Paralympics: GB’s first medals in the swimming pool
Nyree Kindred and Hannah Russell win silvers for ParaGB’s first medal from the aquatics centre.
The first silver came from Nyree Kindred, competing in the 100m backstroke in the S6 classification, who took the silver behind China’s Lu Dong.
There was a very strong start from Lu Dong, a double arm amputee, with Kindred in third at half way. However, Kindred is strongest in the closest stages of the race and pushed hard to catch up.
However the Chinese swimmer was too strong and Kindred had to settle for silver medal, ParaGB’s first Paralympics swimming medal of the 2012 games.
Hannah Russell, swimming in the 400m women’s freestyle in the S12 category, had a very tight race with Russia’s Oxana Savchenko. The pair oscillated between first and second place throughout teh race, but with the Russian finishing strongest. It was Russell’s debut at a Paralympics Games, and earlier today she had broken her personal best.
Read Giles Long's guide to swimming classification on the Channel 4 Paralympics website.
Kindred’s spirit
Kindred qualified with the fastest time in the heats this morning, breaking her own personal best with a time of 1:27:96. Lu Dong was the next fastest qualifier.
Kindred has had cerebral palsy since birth. She is one half of the Paralympic “golden couple” with her husband Sascha Kindred, also a swimmer.
She was a double-gold medal winner at the Athens Games, where she also won two silvers. Her Athens gold was in the 100m backstroke. At Beijing she also picked up a silver, and at Sydney in 200 she won a silver and two bronzes.
Following Kindred, Jonathan Fox, who set a new world record in the 100m backstroke in the S7 classification, will race in his final.
The first medals of the Paralympic Games were won for Great Britain & Northern Ireland in the velodrome, with Sarah Storey claiming a gold and Mark Colbourne winning silver.
