Tokyo Paralympics: Bethany Firth takes silver in S14 200m freestyle final

Great Britain's Bethany Firth narrowly missed out on a gold medal in the S14 200m freestyle final in Tokyo.

The Northern Ireland swimmer took silver, her sixth Paralympic medal, as the Russian Paralympic Committee's Valeriia Shabalina finished first.

Britain's Jessica-Jane Applegate took bronze and Louise Fiddes came fourth.

"I love when races are so close," Firth told Channel 4. "Unfortunately I didn't get the touch.

"But after the year I've had I'm so happy with that and I can't wait for all the races to come."

Seaforde-born Firth, winner of the event in Rio five years ago, will return to defend her 200m individual medley title on Tuesday before the 100m backstroke two days later.

Having qualified for the final with the fastest time ahead of Firth, Shabalina pushed just in front in the final 25m and held on to claim an impressive win.

Firth, who clocked 2:03.99, enjoyed the better of the turns, but Shabalina held the edge on the straights to take the win in 2:03.71.

Before arriving in Tokyo, Firth had expressed her desire to place greater emphasis on enjoying the competition, having been forced to improvise her training during last year's lockdowns with a paddling pool in her back garden.

"After this year I just decided that I wanted to swim for fun so I'm going to see how my times are," she said.

"I'm so excited to get back into proper training and hopefully go to Paris [for the 2024 Paralympics]."

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