Eleanor Simmonds takes second gold at the Paralympics
WALSALL’S Eleanor Simmonds lit up the Water Cube for the second time in a week as she smashed her own 400m freestyle world record to claim gold.
The 13-year-old became Britain’s youngest-ever individual Paralympic gold medallist last Monday as she won the 100m freestyle in Beijing’s state-of-the art venue.
And she repeated the trick when she blew the rest of the field away to win her favoured event in a time of 5.41.34 minutes, shattering her previous global best by seven seconds.
“I went in there to do a PB (personal best) and see what would happen,” said Simmonds.
Her personal best - the former world record - stood at 5mins 48.26secs and she was surprised to break it by such a large margin.
“I gave it my all and I was really tired coming out of the pool,” she said.
Nyree Lewis and Mhairi Love finished sixth and seventh, respectively, behind Simmonds.
Meanwhile, Katrina Hart suffered heartache after she tore a hamstring in the warm-up for the T37 200m final and failed to make the start line.
The 18-year-old finished seventh in the 100m final on Friday and was hopeful of breaking the 31-second barrier in her final event of the Games.
Elsewhere on the track West Bromwich-born shot putter Martin Crutchley finished a disappointing fifth with a best throw of 12.72 - a metre down on his personal best.
Birmingham-born road racer David Stone, who has cerebral palsy and rides a tricycle, continued his golden streak with victory in the mixed individual road race on Saturday.
The 27-year-old had topped the podium in the mixed individual time trial 24 hours earlier and recovered in time to win his second gold in a time of 45.05.33 minutes - over three seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Riaan Nel of South Africa.
Share
