World swimming record for Simmonds

Double Paralympic Champion Ellie Simmonds broke her own world record in the SM6 200m Individual Medley at the IPC Swimming European Championships.

The British Gas GBR Para-Swimming Team concluded the fourth day of competition with four gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

Simmonds was behind at the first turn but showed her skill to pull the race back in the Breaststroke.

Her speed in the final 50m showed and she powered home through the Freestyle to lower her world record and take the gold medal in a time of 3:04.07. She said:

“Every race I swim means a lot to me. It was a tough race tonight but to go a world record I am over the moon. I am so pleased. On the Backstroke I could see the Ukrainian that beat me yesterday and I thought oh my gosh I have to give myself such a lead because I knew she had a good abck end. But I just put my head down and I am so happy it was a world record. I have trained really hard on my IM and it’s what I have been working on. I know all of my world record splits off by heart and I knew that I was under the world record on the Fly so I just kept going for it.”

She was followed by Yelyzaveta Mereshko (Ukraine) in 3:09.00 and Anastasia Diodorova (Russia) in 3:20.49.

Sascha Kindred impressed in the men’s SM6 200m Individual Medley by setting a new European record and taking his second gold of the Championships.

Kindred dominated his race by leading from the start and winning his race by 18 seconds.

He broke his own European record by one second as he touched in 2:40.82. Kindred said:

“That performance was special. I came here to try and do the best I could. I have had injuries in the past but I’m coming away with two golds and a silver and a PB in my main event at 36 I can’t ask for much more.”

Silver went to Iaroslav Semenenko (Ukraine) in 2:58.25 and bronze was won by Yoav Valinsky (Israel) in 3:01.76.

Claire Cashmore claimed her first individual gold medal at a long course competition with a joint time in the SB8 100m Breaststroke.

Cashmore showed her strength to come back through the final 50m and touched the wall at the same time as Olesya Vladykina (Russia).

The world medallist touched the wall in 1:20.93 to take the joint gold. Cashmore said:

“I don’t think I can put this into words. I am so excited. I just turned and looked to the board and thought she had won it but then I saw and I had won too. It’s amazing. I can’t believe it. I really can’t. I could see her down on the first length and she was quite a bit ahead. But from the beginning I wanted to do my own race. So many times I have been distracted by her so many time and this time I stuck to my race plan and it worked.”

Paulina Wozniak (Poland) won the bronze in 1:24.87.

Fresh from his victory in the S5 50m Butterfly yesterday Andrew Mullen secured his second gold medal in the 200m Individual Medley.

Mullen went out hard and led from the start of the race and pushed himself further into the lead with 50m to go.

The European Champion took the gold in a new personal best time of 3:06.78. Mullen said:

“I was hoping to do pretty well here. Training has been going well and I’ve been working pretty hard. I am really happy to have two golds after waiting three years for one and to have two in 24 hours is pretty nice.”

Antonios Tsapatakis took the silver in 3:19.28 and Roman Zhdanov won the bronze after finishing in 3:19.42.

European Champion Hannah Russell the silver medal in the women’s S12 50m Freestyle in a new personal best time of 27.51.

Susie Rodgers won the silver in the S7 100m Backstroke as she reached for the wall in a time of 1:30.24.

The third silver of the evening went to Rob Welbourn in the S10 400m Freestyle as he touched in 4:12.96.

In her first European Championships Alice Tai won bronze in the S10 400m Freestyle in a time of 4:47.52.

Multi-world medallist James Crisp scored his first medal of the competition with bronze in the SB8 100m Breaststroke in 1:16.14.