Rhys Darbey put himself firmly in the frame for this summer’s Paralympics after producing a stunning swim to smash the 200m IM Para nomination time.
The 16-year-old, who won silver on his World Championships debut in Manchester last year, was inches away from a gold medal that would have guaranteed his spot in Paris as he clinched a stunning second place finish in London.
After swimming a time of 2:14.22 in the heats, the S14 athlete saved his best for the final as he produced a rapid back half of the race to slash three seconds off his qualification time.
“Hopefully I can do what I did at Worlds in Paris,” he said. “I just have to keep training hard and hopefully I will get nominated for Paris. The swim was all right and my recovery clearly worked which I’m happy about.”
Men’s 200m IM Para Paris Final
Darbey was chasing a place at his maiden Paralympic Games heading into the 200m IM Para Paris final. The Nofio Clwyd swimmer made big gains in the Breaststroke leg and went past Cameron Vearncombe in the final Freestyle 50. Darbey went stroke for stroke with Will Ellard as they raced towards the wall, but Ellard just edged him to gold. Darbey slashed three seconds off his heats time to dip well under the consideration time for Paris as he claimed a huge haul of 909 points from the race.
Men’s 100m Butterfly B Final
Rhys Edwards got the action underway in the 100m Butterfly B final after an impressive heats swim. After qualifying sixth in 53.96, he lowered his time and moved up a place to finish fifth in 53.84.
Men’s 100m Butterfly Paris Final
Lewis Fraser and Thomas Carswell both secured qualification for a Paris stacked final containing GB swimmers Jacob Peters, Ed Mildred and James Guy. Joe Litchfield was the shock winner of the race as he took the touch in 51.71. Fraser made a positive start from lane one as he went through the halfway mark in 24.07, and he was in the mix for medals down the home straight, but eventually finished sixth, with Carswell eighth.
Women’s 400m Freestyle Para Paris Final
Meghan Willis was the sole Welsh representative in the Women’s 400m MC Freestyle final after Lily Rice was mistakenly displayed as a qualifier after the heats. The Torfaen Dolphins swimmer went out hard in the first 50m before settling into her rhythm. The 16-year-old was the fifth place finisher in the mixed classification final, but seventh on points with a haul of 685 in the final as she touched in 5:13.76.
Women’s 400m Freestyle Junior Final
Emilia John of Cardiff placed fifth in the 400m junior final after going a second quicker than her morning time as she touched the wall in 4:22.03 to continue a hugely successful meet for the capital club.
Women’s 200m Backstroke Junior Final
Commonwealth Youth Games medallist Holly Marshall secured a berth in the200m Backstroke junior final with half an eye on qualification for the European Junior Championships. The Repton swimmer slashed two tenths of a second off her heat time to finish fifth in 2:19.31.
Men’s 200m IM B Final
After hitting a big PB in the heats this morning, Solomon Williams was at it again in the B final, dropping a time of 2:04.54 to shave another 0.12 seconds off his best as he finished sixth.
Men’s 200m IM Paris Final
Cardiff’s Will Ryley was back in Individual Medley action after reaching the Paris final of the 400m IM on Thursday night. Despite the brutal schedule, Ryley managed to slash eight tenths of a second off his heat time in a strong final containing Olympic medallists Duncan Scott and Tom Dean as he finished eighth in a season’s best time.
