Tai swims to first World medals in Glasgow
Alice Tai captured the first World medals of her career with individual and relay bronzes on the fourth day of the Glasgow 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships at Tollcross.
Competing in the S10 100m Backstroke, the 16-year old was just 0.12 seconds shy of her PB as she clocked 1:08.46 to join the Netherlands’ Paralympic champion Summer Mortimer (1:06.05) and New Zealand’s 2013 world champion Sophie Pascoe (1:07.51) on the podium.
She returned for the 34pt 4x100m Freestyle Relay at the end of the session, teaming up with Claire Cashmore, Ellie Simmonds and Tully Kearney as the Brits claimed bronze in 4:29.83 behind Australia (4:24.17) and the USA (4:25.45).
And the young Brit admitted sharing the podium with two of her sporting idols - who have eight Paralympic gold medals between them – was a feeling she won’t forget, but one she hopes to repeat.
“It’s been an amazing day,” said Tai, who trains at the National Performance Centre in Manchester. “I’m over the moon to be on the podium with Sophie Pascoe and Summer Mortimer – hopefully it’ll happen again. I remember being in the crowd watching the 100m Backstroke at London 2012 and shouting at Summer to try and get a picture with her and her medal. And now I’m standing on the podium with her!
“I didn’t have a clue where I was during the race because I messed my turn up a bit but I just gave it all I could in that last 50 to try and hold on if I was in a medal position.”
Tai was part of a new-look British team who made the podium in the relay and Cashmore - who swam the lead-off for the British quartet - admitted they were pleased to have swum so fast in their first race together.
"That was a fantastic team effort," she said. "We've never raced together before so it's a new and young team which is quite exciting. But it's great to be part of it and it feels so great to have won a bronze medal in that race. I think we did a really good job tonight."
Glasgow-born Andrew Mullen continued to impress in front of his home crowd as he claimed his third medal in four days with S5 50m Butterfly bronze.
The 18-year old European champion touched in 37.14 behind Brazil’s Daniel Dias (35.51) and USA’s Roy Perkins (35.67), the winners of the 2012 and 2008 Paralympic titles respectively.
“It was a great race and only 0.2 seconds off my best so I can't really complain with that,” said Mullen. "I haven't really swum much fly at all this year so to come in and swim close to my personal best is great.
"I have a lot of speed and my underwater is very fast. That is something I've been working on and hopefully I can use that again on the 50m Free and the 100m Free."
Simmonds was the only other Brit in an individual final on the night, finishing fifth in the S6 50m Freestyle in 36.08 - the fourth fastest time of her career - as Ukraine's Yelzaveta Mereshko set a world record 34.14 for gold.
