THERE were no empty lanes in my final. Already a victory for women (there were double the number of competitors than in the men’s race) and for a significantly disabled cerebral palsy class. The feeling on that start line was the best in the world. So many had been supported so they could overcome so much.

I speak for many sports and classifications when I say this: no one wants to win a gold medal with only one competitor. No one wants to win a race by miles. When I realised I didn’t have to – there I was, someone 1/12th of a second behind me and eight women contesting the final – I quaked with joy and went off like a happy Kalashnikov, shooting down all of my competitors’ dreams in one confident dash (it’s a real shame I’m Scottish and not Russian because that simile would have been doubly good). Anyway, it felt really great, if I’m honest.

So now I want to use my hard-won glory to shout from on high “let them all race”, including the Paralympic Russians; they have RaceRunners but they need a World Championships, too.

I’ve had enough people ask me: “Only one person can get gold, why pay for all the losers?” to know the answer. It is, of course, that if UK Sport and other countries don’t support us through funding or access to training and knowledge, no one can race for any colour of medal.

With this gold-medal furore we forget that what funding and support does, is give us the critical race. If no one gets to race, no one gets to do an ecstatic lap of honour with their flag and team-mate and eventually have to be chased off, like I did.

My compatriot Shelby Watson does not have a Paralympic T33 race in Tokyo. Thirty-seven athletes hold a racing license, but not enough of them have made it to an IPC-sanctioned event to ensure valid Paralympic competition. Because of British Athletics and all the other national and/or world sporting governing bodies who supported RaceRunning I, as an RR3, got the race of a lifetime. Whether RaceRunning makes it to the World Champs in Dubai in 2019 or will be incorporated into the Paralympics in 2020 or 2024 is yet to be seen.

What has been seen and filmed forever on YouTube is just how fast and furious cerebral palsy can be when given the opportunity. I will treasure that memory and my actual treasure (gold medal, ahem) for the rest of my life.