August 26, (THEWILL) – Records began crumbling at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan the moment the athletes got into their events and on Thursday, Britain’s Tully Kearney made up for heartbreak on the opening day of competition by winning gold in the S5 100m freestyle and smashing the world record in the process.
On Wednesday, China’s Zhang Li finished ahead of Kearney at the last minute in the 200m, but the 24-year-old responded the following day with an emphatic victory in the pool event to knock two seconds off her own previous world record.
The Brit touched the platform to finish in 1:14.39 ahead of Zhang to not only get one back for herself but add to her series of championship wins in the swimming event.
As a multiple world champion, who was born with cerebral palsy, Kearney has had to regularly deal with injuries. These injuries forced the Paralympian to withdraw from Rio 2016 on the eve of the opening of the Games in Brazil.
It was almost the same thing again before Tokyo but she was able to stay the course and turn her dominance on the circuit to gold at the Paralympics. After her victory, she admitted that it was a long time coming but worth it: “I was quite frustrated with myself for how I swam the race yesterday.
“I was aiming for a world record in the 200 and unfortunately through the injuries I just didn’t have the fitness to hold on. Today, I was absolutely determined that no-one was going to beat me. I felt rubbish but I just decided I was going to go out there and leave it all in the pool, and it worked.
“It was so worth it, I’ve got so many people to thank. My mum, if it wasn’t for her…after Rio I was told for the second time I would never be able to swim again because of my shoulders and my physical limitations.
“For me at that point, I didn’t even want to try and swim again because I thought it’s better not to try.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
