Day four heats of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games saw another impressive performance from the ParalympicsGB team with 11 athletes securing finals berths and four Paralympic records.
First to take to the water was
Paralympic legend James Crisp in the Men’s SM9 200m Individual Medley.
The Sheffield-based swimmer clocked a time of 2:22.72 and placed himself seventh fastest into the opening final for GBR later.
Amy Marren and Claire Cashmore lined up in the Women’s SM9 200m Individual Medley. Both comfortably progressed into the medal deciding race.
Marren posted the quickest time of the heats of 2:37.01 to secure herself lane four for the final. Cashmore rounds of the line-up for tonight’s final, she qualified eighth fastest with a time of 2:39.68.
Marren said: “It felt relatively easy as well. I’m glad just to get the heat swim out the way, get the nerves gone and hopefully go a bit quicker in the final.
“At the end of the day all I can do is control my swim. It’s going to be a tight race but that’s the point of a race and I’m quite excited to be a part of that.”
Rebecca Redfern made her Paralympics debut at Rio 2016 as she lined up in the Women’s SB13 100m Breaststroke.
The World record holder laid down a marker for this evenings final as she posted a new Paralympics record of 1:17.08 signalling to the international field that she’s going in search of the games title.
Redfern said afterwards: “It felt quick, it felt really good to swim out there, the crowd was amazing. I’m just really looking forward to the final now.”
Another Paralympic Games debut was made by Tom Hamer in the Men’s S14 200m Freestyle and comfortably booked himself a lane for the final.
He set a new Paralympic record in his heat of 1:57.31, for it only to be broken in the final heat of the event.
Hamer said: “It felt really amazing, I was going out in this race just quite steady for this afternoon and I was easy the first 100m and then built the next 100m and I got the record so I’m really happy. I’m just going to recover for the final, I’m really looking to it.”
The Women’s S14 200m Freestyle saw Bethany Firth and Jessica-Jane Applegate qualified first and second respectively for the final.
Applegate opened the heats with a new Paralympic record of 2:07.95 only for it be broken in the next heat by teammate firth, she set a games leading time of 2:05.96.
Rio 2016 silver medallist Harriet Lee was back in action as she went in the Women’s SM10 200m Individual Medley and qualified fourth fastest for the final in a time of 2:35.90.
The penultimate event of the heats of the British team was the Men’s S8 100m Freestyle. Rio 2016 Games champion Ollie Hynd returned to water will fellow S8 teammate Josef Craig.
Craig set the standard after he topped the rankings after the heats with a time of 58.73, the only swimmer to go sub 59 in the morning. Hynd also made it through to the final with a time of 59.62.
The final British swim of day four heats came when Steph Millward went in the Women’s S8 100m Freestyle.
Millward posted a time of 1:08.2 to qualify fourth fastest for the medal decider later today.