Anthony, 35, who is partially sighted and only started competing in 2005, broke his own world record in the men's 1km time trial (B&VI), cycling in tandem with pilot rider Barney Storey at the Laoshan Velodrome on Monday.

Australian silver medalist Ben Demery had broken the Paralympic record just before Anthony started his ride, but the 35-year-old proceeded to shave a further second from that to post a time of 1:02:864.

"Technically it was not superb, it could have been better, but we'll take it," he said afterwards.

"The thing you have to remember is that we follow the model of the able bodied lads. What they do, we try to do. We try to emulate them and I'm glad that on this occasion we did.

"Coming in we believed we'd have to break our own world record to win because the Australians are very, very fast."

And the duo struck gold again yesterday (Wednesday) in the tandem sprint (B&VI 1-3).

They won every race of the four-round competition, posting a new Paralympic record in qualifying. And after beating Argentina and Japan on their way to the final, Anthony and Barney recorded a 2-0 win over Australia.

News of Anthony's medal success has already been welcomed at his former workplace, Otter Controls in Buxton.

Employee Richard Bateman said: "There is great delight here at Anthony's success. He has done really well."

Anthony's coach and pilot Barney is married to fellow cyclist Sarah Storey, formerly of Disley, who was also among the medals in Beijing.
She narrowly missed out on a podium spot in the women's 500 metre time trial (LC1-2/CP4) on Monday, despite posting the second fastest time in the competition.

But Sarah, 30, who was contesting her first Paralympic Games as a cyclist, set a new world record time of 3:36:367 to clinch gold in the Women's Individual Pursuit (LC1-2/CP4) on Wednesday.

Previously, Sarah was a successful Paralympic swimmer. During her illustrious career in the pool, which started in Barcelona aged 14, she has won five Paralympic, six world championship and 16 European championship gold medals, before changing her discipline after suffering a series of chronic ear infections.