Steph Slater set a world record while Susie Rodgers and Jonathan Fox took gold for Great Britain on the penultimate day of the British Para-Swimming International Meet 2014 in Glasgow.
There was great support for all the athletes in the 100m Butterfly but it was S8 athlete Steph Slater who stole the show with a World Record time of 1:09.67.
"I’ve been working a lot on the technical side of my strokes at the National Performance Centre in Manchester and it’s made a lot of difference"
- Steph Slater
Slater, who already has two silvers in the 50m and 100m Freestyle, finished with 1005 points to take gold. She said: “Words can’t describe how I’m feeling about setting a new World Record. I had it in the back of my mind to go for the record but I just went out to do the best I could. It’s an amazing feeling.
“I’ve been working a lot on the technical side of my strokes at the National Performance Centre in Manchester and it’s made a lot of difference. I’m looking forward to focusing even more on this to see what I can achieve.”
Spain’s Sarai Gascon (S9) took her second medal of the competition, taking silver with 856 points, while S9 world champion Amy Marren took bronze (783 points) in a European qualifying standard time of 1:13.06.
In the 50m Butterfly S7 athlete Susie Rodgers (Beckenham) took gold with a 36.17 swim that gave her 819 points.
The European Record holder was three seconds inside the European qualification time and said: “It’s been quite a good meet for me. My focus is on the Worlds next year so I’m really pleased to have got the qualification standard for the summer as this will be a great stepping stone.”
Rodgers also secured the qualifying standard in the 100m Backstroke after touching in 1:30.98 and has secured qualifying standards in every one of her races this week.
Cortney Jordan (S7) from the USA took 50m Butterfly silver with 760 points and S6 athlete Elizabeth Johnson (City of Manchester Aquatics) took bronze with 493 points.
In the men’s 100m Backstroke, S7 world record holder Jonathan Fox had a great race to take gold with 998 points. Although his time of 1:09.57 was just 0.05 seconds outside his record, it was within the European qualifying standard.
Fox said: “It’s been a good day. I wanted to get the qualifying time in the heat and then move on in the final so to go just over my world record at this point in the season is brilliant.
“My main target this season is Europeans so I’m going to try and work really hard over the next few months to be at the top of my game for Eindhoven.”
USA’s Tucker Dupree (S12) took silver with 982 points while Marc Evers (S14) took bronze with 938 points.
S9 swimmer James Crisp finished on the European qualification time of 1:05.44.
Bethany Firth (SM14) took her third gold of the competition with a 1032 point swim in the 100m Backstroke. The City of Newcastle athlete, who will be eligible to compete for Great Britain from August 2014, finished in a time of 1:06.00.
Summer Ashley Mortimer (S10) from the Netherlands took silver with 955 points, while Kelly College’s Hannah Russell (S12) took bronze with an IPC European Championship qualifying time of 1:09.19 to give 949 points.
Chloe Davies (S14) and Alice Rose Tai (S10) also finished within the qualifying standard. Swansea University’s Davies swam in 1:09.28 while Bournemouth College’s Tai broke the British Record she set in the heats to finish in 1:09.85.
S5 World Champion Roy Perkins (USA) took MC 50m Butterfly gold with 752 points with British athletes Andrew Mullen (S5) taking silver with 707 points and Matthew Walker (S7) finishing with 674 points for bronze.
Mullen’s time of 38.33 was four seconds inside the qualification standard for the IPC European Championships.
Other athletes to meet the IPC European Championships qualification time on the penultimate day included Sascha Kindred (S6 50m Butterfly), James Hollis (S10 100m Butterfly), Steph Slater (S8 100m Backstroke), Amy Marren (S9 100m Backstroke), Jack Thomas (S14 100m Backstroke) and Aaron Moores (S14 100m Backstroke).