British Trials, Day 2 Finals: Alice Tai & Stephen Clegg Serve Up Backstroke Brilliance

Alice Tai: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow

British Trials, Day 2 Finals: Alice Tai & Stephen Clegg Serve Up Backstroke Brilliance

Alice Tai served up a stunning swim on the way to multi-classification (MC) women’s 100m backstroke victory and a Paralympic nomination time at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in London.

The six-day meet features an integrated Olympic and Paralympic programme and serves as qualification for Paris.

Tai – back in the Aquatics Centre in which she won seven world titles in 2019 – came out on top, her time more than nine seconds inside her S8 classification’s Paralympic nomination standard and ensuring a tally of 1062 British Para-Swimming points.

It was just enough to get the better of another superb Poppy Maskill performance, as she powered clear of the field to threaten the S14 world record on her way to a Paris nomination standard and a total of 1047 points.

Olivia Newman-Baronius (who took bronze), Megan Neave and Georgia Sheffield all also went quicker than the S14 1:08.80 mark, with three athletes eligible for each event per classification.

Reflecting on her journey since the 2019 World Championships, Tai said:

“It’s crazy, 2019 was such an insane week for me – it was a lot of things that combined in the sense of a really good block of training, a couple of competitors weren’t on their best game and so it worked out incredibly for me.

“It’s so nice to be back as over the last three years I’ve had surgery on three of my limbs so it’s been pretty intense, but I’m getting back down towards my world records and I’d really like to go under them in Paris.

“The Paralympic team announcement isn’t for a few weeks but I’m hopeful that meeting the nomination standard should have secured me a place.”

World champion Stephen Clegg, the S12 swimmer focusing on his own race behind an inspired William Ellard, who would go on to break the S14 British 100 back record in 59.60 and scored 869 points.

Clegg, though, kept his composure despite a slight tangle with the lane rope at one stage, doing enough to clinch a Paris nomination standard and the British title on 960 points. Mark Tompsett took bronze on 813.

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