NSWIS swimmers deliver double gold in Rio pool

NSWIS’s rising superstar of the pool Tiffany Thomas Kane and established starlets Ellie Cole and Maddison Elliott have all won gold on day 8 of the Paralympic swimming program at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio.

Thomas Kane smashed the Paralympic S6 100m breaststroke record for the second time in the day after a storming heat swim, grabbing victory in the final in 1:35.39, to outclass American Sophia Herzog (1:36.95) and Brit Charlotte Henshaw (1:37.79).

The Australian was challenged in the final by Herzog, who led the field out at the 50m mark, but Thomas Kane came home fast and took the lead with 20m remaining.

The time was less than half a second shy of Thomas Kane’s own world record set at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow last year but that didn’t matter in Rio. The 15-year-old is now a Paralympic champion.

“I don’t know – I just wanted to go for it,” Thomas Kane told Channel Seven.

“I didn’t care if I didn’t get a world record … I’m so happy that I went out there and finally got a gold medal.”

“It’s very sweet given I wanted to get a different colour and wanted to hear a different jingle (sound in the medal).”

Fellow NSWIS swimmer Kate Wilson was eighth in 1:46.87.

Thomas Kane now has four medals from her debut Paralympics – a gold and three bronze – and is already shaping up as one of Australia’s great hopes at the Tokyo Paralympics in four years-time.

Cole, swimming at her fourth Paralympics, and Elliott, contesting her second, began the day with a massive 18 Paralympic medals between them but by night’s end that tally was up to 20 as the NSWIS pair combined with Australian teammates Lakeisha Patterson and Ashleigh McConnell to smash their opposition – and the world record – in winning the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay – 34 points.

Cole got the Australian team off to a great start, touching first in a split of 1:02.92 and her teammates were never headed. Elliott, swimming third, split 1:05.10 and the whole team combined for a new world record of 4:16.65. The USA (4:20.10) and China (4:24.22) were left in the Australian quartet’s wake as they claimed the other medals.

“That was one of our records from London, but the last few days I’ve been absolutely obsessed with the relays,” Cole told Channel Seven.

“We can all walk away with a gold medal now!”

Elliott, who was also part of the winning team in London, said: “To be back-to-back Paralympic gold medallists, with another world record, especially with these girls, is just amazing.”

Earlier NSWIS’s Tim Hodge was tenth in the men’s S9 100m butterfly heats.

A host of NSWIS swimmers will be back in the pool on day 9 including Cole and Elliott who will contest the 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle respectively.