Dias wins gold, record for GB’s Storey

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s star Paralympic swimmer Daniel Dias tore off to a gold winning start in Rio, but don’t call him another Michael Phelps — Dias is busy writing his own name in history. With a gold late Thursday in the 200m freestyle S5, Dias, who was born with congenital malformation of his arms and right leg, now has 16 medals and is closing in on becoming one of the most decorated Paralympians of all time. At stunning speed, the 28-year-old delighted the raucous Brazilian home crowd by beating US swimmer Roy Perkins by 10 seconds. What’s scary for opponents is he has eight more events to go. That’s where the Phelps comparisons come in. The US swimmer — the most decorated Olympian in any sport — retired at the close of the Rio Summer Games in August with a haul of 28 medals, 23 of them gold. Dias is catching up, but says he has his own story to tell. “I’m Daniel Dias and I want to build my own legacy. But I’m happy to be compared to a great athlete,” he told AFP. Dame Sarah Storey, meanwhile, has become Great Britain’s most successful female Paralympian by winning her 12th gold medal on the opening day in Rio. The 38-year-old Para-cyclist caught compatriot Crystal Lane, who took silver, after only 1,375 meters of the C5 3,000m individual pursuit final. Steve Bate — with pilot Adam Duggleby — and Megan Giglia won cycling golds, while swimmers Ollie Hynd and Bethany Firth also took golds. GB have won five golds and 11 medals. Swimmers Harriet Lee and Stephanie Millward won silver and bronze respectively, while Jessica-Jane Applegate took bronze behind Firth in the S14 100m backstroke. Scot Andrew Mullen, 19, won bronze and Jonathan Fox claimed silver. Storey, who had shared the GB women’s record for Paralympic titles with former wheelchair racer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, was expected to easily defeat Lane in Thursday’s final. Storey, who was only 14 when she competed as a swimmer at the 1992 Games, is hoping to emulate her haul of four gold medals at London 2012. She will also compete in the C4-5 road race, C5 time trial and C4-5 500m time trial. US swimmer Jessica Long hugged Australian Lakeisha Patterson when the women’s 400 freestyle final was over and offered congratulations. Long had a medal in her fourth Paralympics, but Patterson took the gold and the world record. Patterson’s time of 4 minutes, 40.33 seconds nipped Long’s previous record of 4:40.44. The 24-year-old Long now has 18 medals overall, a dozen of them gold. Police want to quiz Bach Brazilian police said Thursday they want to question International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach as a witness in investigations of a suspected ticket scam by officials during last month’s Games. Rio de Janeiro police official Ronaldo Oliveira said investigators had seen an email that the top suspect in the probe, Ireland’s Olympic chief Patrick Hickey, sent to Bach requesting tickets. “We want to question Thomas Bach as a witness because he features in the emails and we want to clear up certain uncertainties,” Oliveira told a news conference. Another investigator, Ricardo Barbosa de Souza, said Hickey emailed Bach in July 2015 asking to increase his allocation of tickets to last month’s Games in Rio. “Mr. Bach did not reply but we know that Mr. Hickey received 296 extra tickets for the Rio Olympic Games and that is why we want to question the president of the IOC,” the investigator said. Police have estimated the profits from the black market ticket sales at about $3 million. — Agencies