There was drama in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB14 heats as the Paralympic record was broken twice while two Brits qualified for the final – making it five ParalympicsGB swimmers safely through on Sunday morning at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
European silver medallist Conner Morrison got
the morning off to a great start, finishing second in heat 1 in a time of 1:08.01, 2.71 seconds behind Australia’s Jake Michel, who broke GB swimmer Scott Quin’s Paralympic record from Rio 2016 in 1:05.30.
However, that record was broken immediately in heat 2 as Quin finished second to safely reach the final, 1.75s behind Japan’s Naohide Yamaguchi, who bettered Michel’s time by clocking 1:04.45.
Elsewhere, Hannah Russell kept her hopes of winning an eighth Paralympic medal of her career alive by finishing second in heat 1 of the women’s 50m freestyle S13.
Russell’s time of 27.96s was just 0.71s behind heat winner Anna Krivshina of the Russian Paralympic Committee, who broke the Paralympic record only for Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago to break it again shortly after.
Russell qualified seventh fastest for another final in Tokyo, having already picked up gold in the 100m backstroke, although fellow Brit Rebecca Redfern’s time of 29.62s was only good enough for 21st overall and no place in the final.
There was another outstanding ParalympicsGB performance in the women’s 50m backstroke S3 as Ellie Challis impressively won her heat in 55.68 seconds, qualifying as the second-fastest swimmer for the final behind only Arjola Trimi of Italy.
And Louise Fiddes also joined the list of ParalympicsGB swimmers to reach a showpiece on Sunday morning as the 2019 world champion finished third in her women’s 100m breaststroke SB14 heat with a time of 1:18.64 – the sixth-fastest clocking overall.
However, Suzanna Hext was forced to withdraw from the women’s 100m breaststroke SB4 on medical advice having had multiple asthma attacks during competition this week.
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