ARCHER John Stubbs cannot wait to return to Warrington with his Paralympic gold medal tonight, Thursday.

The Woolston wheelchair bowman produced the performance of his career to take gold in the open compound category in Beijing on Saturday and now he is eager to start celebrating.

Stubbs had gone into his first Paralympic Games as one of the favourites for gold and broke a world record in the ranking round.

That was followed by a Paralympic record as he recorded a score of 117 out of 120 to beat American Eric Bennett 117-114 in the round of 16.

The 43-year-old then came from behind to dispatch the world record holder for 12 arrows, Canada’s Kevin Evans, 111-110 in a dramatic quarter final that brought together the two main contenders for gold.

Stubbs went on to beat Switzerland’s Philippe Horner 114-109 in the semi finals before a 116-111 final triumph against Italy’s Alberto Simonelli - the man he also beat in the final of the 2005 World Championships.

He said: “I’m over the moon.

“I’m extremely proud but it’s not really sunk in because I’ve been in the village and there have been a lot of sports still competing. I’ve had to be careful that I don’t go over the top because there are other people that are still quite upset.

“But I think it will hit home when I get home.

“My wife has been trying to phone me but whenever I’ve managed to speak to her she’s been very emotional, so we’ve not really spoken too much.”

Stubbs, who was close to death when he lost a leg in a motorbike accident in 1989, added: “From my archery career this is probably the best moment ever.

“There were 4,500 spectators in the arena and I seemed to have them on my side because I was being a bit of a showman! That was my way of keeping my nerve really.

“The records filled me with great confidence going forward but I knew I couldn’t rest on my laurels because in the next round I was up against the world champion, Kevin Evans.

“Neither of us shot to our potential but it’s like the battle of the titans, when you get a football match. You seem to cancel each other out. Neither of us wanted to win it!

“But because I had so much support from the crowd, he bottled it and I shot better than him. Winning the crowd over paid dividends for me.

“It just goes to show that whoever won that match was going to go on and win it.

“In the final I just shot out of my skin. That’s really unheard of in finals because it’s all about just winning.”

Former Lymm High School pupil Niki Birrell suffered disappointment as he finished fifth with Epsom’s Alexandra Rickham in sailing’s two-person keelboat SKUD 18 category in Qingdao on Saturday.

The duo won the sixth race of the regatta but finished fourth three times, fifth twice, seventh twice and eighth twice to end their hopes of a medal.

Penketh’s Gemma Prescott, who has cerebral palsy, completed her Paralympics by finishing seventh in the F32-34/52/53 shot put event.

The 24-year-old former Great Sankey High School pupil threw a season’s best distance of 4.77m in the ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium.