from South Africa, who recorded a time of 21.30 in his heat.

"I was so excited and I'm really happy, but the big race is tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it now," said Pistorius, fresh from his appearance in the Olympic Games.

The other standout athletics performance came from Australia's Evan O'Hanlon (pictured above, centre) who bagged a world record of 10.79 in the 100m T38 to claim his first gold medal of the Games and fourth in total.

"It's a full stadium – walking on the track and hearing the crowd, it really leads an athlete and pushes them to those amazing performances," he said.

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