Ellie Simmonds’ family back her to ‘equal Sir Steve Redgrave with golds at five Games’

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Matt Watts13 September 2016

Ellie Simmonds’ dramatic gold puts her on course to match hero Sir Steve Redgrave’s record of winning medals at five Games, her family said today.

The swimmer, 21, took her first gold at the Rio Paralympics in the pool last night with a S6 200m individual medley victory in a world-record time. She trailed in sixth place after 50 metres but came through to win.

Simmonds, who has achondroplasia, which is a common cause of dwarfism, first came to prominence when she won two titles at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics aged 13. She won another two golds in the pool at London 2012, becoming a poster girl for the Games.

Her cousin Nikki Simmonds-Howship today said her gold, the first time the race had been swum in under three minutes, showed she was “fully capable” of matching Sir Steve, 54. She said: “She can achieve whatever she wants to. I’ve no doubt she can win golds at five games. She could set all kinds of records.

"She is still so young and wants more success. We are all just really proud of her. I was always confident she was going to win. She works really hard and handles the pressure so well.”

After her victory, Simmonds, who races today in her favourite event, the S6 400m freestyle, said: “I was so nervous leading into that race, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to be sick!’ But I had a great warm-up and I’m really chuffed. It was a hard race, really tough.

“I’m really happy and it hasn’t sunk in. I’m going to enjoy the ceremony but I have another tough race coming up.”

Her victory was part of another successful day at the Paralympics for Great Britain, who took their total medal haul in Rio to 63, including 28 golds.

Swimmers Sascha Kindred and Susie Rodgers joined Simmonds by winning gold in the pool last night. Kindred, 38, who won in his SM6 200m individual medley, has now won 13 medals, seven of them gold, at six Paralympics since making his debut in Atlanta in 1996.

Earlier, Will Bayley and Aled Davies took gold in the class 7 table tennis and F42 shot put respectively. There was success in the mixed team compound open archery too as John Stubbs and Jodie Grinham won silver, before Jonathan Broom-Edwards finished second in the T44 high jump final.

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