Irish sprinter Jason Smyth set the Bird’s Nest track on fire in Beijing winning 100m gold in a new Paralympic World record time of 10.62sec.

It was two world records in one day for the 20 year old as he broke the 10.81sec mark he set in qualifying earlier Saturday morning by almost two tenths of a second. In front of a 90,000 strong capacity crowd, Smyth blasted out of the blocks to storm away from the field and with 40 meters had opened up a commanding lead that no one had any chance of closing.

Afterwards a delighted Smyth said of his debut Paralympic Games triumph:

“I’m thrilled; it’s awesome! I’ve put in so much work; it’s all gone so well. To break my own world record twice in one day I knew it was there; it was just a matter of coming out and doing it on the big occasion, and I’m so pleased I did.”

There is still more to come from Ireland’s latest Paralympic champion. Jason runs in the 200m event in which he is the reigning world champion and record holder (21.83sec). The heats of the 200m are on today, with the final on Tuesday.