Rebecca Redfern set her stall out in the battle for 100m breaststroke SB13 medals by qualifying second fastest for tonight’s final.
The 21-year-old, who hit the qualifying time for Tokyo in April, broke the event’s world record in the heats and won silver at Rio 2016.
Redfern looked in the mood for a repeat in her morning heat as she blasted into a lead of more than two seconds at the turn.
She stayed clear of the field and touched the wall in 1:15.46, suggesting her British record of 1:13.81 could be under threat in the evening session.
Redfern’s big rival will be German Elena Krawzow, who clocked 1:15.31 to win the other heat, and is likely to mount a charge in the final metres. The pair were more than a second faster than any other swimmer in the preliminaries.
Meanwhile, Andrew Mullen rounded off his third Paralympic Games with a placing of 13th in the 50m freestyle S5.
The Glasgow sprinter touched in 36.01 seconds, finishing seventh in a heat where the Paralympic record fell and missing out on a final place by 0.74 seconds.
“This has been a hard meet for everyone, but the attitude and mood within the team has always been incredibly upbeat and positive,” he said.
And 21-year-old Will Perry’s Paralympic debut ended with 18th place in the 100m freestyle S6. He swam 1:14.75 to finish eighth in his heat.
The evening session’s 400m freestyle S10 final will feature ParalympicsGB’s Zara Mullooly, who won bronze in the event at the 2019 World Championships in London, at 9:30am BST.
Courtesy of ParalympicsGB
