Harvey headlines impressive day five medal haul

At the close of day five in Singapore, Great Britain had a further six medals on the board, with Grace Harvey’s gold followed by Faye Rogers, Olivia Newman-Baronius, Bethany Firth, Rhys Darbey and the 34pts Medley relay quartet each stepping onto the podium in the OCBC Aquatic Centre.

Starting proceedings in golden fashion, Harvey reclaimed the Women’s SB5 100m Breaststroke world title she’d previously won in 2022 in the very first race of Thursday evening’s finals session.

Responding to the opening pace of Ukraine’s Anna Hontar, Harvey reeled in her rival down the return length and carried strong momentum into the wall to clock her best time of the season to seal the gold.

“I’m so happy and relieved – my family were up in the crowd, I heard my coach Jacquie [Marshall] yelling before I got up on the blocks and I was so ready to do this,” she said.

“It was such an exciting race with Anna [Hontar] going out fast and that’s great competition for the SB5 class, nut to bring home the win I’m beyond happy. I’ve been training breaststroke all season and this was the one, my child, my baby, so I gave it everything today and couldn’t have of put another stroke in – that was the perfect race for me.”

At the reverse end of the night Alice Tai, Bruce Dee, Roan Brennan and Faye Rogers combined to deliver a scintillating silver in the Mixed 34 pts 4x100m Medley.

Switching up the order from their heats qualification swim, Tai took it out solidly on the backstroke to pass on through to Dee and Rogers to supply their talent to the breaststroke and butterfly legs.

On the anchor, Brennan dived in with Britain in fifth position and immediately started eating into the nearly 15 second deficit on leaders Australia – who had front loaded their team lineup under classification points system. As the final metres approached it was all nip and tuck, Brennan edging in front of the Aussies but just a fraction short of usurping the Spanish quartet as he touched the wall to confirm a new British record of 4:31.65 and a world silver medal.

That would be Rogers second silver and British record of the evening after her brilliant swim in the Women’s S10 100m Butterfly.

In one of many races that has gone down to the wire these championships, Rogers was part of a close-fought battle with Defne Kurt (TUR) – touching just three hundredth behind the Turkish swimmer after a storming final 50m.

Silverware continued to flow in the SM14 200m Individual Medley races with strong British representation across both the Men’s and Women’s finals.

In the men’s contest Rhys Darbey eclipsed the former world record mark as he just missed out on the world title in silver position – setting a European record of 2:05.84 behind the Brazilian Gabriel Bandeira – while Cameron Vearncombe and Dylan Broom respectively placed sixth and eighth overall.

“I feel pretty good, I mean it’s nice to go under that old-world record mark – and for two of us to go under it is unbelievable and shows how much that event has come on since just last year,” said Darbey.

“I knew it was going to be a somewhat close race because I’m used to seeing Bandeira take it a little easier in the heats but come the final it’s always close between us and Nicholas Bennett, and I enjoy that [close racing].”

The preceding women’s contest saw Olvia Newman-Baronius, Bethany Firth and Poppy Maskill all firmly place a medal challenge.

At the halfway stage Firth held the lead with Maskill closely tracking in second, but the closing 100m saw Newman-Baronius glide up through the order on the breaststroke and provide the closest challenge to Paris 2024 Paralympic champion, Valeriia Shabalina (NPA), in the closing freestyle sprint.

Firth followed Newman-Baronius into the wall for bronze just a year after the birth of her daughter, while Maskill gave her best chase to take fourth on this occasion.

“I’m so happy since Charlotte is just turned one. This time last year I’d only just given birth to her, and to be back competing I want to show her that even though things can be hard you’ve got to keep going and keep trying – I hope to make her really proud by being here.

“I’m so excited to be taking medals back to her, and I want to say to all the mums out there that we can do it.”

Elsewhere on the night, Ela Letton-Jones booked herself an outside lane for the Women’s S12 100m Freestyle final with a new lifetime best – ultimately placing eighth overall on the world stage.

Live and extended results of the Singapore 2025 World Para Swimming Championships can be found at www.paralympic.org/swimming/live-results, with live streaming of sessions on the Paralympics YouTube Channel.