Stephen Clegg kicks off historic night in Paris with his first Paralympic gold

Stephen Clegg kicked off a historic night for Paralympics GB in the pool at the Paralympic Games with gold in the Men’s S12 100m Backstroke final.

He put in a phenomenal display in the opening race of night three in Paris to set a new world record with a time of 59.02.

The University of Edinburgh athlete led from the off, putting half a second on his nearest challenger – Raman Salai (Azerbaijan) – at the 50m mark.

And after his bronze in Tokyo three years ago, Clegg made sure he would come away with gold this time around powering away to an impressive victory.

He finished 1.65 seconds ahead of Salai with Ukraine’s Yaroslav Denysenko taking the bronze.

The result secured what was Great Britain’s fifth swimming gold at this year’s Games and speaking after the race, Clegg took time to thank everyone who had supported him on his journey.

He said: “I’m speechless to be honest. Not long ago this was one of my weaker events and now I’m a world record holder.

“Tokyo felt like I fell so short and I wanted to bury my head in the sand after it but I just want to say thank you to everyone who’s got me here.

“My coaches, my team. I’m particularly fortunate to be part of an incredible programme in Edinburgh. They support me and we support each other.

“We’ve had a really hard past few months in particular as a squad in terms of things going on behind the scenes and I’m glad I can do this for them.”

‘The nerves fueled me’

He’s one of three member of his family to win a medal for ParalympicsGB and the second to win gold. His brother James claimed bronze in the pool at London 2012 and elder sister Libby accumulating two golds and three silvers as an athlete across three Games.

The 28-year-old came into the Games claiming he had ‘unfinished business’ from Tokyo and admitted his delight of claiming his long awaited first Paralympic gold.

He added: “What a way to start for me and I’m over the moon with it.

“Coming into this I wanted to have a good go at this event to get the monkey off my back. That gold feels like it had been a long time coming. Now I feel like the pressures off a little bit in terms of that sort of barrier that I had.

“This morning I said I was racked with nerves and you know I actually think with a bit of maturity that’s actually good for me now.

“In Tokyo and Rio nerves crippled me and I was done whereas now they kind of fuel me. I know I’m ready to go when I’ve got tingles in my fingers and I had them in both heats and finals so I knew something good was coming.”

Clegg will be back in action later this week in both the 100m freestyle and the 100m butterfly on Wednesday 4 and next Saturday 7 September respectively.