Paralympic Games: Quick silver Aileen McGlynn claims first medal for Scotland

In a hard-fought race, she and her teammate Helen Scott missed out on the gold medal by just half a second.

Later, McGlynn, 39, from Glasgow, praised the feverish atmosphere inside the Velodrome. “It’s amazing, brilliant,” she said.

However, she expressed disappointment at not having retained the Olympic title, after winning gold in Athens and Beijing, but said the pair were now determined to chase glory in Rio in 2016.

“This was our main focus,” she said. “We came into it really well-prepared and we thought we had it.”

But she added: “It’s bike racing. It doesn’t always go the way you want it to.”

The pair led another successful day for Great Britain, which saw a further gold added to the medal tally, along with a brace of silvers and bronzes.

Welsh cyclist Mark Colbourne smashed the world record to win a gold medal on a day of high drama and emotion in the Velodrome.

Colbourne, 42, who fought his way into the sporting elite after breaking his back in a para- gliding accident, became the toast of Paralympic cycling with a devastatingly fast ride in the 3km pursuit.

On Thursday, the Tredegar  cyclist had marked his Paralympic debut with a silver medal.

He dedicated yesterday’s win to his late father Cecil, who died earlier this year, and said of realising his dream: “I keep pinching myself.”

Though initially trailing China’s Li Zhang Yu, Colbourne took gold after increasing his tempo as the race developed.

“The way my body works, if I go flat-out for five laps, I struggle, so I work to make sure I can sustain this Bradley Wiggins-type pace,” he said.

“Our plan worked. For me, I had this dream two years ago.

“I keep pinching myself. I’d like to dedicate this to my late father and my mother in the crowd here – and my daughter, who has been through a lot with my accident and stuff. Thanks for the support.”

Minutes before his triumph, the Velodrome crowd had been booing a decision to deny British cycling phenomenon Jody Cundy the right to ride for a gold medal in the C4/C5 1km time trial.

Cundy’s back wheel spun and slipped at the start and his appeal for a restart was denied, leaving him to make an expletive-laden and emotional outburst as fans jeered in disbelief.

The furious Briton, unbeaten in the kilo since 2006, then had to be restrained by a Paralympics GB team member as he was escorted out of the arena.

He later returned to address the crowd and apologised for his behaviour.

In the same event, war veteran Jon-Allan Butterworth, who lost an arm in a rocket attack on Basra air station in Iraq in 2007, won a silver medal.

He said: “It’s amazing. The crowd really got behind me and it was a great feeling.”

The 26-year-old, who lives in Sale, Cheshire, made his journey to the Games via the Help for Heroes’ Battle Back scheme.

Defending champion Darren Kenny missed out on a place in the final. However, he bounced back by winning the bronze medal race in a world record of 3:35.257 – faster than the gold medal-winning time.

Great Britain’s success in the swimming pool continued, with brothers Oliver and Sam Hynd claiming silver and bronze respectively in the S8 400m freestyle.

GB team claimed another medal in the next swimming final, when Heather Frederiksen was second in the women’s equivalent.

The 26-year-old has been affected by ill-health over the past year, which has seen her hospitalised. Her training was subsequently severely affected and she was clearly emotional after the race in which she finished almost nine seconds ahead of the third-placed swimmer.

On the first day of athletics, Aled Davies delighted a near full Olympic Stadium by winning Great Britain’s first Paralympic athletics medal.

The 21-year-old clinched bronze in the F42/44 shotput with a throw of 13.78 metres.

However, there was disappointment in the women’s wheelchair basketball, with Great Britain coach Garry Peel branding his team’s performance an “absolute disgrace” in a 51-24 defeat to Australia.

The former international, a silver medallist at the 1996 Paralympics, was on his way back to the locker room when he stopped to speak to reporters.

“They know what’s coming. They know that’s not the way we play. It was an absolute disgrace what we put out there. They didn’t stick to the game-plan and if you don’t do that then you won’t win nothing,” he said.