Great Britain claim first gold of Paralympics as swimmer Poppy Maskill breaks world record

Swimmer Poppy Maskill has claimed ParalympicsGB’s first gold medal of the Paris Games as she broke a world record in the women’s S14 100m butterfly final.

The 19-year-old’s time of one minute and three seconds broke the world record by a third of a second, winning the race by seven-tenths of a second.

There were plenty of smiles and waves from Maskill as she received her gold medal in Paris.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer tweeted to congratulate Maskill – who is making her debut at the games – on her “fantastic achievement”.

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There was also further medal success for Great Britain in the pool after William Ellard took silver in the men’s S14 butterfly final.

Ellard led at halfway but was just beaten by Denmark’s Alexander Hillhouse, with Gabriel Bandeira of Brazil taking bronze.

First medal for ParalympicsGB

The opening medal for ParalympicsGB was in the velodrome and went to cyclist Daphne Schrager as she took silver in the C1-3 3000m individual pursuit.

Schrager was beaten by China’s gold medal winner Xiaomei Wang in the final, which she won in a world record time.

Elsewhere, tandem pair Steve Bate and Chris Latham took silver in men’s B 4000m individual pursuit.

Velodrome fall for defending champ

Earlier, British cyclist and defending champion Kadeena Cox had to withdraw from the women’s C4-5 500m time trial.

She was second fastest in qualifying behind Dutch rider Caroline Groot, but fell on the first corner of her medal race after wobbling following a slow start.

Leeds-born Cox was denied a restart as the fall was deemed not to be down to a mechanical fault.

She continued to receive treatment on the floor of the track centre long after the event had finished.

The world record holder had looked odds-on to become Great Britain’s first medallist of the games following her triumphs at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

Cox is scheduled to race again on Sunday when she defends the C1-5 mixed team spring title.

Archer Grinham recovers from ‘baby scare’

Meanwhile, British archer Jodie Grinham spent two days at a Paris maternity ward thinking she may be going into early labour before shooting a personal best at the Paralympics.

The 31-year-old, who is competing in the French capital while 28 weeks pregnant, went to hospital at the weekend after her unborn child stopped moving.

She praised the treatment received and said her baby “is perfectly healthy”, having fired 693 to rank fourth in the women’s compound event on Thursday.

Elsewhere in the table tennis there was a bronze for Great Britain’s Bly Twomey – who is just 14 – and Fliss Pickard.