Iona Winnifrith wins silver medal aged 13 on successful evening for GB swimmers

Schoolgirl Iona Winnifrith won 100m breaststroke silver aged 13 before Rebecca Redfern and Alice Tai added golds on a successful evening for Great Britain’s swimmers.

Hours after 14-year-old table tennis player Bly Twomey won her second bronze of the Games, the youngest member of ParalympicsGB’s squad secured her own podium place.

Winnifrith touched the wall in a lifetime best of one minute and 29.69 seconds in the SB7 race at La Defense Arena.

Redfern then took the SB13 100m breaststroke crown, having won silvers in the event at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, before Tai clinched her second title in France with victory in the S8 50m freestyle.

Teenager Winnifrith, from Kent, said: “I’m really happy with that performance and getting a silver medal at 13 is really cool.

“I spoke with my coach (and the plan was) just try and keep up with the girls all the way through and then power it through the last length.

“As much as I wanted that gold, I just knew I had to fight for it, and that’s what I did. I’m really proud.”

Russian Mariia Pavlova, who had been fastest in qualifying, enjoyed a sweet success in a world-record time of one minute and 26.09 secs.

Winnifrith grew up idolising five-time Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds.

She is just over five months younger than Simmonds was when she claimed her first gold at Beijing in 2008.

“Ellie has influenced me so much,” said Winnifrith. “I’ve met her a few times and she is very good at talking to us and inspiring us.”

Winnifrith is Britain’s youngest Paralympic swimming medallist since Scottish athlete Abby Kane claimed S13 backstroke silver in Rio, six weeks after her 13th birthday.

Redfern later finished comfortably ahead of American pair Olivia Chambers and Colleen Young in a time of one minute 16.02 seconds, having led from about 35 metres, to end her wait for glory.

“To win two silvers at my first two Paralympics and now gold, it means the world,” said the 24-year-old.

“It feels really surreal, I was half expecting someone to come out of lane one and beat me. A gold medal is just crazy. We’ve had a hell of a journey to get here.”

Tai, who underwent an amputation on her right leg in January 2022 after missing Tokyo due to an elbow injury, was victorious in 29.91 seconds.

The 25-year-old, who won S8 100m backstroke gold on Saturday, was 40 seconds clear of Brazilian silver medallist Cecilia Araujo.

“I knew it was going to be a close race and I thought someone might duck under 30 (seconds) but I didn’t think it would be me,” she said.

“My starts have been affected since my amputation so this was a shot in the dark, I don’t have that power off the start any more.

“I didn’t know I’d won until the girl next to me told me, I couldn’t see.”