Firth sets Glasgow alight with second world record

“I am really happy with how it’s swimming and I’m really glad everyone is supporting me at home. It really encourages me and it’s really helping.

Great Britain’s Bethany Firth starred on the second day of competition at the British Para-Swimming International Meet in Glasgow, Great Britain, on Friday (28 March) by securing her second S14 world record in as many days in the 200m individual medley.

On Thursday (26 March) Firth lowered the world record in the 100m breaststroke to get an ideal start to the meet and continued to impress by knocking two seconds off the world record.

Firth was in the lead from the start of the race and continued her dominant performance throughout the race. She brought the SM14 record down to 2:22.14 and swam under the qualification time for the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships, which take place in the same pool from 13-19 July.

“I think this week is going really well,” Firth said. “I am really happy with how it’s swimming and I’m really glad everyone is supporting me at home. It really encourages me and it’s really helping.

“I do feel more confident with the IM than the breaststroke and the breaststroke is hard in that race but I think that since I got the world record yesterday it has really encouraged me to go a bit faster and it showed in the pool tonight.”

Firth’s teammate and four-time SM6 Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds took the silver with a time of 3:06.44 (962 points). The time puts her in contention for selection for Glasgow 2015.

Fellow Brit Jessica-Jane Applegate took the bronze with 936 points and a time of 2:27.37.

The men’s 200m individual medley saw Russia’s Viacheslav Emeliantsev (SM14) secure gold ahead of Great Britain’s Ollie Hynd (SM8).

In this morning’s heats, Hynd swam to 2:23.99 and both times put him in contention for selection for this summer’s World Championships.

“This pool holds some good memories for me and I really enjoy racing here,” Hynd said. “It was a little bit slower than this morning which I am a bit disappointed about. But I got the time so that is good.

“Trials are always a stressful time so to have got the time this morning meant I could enjoy tonight a little bit more. We always want to be faster in finals but it wasn’t to be tonight but I am happy to have got the time.”

Other athletes that swam to the time in the 200m individual medley are British teammates Sascha Kindred (SM6) and Jack Thomas (SM14).

Kindred touched in his heat in 2:42.82 and then 2:44.53 in the final while Thomas lowered the British SM14 record in the heat with a time of 2:17.60. He swam to 2:17.87 in the final.

Canada’s Aurelie Rivard (SM10) continued her winning streak in the 50m freestyle ahead of Spain’s Sarai Gascon and Great Britain’s Hannah Russell (S12).

Russell’s compatriot Matthew Walker (28.36) won the gold medal in the men’s 50m freestyle with a total of 929 points.

Lyndon Longhorne broke the British 150m individual medley SM4 record twice through the day. He set it at 2:49.91 in the heats and then swam to 2:49.60 in the finals.

Action continues in Glasgow until Sunday (29 March).

The 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships will feature around 650 athletes from 50 countries and will be the last major gathering of international swimmers ahead of Rio 2016.

All records are subject to ratification by IPC Swimming.