Simmonds smashes world record to win second gold

Ellie Simmonds set the Aquatics Centre alight as she lived up to her status as the poster girl of the London 2012 Paralympics, blazing to gold in the women's SM6 200m individual medley.

Simmonds, who smashed her own world record in the morning's heats, once again bettered her mark as she won in a time of 3:05.39 ahead of Germany's Verena Schott, who beat Britain's Natalie Jones to silver by one hundredth of a second.

Simmonds trailed Ukraine's Oksana Khrul by nearly five seconds at the final turn, but produced a blistering final freestyle length to secure her second gold medal of the Games.

"To do another personal best, I am chuffed," she said. "I have two more races to come, and it is amazing to do this in front of this home crowd.
"I did worry about her lead, but my front crawl is my strongest stroke. Before every race I get nervous, and it is good to get that emotion. I have two golds, and I have two more to concentrate on. Let's hope I wake up tomorrow in form."

Sascha Kindred failed to defend his 200m individual medley title as he took silver behind China's Xu Qing. Kindred set a new European record as he finished inside his own world record pace as Xu won in a world record time of 2:38.62, while Britain's Matthew Whorwood finished fifth.

"I wanted to get a medal in this event," Kindred said. "It's not the colour I wanted, but it's a new personal best and it took a world record to beat me. It's a European record, but hats off to the Chinese guy, he came out here and performed."

Susannah Rodgers added to the British medal tally in the pool as she won bronze in the women's 100m freestyle S7 behind Austrlia's Jacqueline Freney, with Cortney Jordan of the USA second.
Backstroke gold medallist Jonathan Fox missed out on a second medal in the men's 100m freestyle S7, finishing fifth behind team-mate Josef Craig in fourth.

Mickey Bushell wins gold in the T53 100m

In the Olympic Stadium, wheelchair sprinter Mickey Bushell upgraded the silver medal he won in Beijing to gold in the T53 100m. The world record holder made a blistering start and powered away from his rivals to win in a new Paralympic record of 14.75 seconds ahead of Chinese pair Yufei Zhao and Yu Shiran.
David Weir showed no signs of fatigue as he safely qualified for Tuesday's 1500m final. Weir, who claimed a brilliant T54 5000m victory on Sunday, came home in third place in three minutes 11.35 seconds.
Meanwhile at Greenwich Park, Natasha Baker won her second gold of the Games with victory in the Grade II freestyle dressage. The 22-year-old scored a Paralympic record of 82.800% to finish more than five per cent clear of Germany's Britta Nappel.

"Two Paralympic records and two gold medals in my first Games in London - wow! It has been an amazing experience to be here and Rio won't be the same without this crowd. They have been the best," she said.
However, there was disappointment for Lee Pearson was forced to settle for bronze in the Grade Ib individual freestyle test. Pearson, who was bidding to match Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson's tally of 11 Paralympic golds, finished with a complete set - gold, silver and bronze from London after scoring 74.200% behind Austria's Pepo Puch and Katja Karjalainen of Finland.

Peter Norfolk and Andy Lapthorne are guaranteed at least a silver medal in the quad doubles final after they reached the final with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Japan's Shota Kawano and Mitsuteru Moroishi.
Meanwhile, Britain's men survived a late rally from Japan to book their place in the quarter-finals of the men's wheelchair basketball with a 71-55 victory.