GB shares limelight with Du Toit

By Paul Carter

A winning appearance by Paralympic superstar Natalie Du Toit (pictured) was not enough to steal the limelight from GB’s swimmers, who enjoyed a storming day in the pool at Manchester Aquatics Centre.

In total, the Beijing-bound athletes smashed three world records and picked up 14 medals, seven of them gold.

Heather Frederiksen broke her own world record with a time of 1.17.41 in the S8 100m backstroke, an outstanding swim in front of a home crowd by the Salford-based swimmer.

She said: “I was aiming to do that time at some point in the future so now I’ll have to set higher targets.

There’s a little bit more pressure on me ahead of the Paralympics now but it’s always good to go into an event as the fastest.”

Natalie Jones also broke her own world mark, touching the wall in 3:15.72 in the SM6 200m individual medley.

“I’m amazed, because I’m in really hard training at the moment so I’m really, really pleased,” she said.

Jones finished ahead of Nyree Lewis in second.

Lewis said: “I’m in shock, because all weekend I’ve been complaining about how tired I’ve been in training. To do a good time and a one-and-a-half second PB as well, I’m very shocked.”

Youngster Sam Hynd brought up the hat-trick of world records for GB, setting 4:31.33 in the men’s S8 400m freestyle.

“I’m in hard training at the minute, so that was great,” said Hynd.

South African Du Toit was in typically powerful form, and maintained her unbeaten record in the Manchester pool with a dominant win in the S9 100m freestyle in a time of 1.01.32, six seconds ahead of Britain’s Louise Watkin in second.