Grace Harvey goes one better than Tokyo to win her first Paralympic gold

Grace Harvey upgraded her silver in Tokyo to a gold in Paris in a win that she said ‘means more than anything’.

The now 26-year-old earned herself a late present after she took to the pool the day after her birthday and came out victorious in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke SB5 final.

Harvey, who is the British record holder in this event, had to settle for second place at the Games three years ago despite qualifying fastest for the final.

However, she wouldn’t be denied this time around as she clocked a time of 1:42.33 to finish first – a feeling she’s had to wait patiently for at the Paralympics.

The breaststroke specialist, who qualified fastest again in Paris, also lowered her time set in the heats by 0.40.

On winning her first Paralympic gold, Harvey said: “It means more than anything.

“To say I’m a Paralympic champion – I’ve never dared imagine that I’d ever be in this position.

“I was always like ‘I just want to go out and do my own race’ but to finally finish first, it feels amazing!

“I wouldn’t be who I am if it wasn’t for my family. My nan and grandad took me to my first ever swimming competition.

“They gave me that bug for racing and to do it here with all my friends and family, my year seven maths teacher, it feels like a wonderful journey that I’ve shared with all of them.

“I knew they were going to go out fast in the first 50m and I could see them but I know that I’ve got a good turn, I’ve really, really worked on that and I was just stuck on my race plan. To touch first was a bit of a whirlwind.

“This crowd are amazing. I could hear the noise and the roar and I was like ‘I’m just going with it’.”

British records for Warrington and Dee

Harvey’s gold rounded off the individual performances of day four, with individual gold medals also being won by Maisie Summers-Newton and Brock Whiston.

Alongside the medal moments for Great Britain, there was also two strong swims from Callie-Ann Warrington and Bruce Dee.

Warrington missed out on a medal by just 0.08 after a fantastic swim in the Women’s 100m Freestyle S10 final which saw her finish in fourth place.

She did, however, set a new British record time after touching the wall in 1:01.10.

Dee featured in the first final of the evening – the Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB6.

He was able to lower his own British record twice in one day after firstly knocking off 1.86 seconds in his heats swim, followed by a further 0.86 in the final.

His new record stands at 1:23.05 and saw his place fifth overall.