British Para-Swimmers Brock Whiston and Reece Dunn were in world record breaking form on the first day of competition at the World Para Swimming World Series finale in Berlin.
With both swimmers travelling with the British team for the first time, they showed the world their full potential with a pair of special swims inside Berlin’s Schwimm-und Sprunghalle im Europa Sportpark.
Up first was Brock Whiston, the S8 swimmer topping her class by a full seven seconds as she broke the Women’s 100m Breaststroke world record not once, but twice, a 1.15.36 effort in the heats improved to a stunning 1.14.41 time in the final. Touching second behind S12 Elena Krawzow of the home club, Whiston underlined her emerging talent and will be one to watch at the World Para Swimming Championships in London in September.
Also in action in the same race, taking bronze with 1002 points, was S6 Maisie Summers-Newton, the Northampton swimmer breaking the European record with a 1.33.49 performance.
Despite the meet being used to work on skills after a hard training block in Italy, Reece Dunn was also on fine form, breaking the S14 Men’s 200m Freestyle world record with a 1.53.57 swim. Bagging bronze in a high calibre mixed class final, Plymouth Leander’s Dunn produced a swim worth 914 points as he touched second behind Belarus’ S13 Ihar Boki; Israel’s S4 Ami Omer Dadaon ultimately took gold.
Having been the swimmer of the meet at the British Para-Swimming International Meet in April, which acted as the British leg of the series, Alice Tai continued her great form as she took gold and silver within a matter of minutes in Berlin. Having broken the S8 European record to take silver in the Women’s 200m Freestyle in a time of 2.17.93, trailing only Canada’s Paralympic champion Aurelie Rivard, Tai would take gold in the Women’s 100m Butterfly leading a British 1-2. Touching in 1.09.07, Tai took the title, with young Scot Toni Shaw stepping up the plate, the S9 swimming 1.08.18 for silver. Jessica-Jane Applegate was also in the mix, the S14 finishing fifth in 1.05.05.
Full results from day one can be found here