Summers-Newton breaks world record on another golden night for GB in London

Maisie Summers-Newton delivered her very best when it mattered most as she smashed her own world record once again to claim gold at the World Para Swimming Championships.

The 17-year-old topped the podium in the women’s 200m individual medley SM6 on another golden night for GB in London, which saw Alice Tai complete a hat-trick of gold medals.

Louise Fiddes was also crowned world champion for the first time in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB14, while there were silver medals for Scott Quin and Toni Shaw.

And Zara Mullooly capped off a special evening for British Swimming with a bronze in the women’s 400m freestyle S10, having already claimed silver in the 50m freestyle on day one.

European champion Summers-Newton stopped the clock in 2:57.24 to better her previous world record time, which she set at the British Para-Swimming International Meet in July.

She finished ahead of Ukraine’s Yelyzav Mereshko and China’s Lingling Song, who took silver and bronze respectively, while five-time Paralympic gold medallist Ellie Simmonds was fourth.

“That was amazing,” said Summers-Newton, whose previous best time was 2:57.99. “I just wanted to go out and put out the same race as when I broke the world record in April.

“That I managed to do that in this venue, in front of the crowd at such a big meet, is incredible. When I touched and turned for the last 50, I was like ‘oh my god.’ I’ve never heard anything like it.”

Meanwhile, Tai was pushed all the way by American rival Jessica Long in the women’s 100m butterfly S8 before clinching her third gold of the championships in the final few strokes.

And the 20-year-old, who had already won the 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle titles, admitted it was much too close for comfort as she produced a new championship record.

“I could actually hear the commentary on the last few metres and I could hear the crowd,” she said.

“I was like, ‘Oh, she’s so close’, and then I put an extra stroke in at the end. I saw her glide to the finish and I just thought, ‘Just touch the wall, just touch the wall’.

“It was so stressful. I thought I made a bad decision but you just need to spot the wall and that’s something I should probably work on.”

Like Tai before her, Fiddes also touched the wall in a new championship record in the 100m breaststroke SB14 as she clinched GB’s third gold medal of the evening.

“It means absolutely everything,” said Fiddes. “To do it in front of my family and friends - my boyfriend, my brother, my mum and dad, is amazing.

And it took another record in the men’s 100m Breaststroke SB14 to prevent Quin from winning GB’s fourth gold of the night, with Naohide Yamaguchi topping the podium.

The Japanese swimmer broke Quin’s own world best time to touch the wall in 1:04.95 as the Brit settled for silver – a result that he still took plenty of encouragement from.

“I’m happy,” said Quin, a silver medallist at Rio 2016. “I came into this meet as world number one and world record holder - it needed him to put down a fast time to beat me.

“You’ve just got to applaud that. He’s 18, and I’m 29. It just shows, I’m still going strong.”

In the women’s 100m Butterfly S9, Shaw took the silver medal behind Australia’s Sophie Pascoe, who won the race in another new championship record (1:04.35).

Elsewhere, Stephen Clegg finished fifth in the men’s 50m freestyle S12 in a new personal best, while Ellie Challis completed her first world final in eighth in the women’s 150m individual medley SM4.