Steph Slater wins gold in Eindhoven

Britain’s Steph Slater set a new world record to win S8 100m butterfly gold at the IPC Swimming European Championships in Eindhoven.

The 23-year-old clocked one minute 8.20 seconds to beat American Jessica Long’s mark of 1:09.60.

“I’m surprised at the time, but not the performance,” Slater told BBC Sport.

Ollie Hynd retained his European SM8 medley title but his time of 2:25.22 was short of his European record of 2:22.76.

After winning gold in the event at the Commonwealth Games last week, Hynd, who has a form of muscular dystrophy, has had a busy schedule and was relieved to win another title.

“It was a tough swim but I wanted to get gold and I did,” he said.

“It has been a busy time since Glasgow and very emotional but I haven’t had a chance to sit back and enjoy it yet.”

Slater, who swims using one arm after suffering nerve damage in 2011, was a talented able-bodied swimmer but the problems kept her out of the pool until 2012 when she realised that she could compete in Para-swimming competition.

She had set a world record in the butterfly event in Glasgow in April only for Long to beat it four days later, but grabbed it back in spectacular fashion.

The Preston swimmer started strongly and led Ukraine rival Kateryna Istomina by 0.09 seconds at the halfway stage and the pair fought it out to the finish with Istomina also going under the old record.

“I’ve been training really hard and after Jess took the world record off me I was determined to get it back,” said Slater. “Hopefully there is more to come.”

Slater competes again on Wednesday evening in the 200m individual medley hoping for another gold.

Elsewhere, Ellie Simmonds set a new personal best in the S6 50m freestyle to qualify fastest for Wednesday evening’s final.

The 19-year-old, who won 400m freestyle gold on Monday, clocked 35.76, beating her old time of 36.03.

Scott Quin improved his British record in the S14 100m breaststroke heat from 1:08.81 to 1:08.15 and faces another tough race against home favourite Marc Evers.

And European record holder Andrew Mullen has qualified fastest for the S5 50m butterfly final.

BBC Sport