Hannah Russell and Tully Kearney both won gold on the penultimate day of the Glasgow 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships to continue the British Para-Swimming team’s impressive form at Tollcross.
After a memorable four gold haul on day five, the Brits added four medals from four finals on day six with Russell winning gold and silver, Kearney claiming a second gold in as many nights, and Ollie Hynd collecting his third medal of the Championships with bronze.
It had been a week of near misses for Russell, having finished fourth in the SM13 200m Individual Medley then missed out on the defence of her S12 100m Backstroke title by an agonising 0.04 seconds behind Russia’s Darya Stukalova.
The evening threatened to continue in the same vein for the 18-year old as she touched second again, ‘swimming up’ in classification in the S13 100m Freestyle, clocking an S12 British record 59.26 to come home 0.35 seconds behind Ukraine’s S13 swimmer Anna Stetsenko (58.91).
But Russell finally got her hands on the elusive gold back against her own class in the S12 50m Freestyle, turning the tables on her backstroke conquerer Stukalova to take the touch in 27.51, equalling her British record and finishing just 0.02 seconds ahead of the Russian.
“It is absolutely amazing to be world champion,” said Russell, who trains at the National Performance Centre in Manchester.
“I didn’t really expect it but in the back of my mind I thought that I did have the speed so it was going to be a very tight race. It was so close to win by 0.02 but I got it so I am really really happy.
“Obviously I was disappointed with the result and my time in the backstroke and in the S12 and S13, when it’s combined the races are incredibly tight and can be won and lost in milliseconds.
“It has been tough to come back from that but I have put it behind me and I managed to forget about it and focus on this freestyle and I managed to deliver when it mattered most."
Kearney put in one of the most dominant final performances of the Championships as she stormed clear in the S9 400m Freestyle, winning by more than 10 seconds with a European record.
The 18-year old has won a World medal in this event before, claiming bronze in the S10 400m Freestyle at the 2013 World Championships in Montreal.
But having been reclassified as an S9 swimmer this season, Kearney showed her class to bag her second gold in two nights, having won a maiden World title in the S9 100m Butterfly yesterday.
The Boldmere swimmer eventually came home in 4:39.29, knocking more than three seconds off her PB and ducking 0.72 seconds under Stephanie Millward’s old European marker, set for silver at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
“That’s my best event, my favourite event, and it was just great," said Kearney, who has recently moved to the National Performance Centre in Manchester.
“I’d be happy just getting my PB because it’s been a while since I got close to that, so I’m just really happy.
“I’ve been working really hard and I moved to Manchester a few weeks ago so that really helped but I want to say a big thanks to my coach Ash at home, I wouldn’t have done so well without him pushing me.
“We’ve got a really good team spirit, we’re all really close. I love how everyone’s been sat in the stands cheering me, I think that really helps, it brings us all closer together.”
Hynd is the only other member of the British team to have won double gold in Scotland, and the 20-year old added a third medal with S8 100m Backstroke bronze.
Repeating his result from the 2013 World Championships, it could easily have been a hat-trick of golds for the young Brit as he eventually touched in 1:06.08 with Russia’s Konstantin Lisenkov taking gold in 1:05.81 and Ukraine’s Uurii Bozhynskyi silver in 1:05.94.