Future looks bright for young relay team after they retain GB’s Paralympic title

Great Britain retained their Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay S14 Paralympic title in Paris – but the young team are already looking ahead to Los Angeles in 2028.

The quartet of William Ellard, Rhys Darbey, Poppy Maskill and Olivia Newman-Baronius teamed up to win Paralympics GB’s fourth swimming gold of day four in the relay event.

Although the team members had changed – with Jessica-Jane Applegate, Bethany Firth, Jordan Catchpole and Reece Dunn the fantastic four to win gold in Tokyo in a new world record time – Great Britain were still the team to beat as they looked to defend the title.

Coming off the back of his own world recording-breaking 200m Freestyle success on day three, Ellard was back in competition and back setting fast times.

He swam the opening leg of the relay for Great Britain and equalled his own 100m Freestyle S14 world record time of 51.07 to get the title defence off to a superb start.

“I saw the Brazilian go out quite quick and I knew I’d come back. It’s quite a good feat after yesterday,” said Ellard.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night so to come back tonight and do that for the team was good.”

Happy with the swim

Next up, and swimming in his first Paralympic final, was Rhys Darbey. He produced a strong second leg and record a time of 53.01 to widen the lead for GB.

Darbey said: “I was definitely trying to make as much room as I could for Poppy after me, and then look to hold the lead the best we could.

“I think we did a pretty good job of that and I’m quite happy with the swim as well, so it’s good.

“It’s great [to get the gold], especially with this being my first race [at these Games] – so one race, one gold.”

Maskill always looked in control as she recorded a 58.93 before then handing over to Newman-Baronius to bring it home.

Great Britain finished more than three seconds clear of their nearest rivals in what proved to be a comfortable victory.

On the pressure of swimming in a relay, Maskill said: “I think there’s pressure but in a different way because you can let more people down, so I just tried my hardest and tried to give Olivia a good lead.

Number one next to our names

“It’s amazing. We are all pretty young and all our first time at a Paralympics, that’s pretty cool and for us to do that. I don’t think about other racers, we just try our hardest and see how we go.”

“It was good. It felt really nice when I saw the one next to our names,” added Newman-Baronius.

However, the team are already looking ahead to the next Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and believe they can get close to the world record currently held by their predecessors.

The time stands at 3:40.63, which is 2.42 quicker than the time swam in this year’s final.

Darbey said: “I’m definitely looking forward to LA and what we can do.

“Everyone in this team is under 20 and it’s all our very first Paralympics – but in LA hopefully that world record should be ours.”

Ellard later added: “We have a good team and with more experience we should go a lot quicker and hopefully get towards that world record soon.”

The future is looking bright for Great Britain’s Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay S14 team.