Loughborough College’s Sophie Hahn struck silver in a record-breaking relay while Ellie Simmonds battled for bronze on day eight at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
On Thursday evening Sophie Hahn and the women’s 4x100m F35-38 relay squad of Kadeena Cox, Maria Lyle, Georgina Hermitage and Sophie Hahn added to Paralympics GB’s medal tally with silver in a new British record.
Hahn had already won gold in the 100m T38 in Rio, completing a full set of major international titles for the Loughborough College athlete who is still only 19.
Despite clocking 51.07, the quartet was unable to get the better of China who set a new world record 50.81 for gold.
"I’m just so delighted – it has been an amazing Games. These girls are incredible and we are very lucky to be representing our country,” said Hahn.
"Hopefully we have done everyone proud and we can come away with the gold next year [in the World Championships].
“I’m looking forward to experiencing that home crowd spirit."
Earlier in the day, former Loughborough College student Ellie Simmonds sailed through her 100m S6 breaststroke heat to make the evening’s final.
The 21 year old had already won a world record 200m individual medley SM6 gold in Rio but was disappointed on Tuesday after her favourite event, which she won in Beijing and London, saw her fail to defend her 400m freestyle crown when she finished behind Ukraine and China for bronze.
“I’m going to go out there and enjoy it and see what tonight brings,” said Simmonds following the heat.
“It’s been very hard to pick myself up after the disappointment of Tuesday, I’ve been feeling quite down but you’ve got to be up to support your teammates.”
That evening Simmonds battled for bronze against teammate Charlotte Henshaw but was forced to settle for fourth place, setting a time of 1:39.46.
Henshaw touched the wall in 1:37.79, 2.4 seconds behind 15-year-old Tiffany Thomas Kane of Australia who took gold, with USA’s Sophia Elizabeth Herzog in silver.
Simmonds now has one last chance to add to her gold and bronze medals from the 2016 Rio Paralympics when she competes in the 100m freestyle event on Saturday.
After falling to a 2-0 defeat to Ukraine in their team class 6-8 semi-final, ParalympicsGB will battle for table tennis bronze on Friday.
In the doubles, Loughborough College students Ross Wilson and Aaron McKibbin lost 11-4 in the first two games against Viktor Didukh and Maxym Nikolenko before pulling the match back to 2-2 with 12-10 and 11-7 victories in the third and fourth games.
But it wasn’t to be their day as their opponents took the decisive game 11-6 to give the Ukrainians the early advantage.
Didukh then took on Will Bayley - who won class 7 gold earlier in the week – in the second match, but the Brit could do little to stop his opponent dominating proceedings to take the match 11-2, 11-6, 11-6.
ParalympicsGB will now face China, who lost to Sweden in their semi-final, in the bronze medal match, and confidence remains high in the team.
Speaking on his partnership with Wilson, McKibbin said:
“We believe we are one of the best doubles teams in the world and we are just very disappointed that it took us so long to get going.
“If we can go into tomorrow playing as we did in the second half of the game we are good enough to beat anyone.
“It is down to us believing in each other and just going for it. We’ve got a great opportunity tomorrow and we just need to refocus.”
Pictured: Loughborough College student Sophie Hahn (left) with the women’s 4x100m F35-38 relay squad of Kadeena Cox, Maria Lyle, Georgina Hermitage after winning a record-breaking silver at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games