Tokyo Paralympics: Maisie Summers-Newton and mixed relay team add swimming golds
- Published
Paralympic Games on the BBC |
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Venue: Tokyo, Japan Dates: 24 August-5 September Time in Tokyo: BST +8 |
Coverage: Follow on Radio 5 Live and on the BBC Sport website |
Maisie Summers-Newton won her second gold of the Tokyo Paralympics with victory in the SB6 100m breaststroke.
There was also gold for the Great Britain S14 mixed 4x100m freestyle team of Reece Dunn, Bethany Firth, Jessica-Jane Applegate and Jordan Catchpole.
In the first staging of the event at the Games, GB finished 5.41 seconds clear of Australia.
And Paralympic debutant Grace Harvey took silver in the SB5 100m breaststroke.
Harvey went in as the fastest qualifier but Ukraine's Yelyzaveta Mereshko proved too strong in the final.
Summers-Newton, 19, had won gold in Thursday's SM6 200m individual medley, thanks to a strong breaststroke leg.
The Northampton swimmer showed her class again, setting a new Games record in the morning heats before improving it again in the final as she beat China's world record holder Liu Daomin in a time of one minute 32.34 seconds with Ellie Simmonds in fourth (1:39.94).
"Just coming to the Games was a big experience for me," said Summers-Newton. "I was coming to really enjoy it and these two medals have just put the icing on the cake. I can't believe it."
The relay team had won the event when it was staged at the 2019 World Championship in London and went into the Paralympic final as strong favourites.
Dunn, already the holder of a gold and silver medal, went up against Brazil's Gabriel Bandeira on the opening leg and although Bandeira took a narrow lead, both Firth and Applegate, silver and bronze medallists in the 200m freestyle, kept them well in touch.
And Catchpole quickly overhauled Australia's Madeleine McTernan on the final leg to give GB their second gold of the day in the pool.
"We all race separately so it is such a nice feeling coming together," said Applegate, who is appearing in her third Games. "You do feel a pressure on your shoulders because you can't let the team down.
"But we thrive under that pressure and we know that we all want it really badly and to come away with a gold medal and a world record, it doesn't get much better than that."