Para-swimming Worlds: GB's Alice Tai wins silver on return to major competition
- Published
Alice Tai won seven World Championship gold medals in 2019
Alice Tai won silver at the World Para Swimming Championships on her return to major competition, as Great Britain won four medals on day four in Madeira.
In her first major meet since having her right leg amputated below the knee in January, Tai finished 0.23 seconds behind Italy's Xenia Francesca Palazzo in the S8 100m freestyle.
Maisie Summers-Newton clinched S6 400m freestyle gold, while Britain also won the S14 4x100m mixed freestyle relay.
Ellie Challis also won a silver medal.
Challis, 18, finished 1.95 seconds behind American Leanne Smith in the women's S3 50m backstroke.
Tai, a 2016 Paralympic gold medallist, was born with club feet and experienced increasing pain over recent years before deciding to have surgery.
Defending world champion after her London triumph in 2019, the 23-year-old finished in one minute 07.16 seconds to secure second place behind Palazzo.
Tai missed the Tokyo Paralympics with an elbow injury but is set to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer.
"I'm just happy to be back," she said. "I have a lot of medals but this one means so much. Just being back in the pool is amazing."
Summers-Newton's triumph was her second gold medal of the competition, after the 19-year-old retained her SM6 200m individual medley title.
The double Paralympic champion clocked a time of five minutes 27.97 seconds to beat Brazil's Laila Suzigan by 3.53secs.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's Bethany Firth won her third gold medal of the championships as Great Britain's mixed freestyle relay team retained their title.
The relay victory, which also featured Thomas Hamer, Reece Dunn and Jessica-Jane Applegate, means GB are fourth in the medal table after four days in Portugal - with 10 golds and a total of 23 medals.
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