Hamer wins gold on closing night in Sheffield

Tom Hamer (S14) secured his first gold medal of the British Para-Swimming International Meet in the last finals session of the competition.

The City of Manchester swimmer went out strong in the Men’s MC 200m Freestyle, with a fast pace from the start. By the 1oom mark, the Paralympic silver medallist had a two second lead. Although Hong Kong’s Wai Lock Tang picked up the pace in the closing stages, Hamer held on to take the win with 953 BDP, for his time of 1:58.11.

Hamer commented: “I’m feeling really happy with that. This morning I cruised the heats to just get into the final. I am happy with the time although I do wish I had gone a little bit faster. But there’s room for improvement.

“I’ve enjoyed this meet altogether. It’s been a really good meet for me. The skins was a great experience for me to do all of those strokes. All of those 50s and all of those strokes have helped my individual medley.”

Tang secured silver with a time of 1:59.27 (926 BDP) and UAE Norwich’s Jordan Catchpole took bronze with 2:91.74 (971 BDP).

Firth takes first gold in 200m Free

Bethany Firth of Newcastle Swim Team took gold in the Women’s MC 200m Freestyle. The Paralympic champion, who broke the S14 world record in the 100m Fly last night, finished the race with a three second lead. She touched in 2:04.31 to score 947 BDP.

Firth said: “That was quite a hard race for me. I’ve been training really hard so I think that was why. I was happy with it. I like racing Jess [Applegate]. She’s good to race.

“I’m really happy to have got the gold medal but I prefer to look at the time than the medals.”

Jessica-Jane Applegate (S14) was second to the wall. The UEA Norwich swimmer swam a good race, finishing in a time of 2:07.97 (868 BDP). Pernilla Lindberg of Sweden was third with 2:14.96 (740 BDP).

Robinson wins silver in 400m Free

Paralympic 50m Fly champion at Rio 2017 Ellie Robinson (S6) narrowly missed out on gold in the Women’s MC 400m Freestyle after a top swim from USA’s Rebecca Meyers (S13). Meyers took the title with  4:31.17, claiming 877 points.

Robinson took silver with 5:38.06 and 806 BDP and Maisie Summers-Newton touched in 5:47.79 for 740 BDP.

White and Leach make podium in Men’s 400m Free

City of Derby’s Lewis White and Cockermouth’s Jacob Leach both made it onto the podium in the Men’s MC 400m Freestyle event.

Although Dmitriy Horlin (S12) of Uzbekistan took the title with 936 points for his time of 4:11,41, the two English swimmers fought hard until the end. White (S9) won his third medal of the competition scoring 830 points to claim silver in 4:25.86. Jacob Leach (S8) followed up for bronze with a time of 4:40.52, scoring 813 BDP.

• Click here to view full results from the British Para-Swimming International Meet 2017.