World record for ParalympicsGB relay quartet

September 17, 2016

The British quartet for the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay (34 points) closed day nine swimming finals in style at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

This came after Hannah Russell won a bronze medal in the Women’s S13 100m Freestyle earlier in the session.

YYEEEEESSSSSS! #GOLD and a WR! Supreme swim from the British quartet. #Supercharge pic.twitter.com/YvbeQzcZQA
— ParalympicsGB (@ParalympicsGB) September 16, 2016

The team was made up of Stephanie Millward, Alice Tai, Steph Slater and Claire Cashmore. They were the fastest qualifiers and so started in lane four.

Between them the swimmers have six individual medals at the Games, and looked to be the team to beat going into this final.

S10 classification swimmer, Tai, led the charge with the butterfly leg. She was one of the fastest off the block and by the first change, they were sitting in second place. Cashmore, who swims in the S8 classification, also put in a solid backstroke leg. She swam 1:20.00 to the change.

Silver medallist in the S8 100m Fly, Slater, took on the Breaststroke leg of the race. The 24-year-old made up some ground for the ParalympicsGB side, and set up the final freestyle leg for Millward.

Millward brought home the freestyle leg in 1:05.21, and the quartet set a new world record time of 4:45.23 to claim gold in the final event of the evening.

Cashmore commented: “This time it’s tears of happiness and not tears of sadness. We’ve got a fantastic team. We lost by such a small margin in London so to come back tonight and beat the Aussies is such an unbelievable feeling.

“You feel so out of control when Steph [Millward] is swimming the last leg, you are just willing her on. And to get a world record is brilliant.

“It was my last race of this Paralympic Games and I just wanted to finish on a high and we definitely have done that.”

Confused about swimming classification? Check out the Lexi decoder video.

Close for Crisp in the 100m Backstroke

City of Sheffield’s James Crisp put in a great performance in the Men’s s9 100m Backstroke. He went out at a great pace and seemed to be holding off his rivals from Australia and Hungary. Despite the fast start, the 33-year-old fell off the front three in the final 25m and touched in 1:05.01 for fourth.

Romford’s Amy Marren, who already secured bronze in the SM9 200m Individual Medley, also finished outside of the medals in the Women’s 100m Back. The three podium finishers were miles ahead of the rest of the field by the final stages of the race. Marren finished sixth with 1:14.58.