Henshaw and Slater win gold at IPC Euros 2016

English athletes won two gold medals for the British para-swimming team on day four of the IPC Swimming European Championships in Madeira.

Paralympic silver medallist Charlotte Henshaw of Nova Centurion dominated the SB6 100m Breaststroke final, finishing almost nine seconds ahead of the rest of the field as she touched in 1:37.55 to reclaim her 2009 title in this event.

“I wasn’t able to compete in the 2014 Europeans and I was really excited about coming here and trying to get that gold back that I got in 2009 so it feels great,” said Henshaw.

“A lot of my main rivals aren’t European but it’s always nice to come and test yourself. It doesn’t matter who is in the call room next to you, you always want to perform well in those big finals and this is really good prep for that.

“It’s good to get a marker down now and I’ll know what I’ve got to do for the next few months. I’m excited to hear the National anthem again. I think that’s the highlight of anyone’s sporting career and I’m going to give a bit of a sing when I’m up there.”

Preston SC’s Stephanie Slater also took a gold medal, swimming 1:09.76 in the S8 100m Butterfly.

She was behind for the first half of the race, but picked up the pace in the final 50m to overtake Ukraine’s Katerina Istomina for victory.

Hannah Russell was the third English swimmer to take a medal, claiming bronze in the S13 100m Freestyle. Swimming up a category, the Woking swimmer was the second fastest S12 swimmer in the final, touching in a season’s best 59.32, less than half a second behind the silver medal position.

  • Click here to view full results from the IPC Swimming European Championships 2016.

Photo credit: Pedro Vasconcelos / IPC

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