Swimmers Henshaw and Cashmore win World silvers in Glasgow
Charlotte Henshaw smashed her own European record to clinch SB6 100m Breaststroke silver on the second day of the Glasgow 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships at Tollcross.
Having initially lowered her marker to 1:37.45 to qualify second fastest from the heats, the Paralympic silver medallist sliced another 0.5 seconds off that time as she clocked 1:36.94 in the final.
It took a world record from 13-year old Tiffany Thomas Kane to stop Henshaw bagging gold in Glasgow as the Australian teenager came home in 1:34.95 while Henshaw’s GB teammate Ellie Simmonds collected her second medal in two days with bronze in 1:39.99. Henshaw said:
“I knew I was going to have a tough race after this morning. I swam a PB this morning and my real aim was to be relaxed for the final and try and go another best time. That was my aim coming into the meet and I’m so happy to have been able to do it twice. It’s great to win a medal at home in front of friends and family. It’s a little reminiscent of London and that was a silver medal there so I’m getting a little collection of them now.
This year has been a massive learning curve for me and I’ve changed a lot of stuff so I’m really excited to put those changes I’ve made into a full year of training ahead of Rio.
“I’ve seen the benefits of those changes so with a full year, who knows what might happen?”
European champion Claire Cashmore bagged the 10th IPC Swimming World Championship medal of her career as she claimed SB8 100m Breaststroke silver.
Competing at her fourth Worlds, the 26-year old repeated her result from the 2006, 2010 and 2013 Championships as she clocked a season’s best and the fourth fastest time of her career to touch in 1:21.15 behind Russia’s Paralympic and defending world champion Olesya Vladykina (1:17.47). Cashmore said:
"Obviously gold would have been nice I’m disappointed with the time – it wasn’t anywhere near where I’d expected to go tonight and the main aim for me is to PB and be the best I can be. I’ve had the best season I’ve ever have and I was really expecting it to be there but unfortunately it just didn’t come out tonight."
Cashmore's National Performance Centre training partner Hannah Russell set a British record as she finished fourth in the SM13 200m Individual Medley final.
Classified as an SM12 swimmer, the 18-year old was ‘swimming up’ in grade against SM13 athletes but held her own to clock 2:30.18, missing out on the podium by just 1.47 seconds as Ukraine’s Anna Stetsenko lowered the European SM13 record for bronze in 2:28.71.
USA’s Rebecca Meyers set an SM13 world record 2:24.60 to take gold while Russia’s Darya Stukalova lowered the SM12 world record with a 2:24.86 swim for silver.
Boldmere’s Tully Kearney was the only other Brit in action on day two, missing out on her PB by just 0.05 seconds as she clocked 1:05.79 to finish fifth in the S9 100m Freestyle.
