American Hunter Woodhall stormed to victory in the T62 400m at the Paralympics in Paris, a month after his wife Tara Davis-Woodhall won Olympic long jump gold.
Woodhall won in 46.36 seconds at the Stade de France, ahead of world record holder Johannes Floors of Germany and Olivier Hendriks of the Netherlands.
The 25-year-old celebrated by hugging Tara, who was watching in the crowd, in a role reversal of the celebrations when she took gold in August at the same venue.
“I am so full of emotions right now. It is so incredible,” he said. “I have been waiting so long, and gone through so much stress and worry about achieving this.
“This is a lesson in shooting for the stars and making big goals.”
It is the first Paralympic title of Woodhall’s career, having won bronze in the same event at Tokyo.
He added: “My first gold in a major championship and I couldn’t pick a better one.
“Tara has taught me a lot. Before the Olympics she was writing in her journal: ‘I will be the Olympic champ, I am strong, I am fast.’ I brought my journal with me and the past few days I’ve been writing in there ‘I will be Paralympic champion’, and that’s come true.”
Speaking after Hunter’s victory, Tara said: “I was so nervous, I was so pumped – knowing he was ready to run and how much he wanted to win. And now he has.
“It was a dream for us to both win gold and now we have. We’ll be wearing these golds for the rest of our lives.”
Woodhall came sixth in the T64 100m earlier in the Games, but saw the 400m as his strongest event.
At the Paris Games in August, Tara recorded a distance of 7.10m with her fourth jump to secure her first Olympic gold medal ahead of Germany’s Malaika Mihambo and compatriot Jasmine Moore.
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