There can be no running away from it. This was Great Britain's Paralympic Track Cycling games and no-one else's.
From the moment the first British rider mounted the track, the team stamped their dominance on the meeting and carried it through to the end finishing with 12 titles (11 individual, one team) and 11 out of the 17 world records set. Only Australia presented any real competition, taking three golds and cracking three world records.
Britain's undoubted super-hero was Darren Kenny with three golds while Simon Richardson, Mark Bristow, Jody Cundy, Anthony Kappes and Aileen Mcglynn all took two gold medals, and all six captured at least one world record to take home.
Kenny, Paralympic cycling's equivalent of Ussein Bolt in the Men's CP3 class, simply demolished every field. Richardson's victories in the LC3 class were no less emphatic and only marginally less brutal than Kenny's but the triple gold medalist didn't seem satisfied with just winning, he had to do it by streets.
Racing on what the event organizers claim is one of the fastest cycling tracks in the world, Kenny didn't even have to finish the Men's Individual Pursuit (CP3) final to take gold. He'd already overtaken his opponent of the Republic of Korea with two of the three kilometers remaining and under the rules of the event wasn't required to race the rest to take the title. If he had been, he was surely on to break the world record he set in the heats.
Two days later Kenny turned one gold into two by taking the Men's 1km Time Trial (CP3) title, smashing the world record by almost three seconds in the process, the first CP3 rider ever under 1:10 in the event.
It was almost a matter of pride for Kenny. Just moments earlier he'd seen his teammate Rik Waddon take two seconds off the world record he set at the 2007 World Championships in France. If Kenny needed any incentive to burn the track down, this was it. Had it not been for Kenny, Waddon would have won with ease. As it was, he had to settle for silver, Britain's only trophy that wasn't gold.
Britain's Mark Bristow, better known as a Team Sprint rider, also finally established himself as a world beater by taking gold in the Men's 1km Time Trial (LC1) in a new world record time. His previous individual bests were third in the Paralympic World Cup 1km Time Trial earlier this year and fourth in the 1km Time Trial at the World Championships in 2007.
In the Men's B&VI 1-3 class, Anthony Kappes if Great Britain and his pilot Barney Storey decimated all opposition to score double gold in the Men's Sprint (B&VI 1-3) and the 1km Time Trial (B&VI 1-3).
In the Women's events Aileen Mcglynn and her pilot Ellen Hunter stormed to victory in the Women's 1km Time Trial (B&VI 1-3) going under 1 minute 10 seconds for the first time ever and then doubled the success by wrecking the hopes of Lindy Hou of Australia piloted by Toireasa Gallagher in the final of the Women's Individual Pursuit (B&VI 1-3)
.
On the final day of competition Sarah Storey of Great Britain got in on Britain's gold rush, storming back in the Women's Individual Pursuit (LC1-2/CP4) to rip four seconds off the LC1 world record she set in the qualifying round to snatch the gold from Jennifer Schuble of the Unites States by centimeters.
Finally, it was left to Britain's men's sprint team to make the day. Brimming with gold medals and world records, the team of double gold medalist Darren Kenny and single title winners Jody Cundy and Mark Bristow overcame surprise finalists China in the Men's Team Sprint (LC1-4 CP3/4) to make it a 12 out of 12 gold clean sweep for Britain.
With Britain in such dominant mood it was all too easy to forget that some 30 other countries had sent teams to the Games. Australia kept up some sort of presence on the opening day taking three golds and breaking three records, but after that it was largely one national anthem that greeted the ears of the spectators.
The Australian anthem got an airing when Kieran Modra struck gold in the Men's Individual Pursuit (B&VI 1-3) setting a new world record in the process, when Chris Scott edged out Japan's Ishii Masashi by centimeters in the Men's Individual Pursuit (CP4) and again when Michael Gallagher took four seconds off the world record to trounce Wolfgang Sacher of Germany in the final of the Men's Individual Pursuit (LC1).
Italy's Paolo Vigano in the 1km Time Trial LC3-4 event ensured his country's anthem was heard when he notched a new world best and the US team saw its flag raised twice, once when Jennifer Schuble affirmed her claim to the World No. 1 spot, adding the LC1-2/CP3 500m Time Trial title to the World Championship crown she won last year and once when Barbara Buchan set a new CP3 mark on her way to beating Natalie Simanowski of Germany for the gold in the Women's Individual Pursuit (LC3-4/CP3). Simanowski broke the LC3 record for the event and was rewarded with a silver medal.
The flags of the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Japan all flew from the center flag pole as well, but by the end of the four-day competition the organizers must have been considering just leaving the British flag up there, so dominant was their presence.
Perhaps the best actual competition on the track came in the men's 1km Time Trial (BV&I 1-3) in which the world record was bettered no less than six times and on the sixth occasion, Britain's Anthony Kappes and his pilot Barney Storey took off as if the hounds of hell were at their heels to ensure Britain remained on track to maintain a prefect record.
The home team China scored two silvers and a bronze over the four-day Paralympic cycling track feast and convinced everyone attending that they'll be back in force at the next Paralympics in London in 2012. So they should be. This home of the bicycle has yet to reach anything like its full potential.
Most of the track riders now move on to the Paralympic Cycling Road event near the Great Wall to engage in fierce competition over a grueling three-day schedule.
(BOCOG September 10, 2008)