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It was a shock gold for Australia in the 34 points 4x100m mixed medley relay with Jesse Aungles, Tim Hodge, Emily Beecroft and Alexa Leary storming home to beat the dominant Netherlands in the final event on night five at the pool.
Heat swimmers Keira Stephens and Callum Simpson set the platform early to draw lane five, with Leary swimming the final 50m in blistering time to mow down the Dutch and take the win in a Paralympic record time of 4:27.08.
The gap between Netherlands and Australia was seven seconds before Leary entered the water and set the Paris La Défense Arena alight with her final leg feat.
“I’m just so proud to swim alongside these guys, these guys are amazing. I said it in the interview this morning but I’ll say it again, it’s incredible,” said Aungles.
Second swimmer Hodge added: “It’s an honour to be part of the team and we’ve gave it everything we’ve got and we’re confident we can say we left everything in the pool and it’s just an incredible feeling and reward for all our efforts over the past several years.”
Beecroft had “no words” as they basked in victory. “Honestly, I was not expecting to win, it was just unbelievable. As soon as I touched the wall I literally jumped out and raced over to Jesse so we could cheer Lex … to the finish but honestly that was just unbelievable, I have no words,” she said.
Leary added: “It was really good by our team, we were just a powerhouse. I was watching us and I was like ‘come on come on’ and when I saw at the end when I was like, ‘alright, I’m going to have to weapon myself out here, we got to take home the gold’.”
It wasn’t the only medal of the night with Jake Michel defending his silver medal from Tokyo in the men’s S14 100m Breaststroke, taking second place in a personal best and Oceania record time of 1:04.27, missing gold by only 0.29.
Michel was delighted with the swim, having picked up bronze at last year’s World Para Swimming Championships.
“(Feeling) pretty surreal you know, I just raced so I can’t really comprehend everything, but it was a good race and I’m really happy with the result. Yeah it’s a silver medal and not a gold but it is what it is but I’m pretty happy with the result,” he said.
“I saw [Naohide] Yamaguchi next to me and I was like I’m just going to just stay with him, and I just sort of saw his black cap just fading away from me so I was like, I’m ahead of him you know and I couldn’t see Nick on the other side, but yeah, all respect to Nick, he done a lot of work over four years.”
The night started with debutants Chloe Osborn and Holly Warn in the Women’s S7 400m freestyle, who both progressed to the finals in their first individual swims of a Paralympic Games.
Earlier in the night, Osborn placed fourth in a personal best time of 5:17.69 after also swimming a PB in the heats, while Warn finished seventh in a time of 5:26.71, an incredible showing for the duo at their first top international meet.
Ahmed Kelly was next up in the Men’s S3 50m backstroke, placing eighth with a personal best and Oceania record time of 54.96.
Paige Leonhardt narrowly missed bronze in the Women’s S14 100m breaststroke, coming fourth by 0.09 and recording a season’s best swim of 1:16.55. The gold was taken by Great Britain’s Louise Fiddes in a time of 1:15.47.
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By: Jodie Hawkins, Paralympics Australia
Published: 2 September 2024
