Commonwealth Games star Melanie Woods has won the women’s 1500m T54 gold medal for the second time after her initial victory was stripped.
The Scottish wheelchair racer had already triumphed on Wednesday evening, setting a new Games record in the process.
But after para-athletics officials ordered the final to be restaged following appeals related to a collision on the opening lap, Woods was forced to do it all over again on Thursday.
She duly delivered, surpassing her own record with a time nearly a second quicker than her first victory.
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The home crowd roared her down the finishing straight as she secured a gold medal that, this time, she could finally keep.
“I’m happy, I’m excited, but it feels like relief, to be honest,” Woods told the BBC.
“It’s created a bit of a storyline, and I feel like people have been following for the plot, so I’m just happy to be able to do it again.”
In the restaged final, Woods seized control from the gun and never relinquished her lead.
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Mauritius’ Noemi Alphonse and Australia’s Eliza Ault-Connell pressed her through the early laps, but the Australian dropped off with 200 metres remaining, leaving Woods to fend off Alphonse alone.
“It was in my mind ‘what have I got left?’ and you do question what you’ve got in your arms,” she admitted.
“But I just needed to be confident I could stay out in front, and it was nice coming down the home straight and not seeing her wheel moving in front of me.”
Woods has been a wheelchair user since 2018, when she was struck by a car whilst cycling.
Ninety minutes after reclaiming gold, she returned to the track and won her 400m heat.
Ellis Kottas, who had taken silver in Wednesday’s original race, could not reproduce that result in the rerun, crossing the line in fourth place.
The England athlete had admitted to being “low-key traumatised” upon learning the initial result had been overturned.
Speaking after the race, she said: “If I had that original medal, with half the competitors wiped out, it wouldn’t have been on my own merit. They just outraced me.
“It’s very mixed emotions. Obviously it’s a slight disappointment, but there’s still a lot of excitement. There are no hard feelings in that sense.”
Woods, meanwhile, acknowledged the saga had generated its own compelling narrative.
“I feel like people have been following for the plot, so I’m just happy to be able to do it again,” she said, before adding with a grin: “If they call me back for a rerun, I’m not doing it.”
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