Tai and Redfern land Paralympic gold medals

Britain’s Alice Tai won her second gold medal of the Paris Paralympics as Becky Redfern made it third time lucky with her first gold.

Tai, who already had gold, silver and bronze medals to her name, triumphed in the S8 50m freestyle.

Redfern, who had finished second at the past two Games, claimed victory in the SB13 100m breaststroke.

There was also a silver medal for 13-year-old Iona Winnifrith – the youngest member of the British team in Paris – in the SB7 100m breaststroke.

Tai followed up her 400m freestyle silver on Wednesday night with a storming swim over the shortest distance.

The 25-year-old, who was the second fastest in the morning heats, got the better of Brazil’s Cecilia Kethlen Jeronimo de Araujo in an impressive 29.91 seconds. She finished 0.40 ahead and was visibly shocked after claiming her second title of the Games.

“I knew it would be close going in and I thought someone might duck under 30 seconds – I didn’t think it would be me,” she said.

“I’m more in shock with my time than anything. The 50m is usually such a close race and I could see the Brazilian next to me and I just tried to give it that bit more.”

Tai, then already a Paralympic and world gold medallist, had her right leg amputated below the knee in 2022 because of chronic pain and had to relearn how to swim.

“Every swim here has been a post-amputation PB and I am getting so close to my old times.

“The 50m has been the hardest because my dive has been affected most since the amputation so I didn’t think I would be getting down to sub-30 times until maybe next year. It is still new and I am still figuring it out.”

Redfern, 24, combines sport and family duties with training to become a primary school teacher and was watched on by four-year-old son Patrick and her family at La Defense Arena.

She is a two-time world champion in the event and finished in 1min 16.02secs with the United States taking silver and bronze through Olivia Chambers (1:17.70) and Colleen Young (1:18.52).

“It feels surreal – I was half expecting someone from lane one to come out and beat me,” she admitted.

“I felt under a bit of pressure a bit to deliver. But I tried to stay calm as I could I knew I could produce a good time and I knew in my heart I could be on top of the podium.

“We’ve had a hell of a journey to get here and it has had its challenges.

“I love all aspects of my life – my sport, being a mum and training to be a primary school teacher. I do what I do because I enjoy it and it is so much fun racing these girls.

“Patrick makes the lows high and the highs even higher and all I do is to make him proud and I know he will be buzzing tonight.”

Winnifrith had qualified second-fastest for the final behind Neutral Paralympic Athlete and defending champion Mariia Pavlova.

But Pavlova started the final strongly and maintained her dominance, beating her own world record by 0.77 seconds with a time of 1:26.09 as the Briton set a new personal best of 1:29.69 ahead of Canada’s Tess Routliffe (1:31.38).

“I’m really happy with that swim. Much as I wanted the gold, it’s still a silver medal and a lifetime best,” said the Kent swimmer, who, like her idol Ellie Simmonds, has now won a Paralympic medal aged 13.

“I knew I had to fight for a medal. I tried to catch the other girl as much as possible but today it wasn’t enough.

“Ellie has influenced me so much and I’ve now met her a few times and she has really helped me.”

Winnifrith is Britain’s youngest Paralympic swimming medallist since Scotland’s Abby Kane claimed S13 backstroke silver at Rio 2016, six weeks after her 13th birthday.

Joanne Round, later Joanne Rout, remains Britain’s youngest Paralympic champion after she won two relay golds at the 1988 Seoul Games aged 12.

More to follow.