Kearney bags second gold in space of 24 hours

Tully Kearney hopes her gutsy Paralympic double can act as a beacon for those suffering with mental health issues.

The 27-year-old retained her S5 100m freestyle title in style, striking gold in the Paris pool for the second time in 24 hours.

Kearney, who has struggled acutely with her mental health in the last four months, wants those medals to send a message.

“It’s incredible,” said Kearney. “I hope this proves to everyone that’s struggling that you can still achieve things.

“That doesn’t mean that it’s the end for you.”

Upgrading Tokyo silver to Paris gold in the 200m freestyle was a passion project for the Midlander and she achieved that goal in style on opening night.

Kearney needed to dig deep to recover and defend her 100m title less than 24 hours later.

The task was made even tougher by a late-night drugs test that left her with minimal time to pull round.

“This experience has made me realise I need to stop questioning myself and my abilities,” she said. “Technically I nailed what I needed to do but I am very tired.”

Kearney leant on her closing speed to overhaul Poida on the last length of the 200m.

The Ukrainian once again took an early lead and was 0.68 seconds ahead at the halfway stage, before the Brit exploded off the turn and surged clear for victory.

Kearney touched the wall in a brilliant winning time of 1:15.10 which was enough to beat Poida by 2.27s with Italy’s Monica Boggioni way back in bagging bronze.

This is the first time that Kearney has raced Poida and the Brit is wary of her new rival’s rapid progress.

“I’ve definitely got my work cut out for next year,” said Kearney. 

“I need to keep working on my speed because otherwise, she’ll have me.”