Third bronze for GB swimmer

Susie Rodgers completed a hat-trick of bronze medals on her Paralympic debut with a gutsy performance in the S7 women’s 400m freestyle last night.

The 29-year-old, who has also lifted bronze in the 100m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay, beat her European record for the second time in two races as she came home in five minutes 18.93secs to win GB’s 100th medal of these Paralympic Games.

And it was so nearly silver for London-based Rodgers as USA’s Courtney Jordan won a frantic sprint for the wall in 5:18.55, but the Brit insisted she was over the moon to have landed another medal in her fifth and final individual event of the Games.

“That was brilliant. It was a fantastic race,” said Rodgers.

“I was definitely helped by Courtney – I was pacing off her. I wanted to go sub 5:20 and get a new European record that way so to finish on that high is amazing.

“At the start of the meet I was very nervous, stressed and tense so I’ve tried to relax and enjoy it more. I really wanted a medal tonight and that time is brilliant.”

Britain won four other medals in the pool last night, with 15-year-old Josef Craig claiming gold and breaking his own world record in the S7 men’s 400m freestyle.

He said: “I turned round and saw world record again and thought, ‘this is a surprise’. I’m quite shocked by this – I might need a bit of therapy.”

Stephanie Millward and Louise Watkin won silver and bronze respectively in a thrilling SM9 women’s 200m individual medley, behind South Africa’s Natalie du Toit.

“I really enjoyed that race. I enjoyed keeping up with Natalie really closely. It was our last race together and she gave me a huge hug at the end which was nice,” said Millward.

Heather Frederiksen won her third medal of the Games with silver in a dramatic S8 100m freestyle final, won in a new world record by American Jessica Long.