Tai claims third silver while Maskill and Darbey medal

Alice Tai made it a hat-trick of silvers as she stormed to a battling medal in the women’s 400m freestyle.

The swimmer led from the offset at La Defense before being reigned in by the USA’s Jessica Long, who claimed an unprecedented 30th medal from five Paralympics in gold.

It marked the third and final silver in the pool for ParalympicsGB as Rhys Darbey and Poppy Maskill also clinched medals in the men’s and women’s 200m individual medley.

Tai touched the wall in 4:52.24 to clock her fastest time in the event all year and just three seconds shy off her personal best.

“I’m really happy with that,” she said. “It’s the fastest I’ve gone this season by four seconds so I’m super happy with it.

“It’s only a few seconds off what I did before my amputation as well which is my target to get back down to. After my swims this week, I think it’s possible which is really exciting. I have medals from all of my races so I’m pretty elated.”

Darbey, 17, admitted he was shocked by his own sprint finish after overhauling Ukraine’s Dmytro Vanzenko and Australia’s Ricky Betar on the final 50m to touch the wall in a time of 2:08.61 and take 200m individual medley silver by just 0.08 seconds.

Having previously been convinced that his only chance to stand on the podium would be as part of a relay team in Paris, Darbey was made up after clinching a maiden individual Paralympic medal.

“I didn’t think I would be able to do that. I’m absolutely over the moon,” he said.

“I knew we had a good chance on the relay but to get one on the individual means a lot to me.”

Maskill now has an impressive four medals from as many events in Paris, with the 100m backstroke still to come later this week.

Rebecca Redfern and Matthew Redfern made Paris a family affair after helping ParalympicsGB finish fourth in the mixed 4x100m freestyle 49 point relay.

The brother-sister duo teamed up with Scarlett Humphrey and Stephen Clegg to touch for fourth in a new national record of 4:04.12.

It marked a Paralympic debut for Matthew who noted that it was made all the sweeter by handing over to his sister in a relay, even he did have to stop her from stressing everyone out in the call room.

“Rebecca is supposed to be really supportive but beforehand, I was the cool, calm and collected one and she was almost shivering with nerves,” he said.

“I was there to support her – it’s always nice to have such a friendly face beside you.”

Rebecca added: “There is absolutely nothing better than swimming with my brother – although don’t believe a word he says about me!

“He has that inner coach in him, he knows how to calm me down when I start to stress about it. I’m really grateful he was here today.”