IPC Swimming Worlds: Ellie Simmonds misses out on gold

Ellie Simmonds won two golds, a silver and a bronze at London 2012

Britain's Ellie Simmonds suffered a surprise defeat on the opening day of the IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow.

The 20-year-old was beaten to gold in the S6 400m freestyle event by Ukraine's Yelyzaveta Mereshko, who won by 0.78 seconds.

Simmonds had won every major title in the event since the Beijing Paralympics in 2008.

"It was such a tough race," she told BBC Sport.

"I gave it the best I could - it just wasn't good enough to win, but it is all about next year and Rio."

Mereshko had set the fastest time in the world this year coming into the event and never let Simmonds get away from her throughout the race.

Simmonds's silver was one of six medals for Britain, with Scottish pair Scott Quin (SB14 100m breaststroke) and Andrew Mullen (S5 50m backstroke) also claiming silvers in their events.

Glasgow's Mullen, who set a new European record in the heats of the S5 50m breaststroke, was unable to get the better of Brazil's 10-time Paralympic champion Daniel Dias in the final.

"I can't really complain," he said. "I set a new personal best this morning and have come away with a silver medal.

"Daniel is a great competitor but I need to just focus on myself."

Newcomer Tully Kearney finished second to Australia's Ellie Cole in the S9 100m backstroke with Cole setting new world records in both the heats and the final.

James Crisp went into his S9 100m backstroke final as the fastest qualifier but found Australia's Brenden Hall too strong while Susie Rodgers was third in the S7 100m freestyle event.