Simmonds on song as Britain dominate final day

By Paul Eddison, Sportsbeat, in Manchester

GREAT BRITAIN double Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds came within a whisker of breaking her own 200m IM record as she cruised to victory at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

GOLDEN GIRL: Ellie Simmonds produces a stunning swim to claim gold in Manchester

On a successful day for the British team at the Aquatics Centre Simmonds was just 0.12 off her record, coming through strongly on the breaststroke and freestyle to beat compatriot and rival Natalie Jones in 3:09.36.

The swim was all the more impressive given Simmonds' disrupted preparation for the meet which closed the curtain on this year's World Cup.

"I was really pleased with that actually - it's a bit of a shock actually to go so quickly at this stage of the season," said Simmonds who won Paralympic gold over 100m and 400m freestyle in Beijing.

"We had a warm weather training camp in Mallorca and that was great but it was a little bit stressful actually because I had to take some of my GCSEs out there."

Fresh from the weeklong training camp, Britain were in dominant form, winning eight of the twelve races, setting them up perfectly for this summer's European Championships in Berlin.

Stephanie Millward grabbed gold in the opening race of the day over 100m backstroke in 1:11.13 before claiming silver in the 50m freestyle, as fellow Brit Louise Watkin picked up gold with Claire Cashmore making it a one-two-three in third.

Cashmore also had time to pick up silver in her main event, the 100m breaststroke, coming home in 1:21.69.

And 19-year-old Sam Hynd was in imperious form as he threatened his own world record over 400m, finishing in 4:28.99, as Britain claimed a clean sweep, Thomas Young and Sean Fraser winning silver and bronze respectively.

Young followed up his silver in the 400m with a comfortable victory in the 100m backstroke, again beating Fraser, who came second, in 1:09.57.

In the highly-anticipated battle of British breaststrokers, Charlotte Henshaw pipped rival Liz Johnson to gold in 1:39.33 ahead of a high class field.

Reigning world champion Daniel Pepper also impressed as he came back strongly to beat world record holder Craig Groenewald over 200m freestyle.

And veteran Matthew Walker rounded off the competition in style as he won the 50m freestyle in 28.62.

As a result of their complete dominance in the pool, Britain moved ahead of the Rest of the World and the Americas to win the Paralympic World Cup trophy for the first time.

BT Paralympic World Cup took place in Manchester from 23-28 May with elite international athletes competing in Swimming, Athletics and Wheelchair Basketball. Go to www.btparalympicworldcup.com for more information

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