Kearney loses goggles on way to gold

British record breaker Tully Kearney struck gold in the Women’s MC 200m Freestyle at Sheffield – despite losing her goggles during the race.

Her time of 2:44.73 at the British Para-swimming International Meet (BPSIM) was not only a new GB best but also well under the qualifying standard for the Dublin 2018 European Championships.

And Kearney (S5) managed to achieve all of that despite her goggles falling off partway through the final.

She said: “I wasn’t sure what to do when my goggles fell off, but I just pushed on and was happy with how it turned out.

“It was hard to see so I wanted to get my finish right as I didn’t know where the wall was!”

It was a clean sweep of medals for British swimmers in the race, with Jessica-Jane Applegate (S14) returning to the BPSIM 2018 podium to collect the silver medal with a points total of 897, while Bethany Firth (S14) took the bronze with 813 points.

Both Applegate and Firth swum times under the European Championships qualifying standard for the S14 classification.

Kearney also won silver in the Women’s MC 50m Backstroke. She finished on 562 points, 83 behind gold medallist Edenia Garcia (S3) of Brazil.

Tom defends title

Tom Hamer (S14) successfully defended his title in the Men’s MC 200m Freestyle and was comfortably inside the Dublin 2018 qualification standard.

Hamer, who trains at the British Para-Swimming National Performance Centre in Manchester, clocked 1:56.98 which was just over a second off his own world record.

He said: “I feel really happy now I’ve got the qualification time.

“I was panicking a bit this morning when I looked up and saw I was a second off. But I’ve delivered it tonight.

“I’m over the moon that I’ve done it as it’s been difficult mentally and physically coming back after the Commonwealths.

“But I’ve got a passion for this sport and if we get to the Europeans and I get beaten, I get beaten. But I would really like to defend that title in Dublin.”

Silver went to Wai Lok Tang (S14) of Hong Kong with 949 points and the bronze medal was claimed by rising British star Jordan Catchpole (S14) with 2:00.08.

In the National final of the Women’s MC 200m Freestyle, City of Derby swimmer Megan Neave (S14) came out on top to take the win with 545 points.

Gloucester’s Harriet Dickinson stopped the clock in the National final of the Women’s 400m Freestyle on 5:16.20 and to score 622 points and take the win.

Suzanne Warren (S4) of City of Norwich took the win in the national final of the Women’s 50m backstroke with 469.

In the very last medal race of the event, Brazil’s multi Paralympic champion Daniel Dias claimed gold in the Men’s MC 50m Backstroke with 916 points ahead of Britain’s Andrew Mullen (S5) who was silver medallist.

Mullen’s time of 37.01 is within this summer European Championship qualifying standard.

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