Poppy Maskill smashed the world record in the women’s S14 100m butterfly final to win Great Britain’s first gold medal of the Paralympics. The teenager executed the perfect swim to finish 0.33seconds faster than the previous record.
Maskill, who is still only 19, returned in just one minute and 33 seconds. Yi Lam Chan of Hong Kong won silver while Valeriia Shabalina secured bronze.
She described the experience as ‘weird’ but ‘really cool’ and had only hoped to build on a positive qualifier in the morning.
“It was so hard,” Maskill told the BBC. “I was just trying my hardest not to die. I was just trying to see how I could do compared to this morning. It’s weird, it’s really cool. It’s just unreal.”
It has been a positive first day for ParalympicsGB, with Daphne Shrager winning the first medal of the Games earlier this afternoon. The cyclist secured a silver medal in the women’s C1-3 3000m individual pursuit.
Shrager told Channel 4 afterwards: “It’s just incredible. A year ago, I didn’t think I’d be on the bike again after I crashed, so to come here and break the world record was all I could do.
“Sadly, it wasn’t enough. I’m always someone that is hungry for more, but I can walk away happy.
“It’s been hard, but I’m really happy winning the first medal of the Games. To come away with a medal at all is such a privilege – there’s so many people back home who would have loved to be here but didn’t get selected, so I feel honoured to ride here.”
Shortly after Maskill’s success, Tandem duo Steve Bate and Chris Latham later won silver in men’s B 4000m individual pursuit. Britain are expected to perform well in the pool over the coming days.
But it was a less positive afternoon for gold medal hopeful Kadeena Cox. The dual-sport athlete crashed out of the women’s C4-5 500m time trial final and was not granted a restart.
It was deemed that the 33-year-old’s crash had not been due to a mechanical fault. Cox was seen in tears as she was helped away from the velodrome track by her coach and medic.
“It was a weird one. I didn’t feel comfortable in the gate, my right side is my weak side – I just over-compensated and couldn’t balance on my weaker side, I was all over the shop,” Cox told Channel 4.
