Bethany Firth won her second gold medal at the Rio Paralympics by winning the S14 200m freestyle event, with fellow Briton Jessica-Jane Applegate taking silver.
Earlier in the week, Firth won gold in the S14 100m backstroke – beating her own world record in the process – and Applegate took bronze.
In the S14 200m freestyle, Firth and Applegate were fastest qualifiers and were ahead of the field again. Firth won in a Paralympic record time of 2m 03.30s, followed by Applegate – the defending champion in this event – in 2m 06.92s. Dutch woman Marlov Van der Kulk was third.
Great Britain are currently second in the medal table, with 23 golds, 14 silver and 19 bronze medals. Only China, with 39 golds and 92 medals in total, are ahead.
Firth has two further opportunities for gold – she goes in the 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley events later in the games.
Swimming is one of just 3 sports that are open to competitors with learning disabilities at the Paralympics. In all, competitors are competing in 23 sports in Rio. In all, just 9 events are for people with learning disabilities. Before the Games began, learning disability charity Mencap launched a petition that called for the International Paralympic Committee to address the severe inequalities faced by athletes with a learning disability.
