World records tumble as Great Britain continue to make a splash in Glasgow

Alice Tai, Ellie Challis and Scott Quin all broke world records as Great Britain continued to reach new heights in Glasgow at the World Para Swimming World Series.

Tai, who had already won gold in the women’s 100m freestyle on Thursday, returned for the 100m backstroke and darted to the wall in just 1m8.08s to break the S8 record.

However, she had to settle for overall silver, as Italy’s Carlotta Gilli broke the S13 world record to compile 1037 points – beating Tai by just 30.

“I’m really pleased with the swim; it’s the fastest I’ve gone since 2017 [when an S10] so it’s showing that I’m going in the right direction,” Tai said.

“Going into the race I thought it would take a world record to win but the top three all got them so it was a great final.

“It was great racing alongside Jess [Jessica-Jane Applegate] - she’s a great backstroker and she really pushed me all the way to the wall.

“I’m enjoying my training at the minute, so hopefully I can just keep pushing that time down.”

Tai might have narrowly missed out on the double but Challis did stand on the top step of the podium in the women’s 50m breaststroke.

The S2 swimmer touched first in 1m5.43s to earn 1047 points, which was enough to beat USA’s S3 swimmer Leanne Smith.

“That was really good! I was always hoping to get the record but I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen – it feels amazing,” she said.

“I was hoping to follow Leanne and try and keep up for as far as I could, so I’m very pleased with how it went.

“I’ll now focus on the other strokes a little bit more, as breaststroke has always been my favourite, but my other strokes are coming along really well.”

After breaking the men’s S14 100m breaststroke world record in the morning, Quin focussed on securing gold in the evening session and he duly delivered.

He clocked an electrifying 1m5.28s in the heats and almost beat that hours later only to end up just 0.2s down, but it was enough for top spot.

“I’m happy with the way I swam – it’s very hard to go 65.2 and then 65.5, so that’s the first time I’ve ever gone 65 twice in one day. I couldn’t really expect to go even quicker,” he said.

Elsewhere, Maisie Summers-Newton collected silver in the women’s 100m breaststroke – just edging out compatriot Brock Whiston – while Jordan Catchpole took silver in the men’s 100m backstroke, ahead of another Brit, Stephen Clegg, in bronze.