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Simmons, 14, is No. 1

SimoondsTeenage Paralympic star Eleanor Simmonds was the star of the show again at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester as she smashed the world record in the S6 100m freestyle.

The 14-year-old broke the previous record of 1:17.43 with a time of 1:16.21, ahead of fellow Brit Natalie Jones in second.

She was surprised, she said. “I didn’t think I could get a world record in the 100m. It’s not even my favourite – the 400m free is - so to break the world record in my second event with two seconds off my PB is really good!”

GB took 18 medals – nine of them golds – in the pool at the Manchester Aquatics Centre, continuing last summer’s success in Beijing.

Also among the golds was Paralympic multi-medallist Dave Roberts, who in the S7 50m and 100m freestyle went head to head again with teammate and rival Matt Walker. In the 50m freestyle, Walker looked like claiming a rare victory over Roberts but the Welshman stormed back to snatch the win by 0.16 of a second.

In the 100m, Roberts had things more his own way, leading from the off to take gold ahead of the USA’s Lantz Lamback, with Walker back in third.

“That was sweet”, Roberts said. “Neither swim was that good but sometimes the winning’s more important. Back-to-back racing is hard work and I broke the world record in the 400m yester­day, so that doesn’t help.”

Referring to the close race between him and Walker, he added: “I expected to win the 100m but Matt beat me in the 50m at the European trials. It’s an open thing: he beat me last weekend and I beat him this week.”

There was a British clean sweep in the S9 50m freestyle, with Louise Watkin touching home first in 29.41 ahead of Stephanie Milward and Lauren Steadman, while in the S8 100m backstroke, Heather Frederiksen narrow­ly missed beating her own world record on the way to claiming gold.

Also in action was South African swimming powerhouse Natalie Du Toit, who saw off the opposition in the women’s multi-disability 100m freestyle.

Du Toit, who last year became the first female amputee swimmer ever to qualify for the Olympics, held off Watkin by just over a second to win gold in 1:02.42.