Fine form continues as para-swimmers win 15 medals in France

Great Britain’s para-swimmers continued their fine form after winning a further 15 medals at the CITI Para Swimming World Series event in Limoges, France at the weekend.

The three-day event saw 13 British swimmers involved with ten of them from England.

Around 250 swimmers from 29 nations took part at the Aquapolis complex pool for France’s first CITI World Series event which saw British swimmers secure a podium clean sweep on the opening day.

It was topped by Ellie Challis who added to her silver medal at the Berlin World Series event just two weeks earlier with victory in the MC Women’s 200m Freestyle.

Challis finished narrowly ahead of Georgia Sheffield by just 21 para-swimming points with her time of 3:40.18 winning her gold.

Sheffield was second with fellow S14 swimmer Megan Neave rounding out the podium in third, finishing eight seconds behind her compatriot to score an impressive 745 points.

Challis wasn’t done there however as she won a further three medals across the weekend.

She won both the Women’s 50m Breaststroke and the 50m Freestyle to make it three gold medals across the weekend whilst she also secured silver in the 50m Backstroke.

Tai’s terrific return

The competition in Limoges also saw a welcome return to action for 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Alice Tai.

She competed in her first event in 2023 and was straight back to the podium as she was the first Brit to win gold at the competition.

Ealing Swimming Club’s Tai won both the Women’s 100m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke as she edged out her compatriot Poppy Maskill to top spot on both occasions.

She produced a time of 1:15.80 in the 100m Backstroke which saw her score 1008 multi-classification points.

That was 29 points ahead of Maskill after she swam the quickest time in the final with a 1:07.56.

The 100m Freestyle was even closer between the two British swimmers as Maskill was just five points off Tai’s total.

Tai finished in 1:07.89 to score 945 points with Maskill scoring 940 for her strong 1:01.07 swim. Tai also finished runner up in the 50m Freestyle to Challis as there was another British 1-2 finish.

S14 swimmer Maskill did manage to secure three golds herself.

The Manchester Performance Centre athlete claimed the Women’s 200m Individual Medley, 50m Butterfly gold and 400m Freestyle titles.

That took her total to five medals across the three days as Sheffield finished second in 50m Butterfly to complete Britain’s medal haul.

As well as the medals a number of British swimmers got the chance to compete on the international stage as they continued to prepare for World Championships in Manchester in around two months’ time.

You can catch all the results from the Para Swimming World Series event in France here and you can watch all the sessions back on the events website.

Main image – British Swimming