"I was more shocked this afternoon because I was really tired, so I didn't think I would do anything good." - Cortney Jordan COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, December 6. DAY one of the U.S. Paralympics Open Swimming Championships concluded Thursday at the University of Maryland's Eppley Recreation Center, highlighted by a world-record performance in the morning and two excellent races during the evening finals.
Cortney Jordan ended the morning on a high note with a world-best time in the S7 800m freestyle of 11:36.43, smashing the old mark by more than 24 seconds. The 16-year-old followed that up in the evening by improving on her own American record in the 50m backstroke, stopping the clock in 41.56.
Jordan said her evening performance was a bonus after achieving her big goal during the first session.
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"I was more shocked this afternoon because I was really tired, so I didn't think I would do anything good," Jordan said. "This morning, I was really excited because I had been training really hard for that event. I saw the [previous world record] time online and I knew I could beat it."
Following the 50m back was the 100m breaststroke, which provided the closest race of the night between two of the sport's top female athletes. Jessica Long edged out Erin Popovich by one-tenth of a second, finishing with a time of 1:39.70.
Popovich would go on to beat her own American record in the 100m butterfly by two full seconds later that evening.
On the men's side, a close race in the 200m free between a U.S. veteran and an up-and-coming American swimmer resulted in two new American records.
Justin Zook and Tucker Dupree, a visually impaired athlete, raced ahead of the otherwise all-S10 field, with Zook pulling away at the finish and stopping the clock with a time of 2:04.69. Dupree finished in 2:05.55 and set a new record in the S12 class.
Both swimmers improved on their own American records.
After the competition, U.S. Paralympics Swimming head coach Julie O'Neill said she was very pleased with the performances she saw on day one.
"Overall the meet is going very well," O'Neill said. "The level of competition was quite high today due to the international nature of the event. I'm very pleased with the performances by all of our U.S. athletes today."
Day two on Friday will start with preliminaries at 9:00 a.m. EST, with finals starting at 5:00 p.m.
Special thanks to U.S. Paralympics for contributing this report.
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