A hat-trick of silver successes on day seven for Paralympics GB swimmers

On a night that saw Paralympics GB win a hat-trick of silver medals in the pool, Alice Tai completed her full collection of medals in Paris and believes she can still get faster.

The Ealing swimmer won the final silver of the session for Great Britain in the Women’s 400m Freestyle S8 final.

She adds the silver medal to her gold in the S8 100m Backstroke and bronze in the SM8 200m Individual Medley to complete the full collection.

Tai took the race to her competitors with a fast start which saw her in the lead after 100 metres.

She was able to stay ahead until the 350m mark, when USA’s Jessica Long stepped up a gear to win yet another Paralympic gold.

However, a silver medal-winning time of 4:52.24 was the fastest Tai has gone in this event since having her right leg amputated below the knee in 2022.

After the final, Tai said: “I knew if I wanted to beat Jess [Long] I was going to have to go out fast and just try and hold on, so that’s exactly what I did, but she’s such a phenomenal 400m swimmer.

“That’s her 30th Paralympic medal so I knew it was going to be a really hard race but I’m so happy with my time.

“I couldn’t have changed how I swam that. I think I needed to just go out and see what I could do and I’m happy with that silver. Now I’ve got the full collection as well!

“We’ve done a lot of work around turns, rotation speed, what angle I should push off because I don’t have any fly kicks underwater just to see what would optimise my push off and my break out and I feel like that’s really paid off.

“I thought it was possible to get five medals and I’ve got two more events left. The 50’s going to be really tight tomorrow and the fly’s one that we’ve been working on.

“In terms of how I’m swimming – better than expected. I’m so close to the times I was doing pre-amputation and I’m so excited next season to really get my head down and start training.

“I think I can go faster, which I never thought I’d be in a position to say that, but I really think I can go faster.”

Her latest medal puts Tai on a total of five Paralympic medals in her career to date, with three so far in Paris added to the two she won in Rio in 2016.

She wasn’t the only Paralympics GB swimmer to compete in the 400m Freestyle S8 final, with Brock Whiston joining Tai in the pool once again after sharing the podium together a few nights prior.

Whiston made a huge improvement on her time from the heats after she clocked in more than 12 seconds faster in the final to finish in fifth place.

Maskill and Darbey add to their tallies

Poppy Maskill secured her fourth medal of these Games and now has two golds and two silvers to her name.

Three of those were individual medals, with one of the golds earned as part of the Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay S14 team.

Day seven’s medal came after a powerful performance in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley SM14 final, which Maskill was leading at the halfway stage.

She was beaten to the wall by Neutral Para Athlete, Valeriia Shabalina, but finished in a time of 2:23.93 for silver.

It’s been a busy and tiring few days for the teenager, who opened her Paris 2024 account less than a week ago with individual gold in the S14 100m Butterfly.

Maskill said: “I was trying to just see what I’ve got in there and try my hardest and see what happens.

“I know that my breaststroke is bad, so I have to get a good lead otherwise I’ll get overtaken.

“I couldn’t [see how close it was] to be honest, I just knew that I had to try hard and see what happens.

“It is hard work. I’m just going back, napping and that’s all I’m doing basically.”

Louise Fiddes came off the back of her breaststroke gold to take fourth place in this event and Olivia Newman-Baronius touched home in sixth. Hong Kong’s Yui Lam Chan separated the British pair.

Featuring alongside Maskill in the relay triumph earlier in the competition was Rhys Darbey.

The 17-year-old made it two from two as he secured an individual medal in his first individual Paralympic final.

Darbey took the silver medal in some style after charging down the final 50 metres of the Men’s 200m Individual Medley SM14 final to finish in a lifetime best time of 2:08.61.

On his performance, he said: “That last 50m, I really had to try my hardest because I could see the Ukrainian next to me.

“He helped me push down that last 50 a lot more but I’m very happy with that. It’s my first individual race in the Paralympics and to come second, which is two races out of two that I’ve won a medal, I’m just really chuffed.”

When asked if he thought he’d enjoy such success at his debut Games, Darbey added: “No, I was hoping for a medal but I definitely did not think that I would get two and that one of them would be gold, so I’m just over the moon to be honest.”

Similarly to the women’s final, three British athletes had qualified for the final. William Ellard finished in fifth place with Cameron Vearncombe in seventh.

Record-breaking relay swim

Great Britain’s relay quartet set a new British record in the final event of day seven, the Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay – 49 points final.

Scarlett Humphrey, Matthew Redfern, Rebecca Redfern and Stephen Clegg teamed up to set a time of 4:04.12 and earn a fourth placed finish.

Clegg swam a fantastic anchor leg to set the third fastest 100m split time of 53.82 – with only two of the gold medal-winning Ukrainian team going quicker.

It was an impressive feat from Clegg, who was competing in his second final of the session.

The 28-year-old also featured in the opening final of day seven, the Men’s 100m Freestyle S12, in which he came fourth.

He missed out on a medal by just 0.02 after recording a time of 53.67.

The penultimate race saw Clegg’s Scottish compatriot, Toni Shaw, finish eighth with a time of 1:05.60 in a highly competitive Women’s 100m Freestyle S9 final.