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Brits secure four more titles on golden night in Montreal

British trio Ellie Simmonds, Sascha Kindred and Jon Fox and the women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay quartet all stormed to World titles on a fruitful fourth day of the 2013 IPC World Championships in Montreal. With another three silvers arriving on the night, the Brits progressed their overall medal tally to 37 with three days remaining in Canada. 

Simmonds’ defence of her SM6 200m Individual Medley crown was never in doubt after the Paralympic champion set the third fastest time in history to qualify 17 seconds clear of the field in the morning heats. And the 18-year old bettered that performance by breaking her own world record in the final, swimming to a time of 3:04.41 to knock a second off the previous mark. Simmonds, who has also defended her S6 400m Freestyle title in Canada, said:

“I’m so happy with that race. I was quite nervous going into the race. But I knew that if I relaxed and gave it all I had I’d be okay. I’ve done a bit of training on IM and especially my breaststroke which has been moving on. I’m so chuffed to break my world record and to win another gold medal is brilliant. I’m surprised I’m on such good form after having three months off at London. The team is doing so well here. We’ve won so many medals here already and it’s just a great team to be part of.” 

Germany’s Verena Schott won the silver behind Simmonds in a time of 3:15.57 and bronze went to Oksana Kruhl (Ukraine) in 3:17.96. 

Paralympic champion Fox was also a comfortable victor on the night, his winning time of 1:09.66 in the S7 100m Backstroke only 0.14 seconds shy of his world record from two months ago. And although Fox didn’t have the best turn he still brought the race home well and took defend his title from three years ago and lift his first gold medal of the meet. He said: 

“That was a good swim, I wasn’t sure I had much more after the heats this morning but I’m pretty happy with a 69.6 in that final. I had the worst turn in the history of my career but other than that it was the perfect final. I took on board everything Mick [Massey, his coach] said and it’s paid off. It’s always hard coming back after a Games and lots of athletes take quite a lot of time out. Some people in that race weren’t swimming the times they were in London but fortunately for me I just keep getting faster and I’ll try and continue to do that.” 

Fox beat Andrey Gladkov (Russia) to silver who finished in 1:11.79 and Yevheniy Bohodayko won the bronze in 1:12.66. 

Multi-Paralympic medallist Sascha Kindred lifted SM6 200m Individual Medley gold for the fourth consecutive IPC World Championships with an emphatic performance from the middle lane.  Kindred timed his race perfectly to take the lead in the Breaststroke leg before storming to his victory in the Freestyle, clocking 2:41.82 to lift his seventh career world title. He said:

“That’s my fourth medley title and I’ve won it since 2002 so I’m very proud. It was hard work but I’m really proud of a great result. It was just outside my PB so it shows I was on good form as well.  My strong part of my IM is my back end – the breast and free. I always know I’m going to be down after the fly and back. It’s a case of working my strengths and holding as hard as I can in the freestyle and thankfully I was able to do that.” 

Brazil’s Talisson Glock won the silver in 2:44.85 and Paralympic champion Xu Qing (China) took bronze in 2:47.13. 

The Brits finished the night on a high with gold in the 34 point 4x100m Freestyle relay after Steph Millward, Susie Rodgers, Claire Cashmore and Amy Marren finished in a time of 4:27.95.  Millward kicked the relay off with a strong first 100m and then Rodgers followed that up to put them in third place at the half way point.  Cashmore stormed through her third leg and handed over to Marren in second place and it was the 200m IM SM9 champion that brought the team home to the victory ahead of Canada (4:35.41) and USA (4:35.95). 

Cashmore was also in individual action on day four, setting the third fastest time of her career to secure SB8 100m Breaststroke silver for the third successive IPC World Championships. Having already won SM9 200m Individual Medley bronze, the 25-year old won her second individual medal of the competition with a time of 1:21.23. 

Teenager Andy Mullen continued his dream debut with his third medal in as many events in Montreal. Having chipped three seconds off his British SM5 200m Individual Medley record in the heats, the 16-year old repeated the feat in the final, clocking 3:08.64 for his second silver medal in as many nights. 

Hannah Russell also claimed her third medal of the Championships with silver in the S12 50m Freestyle. The 17-year old had never reached the international podium in the sprint, her previous best efforts a fifth at the 2011 European Championships and fourth at London 2012 last year. But Russell underlined her improvement with a 28.19 effort for silver in Canada, missing out on her first major gold by just 0.61 seconds behind Russia’s Darya Stukalova.   

James Crisp was just 0.36 seconds shy of his first medal of his fifth IPC World Championships as he set a British record in the SB8 100m Breaststroke final. The 30-year old, who won the 100m Breast title in 2002, knocked 0.78 seconds off his personal best to touch in 1:14.92 with teammate Sam Hynd finishing sixth in a season’s best 1:18.04. Harriet Lee was the only other Brit in action on the fourth day, finishing sixth in the SM10 200m Individual Medley final in 2:39.77. 

Click here for more information on the IPC World Championships