Georgina Hermitage defends gold medal win after controversy Paralympian Georgina Hermitage won gold in the T37 400m sprint event and set a new world record on day six […]

Paralympian Georgina Hermitage won gold in the T37 400m sprint event and set a new world record on day six of the Games. Great Britain now has 34 gold medals – the same number won at the Paralympic Games in 2012.

But Hermitage was forced to defend her win, insisting her success was down to working her “arse off” rather than being in the wrong classification.

Hermitage, who has cerebral palsy which affects the left side of her body, said she had “nothing to hide” referring to her impairment.

It comes after T37 athlete Bethany Woodward – who did not qualify for the GB Paralympics team – suggested some athletes were misrepresenting themselves to compete against those with greater impairments. At the Paralympics, athletes are grouped by functional ability related to their impairment.

Hermitage said after her win: “These people making these unfounded comments about my disability have never asked what’s wrong with me – how could they possibly know?

“If anyone ever wants to talk to me about what happened I am an open book. I’ll talk to anyone about it, I’ve got nothing to hide. I block that out. I know what I went through and my family know what I went through with all the years of physio.”

‘I just do everything I can’

Hermitage explained that her lactate threshold – the exercise intensity at which the blood concentration of lactic acid starts to accumulate – was high because she worked her “a*se off for it”.

“I just do everything I can,” she added.

Hermitage’s win – her second after claiming victory in the T37 100m earlier in the Games – came on day six of the Paralympics in Rio, when Great Britain secured 11 medals including six golds.

Meanwhile Libby Clegg won gold in the T11 200m event.

Other winners included Matt Wylie in the men’s S9 50m freestyle and Stephanie Millward in the S8 100m backstroke.

Claiming her first ever gold, Millward told BBC 5 Live: “My dreams have finally been realised.

“I’m just hopefully proof for everybody, that as long as you keep on believing and keep on hoping, you can achieve absolutely anything.”

Additional reporting by PA