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Paralympic Swimming Success

Posted by Louise Graham

Paralympic Swimming Success

Good morning everyone!

Great news, our swimmers had an awesome first day in the pool in Rio..

HARRIET LEE won silver in the Women’s SB9 100m Breaststroke in a new British Record time of 1:16.87.  Harriet fully deserves this success having spent the last 4yrs since London 2012 striving every day for a better performance. I feel very proud of her, and know that we supported her through a journey that was extremely tough at times – so I hope you all feel a bit proud too!!

She was delighted with her performance and text me to say a huge thank you to everyone here at Team Northumbria for their support over the last 3 years…. She also spoke to the media shortly after the race:

"I just wanted to get out there. The last four years have been a struggle so to get down to this point and swim that time in that race, I feel so happy. I have such amazing support back home and Team Lee have been phenomenal.  It is not just me, there is a network behind me that have dragged me through some difficult times so it is great to be able to share it with them."

ANDREW MULLEN (our new addition for 2016-2017) won bronze in the Mens S5 200m Freestyle in 2:40.65, also a new British Record!  He spoke to Channel 4 after the race and was delighted:

“It's great to have a won a Paralympic medal and I am really stoked I was able to do so by swimming my best time.  What a great crowd to do it in front of. Brazil have put on a great venue and a great Paralympic Games so I am really pleased to get my first medal in such a setting."

TAKA SUZUKI was also in action in one of his warm up events, the Mens S5 200m Freestyle..  He set a new lifetime best of 2:58.74 which is also a new ASIAN RECORD!!  Well done to Taka, this shows that he is in great shape and ready to take the stage in his main events early next week…

Day 2 is a day off for the TN contingent, so roll on day 3 when Andrew is back in action in the 50m Butterfly…….  I’ll keep you all posted

Louise Graham

Team Northumbria Head of Aquatics

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