THE force is strong with the British Paralympics team — as the son of a Star Wars villain won their 50th gold.
Paul Blake brought up the half century in Rio with a comfortable win in the T36 400 metres.
This is only the third time in Paralympics history the British team have reached the 50-gold mark.
Blake’s actor father Paul had a small cameo role in 1977’s Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
Blake Sr played alien bounty hunter Greedo, famous among Star Wars superfans for being shot dead by Harrison Ford’s character Han Solo.
Blake, 26, said: “My dad still acts a bit. He does a few audio books for the BBC and still does conventions all over the world because there are geeks left, right and centre that love Star Wars.
“He was shot under the table by Han Solo. That was his 15 minutes of fame if you like. It baffles me that he still does all the conventions and it is nuts that he still gets recognised. Everyone in the UK must have his autograph now!
“I don’t know if this Paralympics gold makes me more famous than him. I think my dad has still got that accolade.
“This feels incredible. I have worked so hard to get where I am now. Coming out of London, I wanted to go one better.”
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Blake, the London 2012 400m silver medallist, won in a season’s best of 54.49sec, way ahead of Ukraine’s Roman Pavlyk.
He will try to complete the middle-distance double today when he runs in the T36 800m, following his bronze four years ago.
It has to be noted that Blake benefited hugely yesterday from the absence of Russian world champion Evgenii Shvetcov.
The triple gold-medallist at London 2012 has not done anything wrong but the Russian squad is barred from Rio after allegations of state-sponsored doping.
At least Blake can now show off a gold medal to his father — consolation for him destroying one of the family’s most prized items as a kid.
Blake added: “Like any kid, I used to pick things up and play with them.
“Well, I picked up Greedo’s gun, the actual one from the movie, and it snapped. God knows how much it would have been worth. I was only little.
“My dad was mortified and really angry with me. ‘Paul, why did you do that? It’s your inheritance?’ I suppose he should have kept it somewhere safe.”
Dorchester-born Blake, who developed cerebral palsy after complications during birth, surely has interesting conversations at the family dinner table.
His mother went to London’s Royal Ballet School.
His brother used to work for a special effects company involved in Doctor Who and Poldark.
His sister was once an aspiring gymnast and his grandad Norman Kitovitz is a former leading tennis player.
Blake added: “He played at Wimbledon before it turned professional.
“Maybe that’s where I get my sporting genes from!”
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