Scarlett Humphrey seeks individual medal in the pool at maiden Paralympics

By Milly McEvoy at La Defense Arena

Scarlett Humphrey was happy to keep her family name flying as she finished seventh in the women’s S11 50m freestyle final at the Paris Paralympic Games.

The 19-year-old often competes against identical twin sister Eliza but was without her sibling in the final at La Defense Arena.

The West Haddon native swam strongly in a packed field to finish seventh and eclipse the team she set in the heat.

“I’m happy with that, there are a lot of good freestylers in this classification so to be seventh I am happy with that,” said Humphrey, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.

“I thought it would be touch and go to make the final so to finish seventh is good.

“I just wanted to improve on what I did in the heats this morning.

“I wanted to improve my breathing, so I wasn’t breathing in the last five metres of the race, I executed those better in the finals.”

China’s Jia Ma lowered her own world record to 28.96 to claim gold with Humphrey finishing 1.89 seconds back but only 0.55 second off the podium.

Humphrey still has two more events to come, competing in the women’s 100m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley, the latter of which will see her go up against her sister once again.

Her time of 30.85 was 0.13 quicker than her heat swim, as she adds a seventh-place finish to her sixth in the women’s 400m freestyle yesterday.

She added: “It was a bit strange not having Eliza there, I enjoy competing against Eliza, she sent me some messages of good luck.

“Every race I just want to race the best for myself, so I just wanted to race and keep the Humphrey name going up the scoreboard.

“I just want to keep qualifying for finals and see how high I can finish in them and see how well I can do. No expectations, just see how fast I can go.”

Humphrey is making her debut at the Paralympic Games, one of 16 in the British team.

The squad have already claimed 11 medals in the pool, with five coming in the space of 37 minutes before Humphrey competed on Saturday night.

“I’ve really enjoyed it competing at the Paralympics, I didn’t really know what to expect but I have really enjoyed it, it has been so positive towards the Paralympic movement.

“I have never had so many people watching me before, you can hear the noise when you are back in the call room.

“It is quite a lot to get used to, but it gives you a lot of energy going out to race.”

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