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Great Britain's youngest Paralympian Eleanor Simmonds sent a shockwave through the National Aquatics Centre with a stunning and inspirational victory in Beijing

The 13-year-old's sensational performance was the catalyst for a successful evening at the Water Cube, with David Roberts taking gold, Heather Frederiksen and Louise Watkin silver and Matt Walker bronze.

Anthony Kappes and tandem pilot rider Barney Storey had earlier won Britain's fourth cycling gold of the Games at the Laoshan Velodrome.

The athletics team also weighed in with silver medals for Shelly Woods and Chris Martin on the first day of competition at the Bird's Nest Stadium.

Britain lie in third place in the medal table behind hosts China and the United States at the end of day two with seven golds, five silvers and three bronze.

Simmonds timed her finish to perfection in the women's S6 100 metres freestyle to win in one minute 18.75 seconds and become the youngest individual British Paralympic champion of all time.

Simmonds, who was born in Walsall but competes for Swansea, forecast a medal on Sunday night - but she predicted the wrong colour.

"I had a dream about it, but I only came second," she said after beating world record holder Doramitzi Gonzalez of Mexico into third place.

Simmonds, who will be 14 in November and has Achondroplasia (dwarfism), broke her own British record in securing victory - and her best event is yet to come.

She is the world record holder in the S6 400m freestyle, which takes place on Sunday, after setting the mark in the British Championships earlier this year.

Roberts then successfully began his bid to overtake Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson as Britain's most successful Paralympian ever with victory in the men's S7 100m freestyle.

The 28-year-old from Pontypridd, who has cerebral palsy, lowered his own Paralympic record to 1min 00.35secs to triumph, while Walker was third.

It was Roberts' third successive gold in the event.

The three-time Paralympian witnessed Simmonds' victory from the call room before his final.

"They were all crying in there," he said.

"Even I thought I might - if I wasn't racing I probably would have - but you've got to try and focus."

Roberts now has eight Paralympic gold medals, but, with four events to go, he remains cautious on the prospects of succeeding Grey-Thompson.

"I'll take it one medal at a time," he added.

"That's one down, four to go.

"The next one is a toughy - it's the relay. I think we're in the right shape to do it, but we'll see."

Frederiksen was second in the women's S8 100m freestyle and Watkin finished behind South African Natalie du Toit in the women's S9 100m freestyle.

Kappes and Storey secured Britain's fourth cycling gold medal, powering to victory in the men's B&VI one-kilometre time trial at the Laoshan Velodrome in a world record of 1:02.864.

The duo's triumph follows on from velodrome victories for Simon Richardson, Darren Kenny and Aileen McGlynn - with her tandem pilot rider Ellen Hunter - on day one.

Seven of the 10 available gold medals at the track in last month's Olympics returned to British soil and the team have won all bar one race they have competed in at the Paralympics.

Sarah Storey, Barney's wife, was fifth in the LC1-2/CP4 500m time-trial.

The 30-year-old was competing in her fifth Paralympics - her first on a bike having switched from the pool - but her strongest event is yet to come in the LC1-2/CP4 individual pursuit, where she is European, world and Paralympic World Cup champion.

Kappes, who is partially sighted, was thrilled to add the Paralympic title to his World Championship and Paralympic World Cup wins.

"We follow the model of the able-bodied lads," the 35-year-old said.

"What they do, we try to do.

"We have to emulate them and I'm glad on this occasion we did.

"To be honest, technically it was not superb, it could have been better, but we'll take it."

More gold could be heading Britain's way on day three with Kenny, McGlynn, Rik Waddon and Jody Cundy - another former Paralympic swimmer - all in action on the bike.

Woods and Martin were edged into second place on the track and on the field, respectively.

Wheelchair racer Woods avoided a crash across four lanes on the penultimate lap of the women's T54 5000m to set a personal best of 11:54.29, an agonising 0.26secs behind winner Diane Roy of Canada, who set a Paralympic record.

The 22-year-old from Blackpool said: "Crashes happen quite a lot and this one was just in front of me but I managed to swerve.

"I believed in myself - I knew I could do it and get a medal."

Martin was awarded silver in the men's F33/34/52 discus despite a Paralympic record throw of 28.37m.

A factoring system based on the level of disability meant the 36-year-old from Mansfield was pushed out of the gold medal position by Aigars Apinis, who threw a world record for the F52 class of 20.47m.

That earned the Latvian 1097 points, 23 more than Martin, while Britain's Daniel West was sixth.

Meanwhile wheelchair racer David Weir remains on course for five gold medals after two comfortable first-round heat wins at the Bird's Nest.

The multiple world champion from Wallington, Surrey, free-wheeled for the last 50m of his men's T54 400m heat this morning to qualify second fastest for the semi-finals.

The 29-year-old then returned to the track for the 5000m heats, clocking a season's best of 10:21.27 in qualification for Thursday's final.

Australia's Kurt Fearnley was the fastest qualifier in a Paralympic record of 10:13.21.

Sporting Life / Eurosport