Simmonds on style yet again

On Day 5 in the pool, British poster girl Ellie Simmonds came through with another gold another world record. 03 Sep 2012

"The crowd going mental definitely pushes you on and gives you that home advantage that you need."

Ellie Simmonds broke her own world record to win her second gold of the London 2012 Paralympic Games in the 200m individual medley SM6 on the fifth day of action in the Aquatics Centre.

The 17-year-old had attracted front-page attention in the British press after her gold medal earlier in the games and she did not disappoint the British public clocking a time of 3:05.39 - 7.66 seconds quicker than the time which won gold in Beijing.

Such was the star value of Simmonds that British Prime Minister David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson and several members of the Government were in attendance for another golden night of British swimming.

The four-time Paralympic gold medallist collected her latest addition from the Prime Minister as the noise levels inside the Aquatic Centre cranked up. Also on the podium were Natalie Jones, wife of silver medal-winning cyclist Rik Waddon, who collected bronze and Verena Schott of Germany who won silver.

Simmonds claimed she was confident going into the race and acknowledged the support of the fans. She said: "I'm so pleased, I'm just enjoying every moment of this. To get a second gold is amazing. I knew I was on good form. I was happy to do another PB in front of the home crowd.

"The crowd going mental definitely pushes you on and gives you that home advantage that you need."

Australian Jacqueline Freney was picked up her fourth gold medal of these London games alone. Freney won three bronze medals in Beijing and has significantly added to her collection with a win in the 100m freestyle S7 in a Paralympic record time.

The women's 4x100m freestyle relay (34 Points) was won by the Australian team of Ellie Cole, Maddison Elliott, Katherine Downie and Jacqueline Freney, as the USA pipped Great Britain to silver.

Belarus’ Ihar Boki, one of the stars of the men’s events so far in London, won his third gold medal in the 100m backstroke S13 with another world record. His time of 56.97 was enough to beat Charles Bouwer of South Africa into second and Charalampos Taiganidis into third.

In yet another astonishing session China had four world record-breaking gold medallists. Qing Xu, Yang Yang, Jiangbo Xia and Bozun Yang all broke world records to win golds while Great Britain’s Sascha Kindred won his 12th Paralympic medal finishing behind Xu in the men’s 200m individual medley SM6.

Also in world record-breaking form were Ukrainian Maksym Veraska in the men’s 200m individual medley SM12, Russia’s Oxana Savchenko in the women’s equivalent and Sweden’s Maja Reichard in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB11.

Russia’s Denis Tarasov won the men’s 50m freestyle S8, China’s Shiyun Pan who won gold in the men’s 100m freestyle and Michael Schoenmaker of the Netherlands won the 50m breaststroke SB3.

Related Images