BARTON on Sea’s Alice Tai clinched her second gold of the Paralympic games last night.

Poole-born Tai took to the pool in her fourth event of the games – having won a medal in each of her first three.

It was the S8 50m freestyle which was next in Tai’s sights, an event in which she set the world record in Berlin in 2019.

She soared through the qualifiers with the fastest time of 30.52 seconds, and was favourite for the gold heading into the final.

It was lane-neighbours Cecilia Jeronimo de Araujo and Viktoriia Ishchiulova who had the better starts of the three swimmers but Tai surged through in the final 25 metres to take the win by 0.4 seconds, in a time of 29.91 seconds.

(Image: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire)

It was Jeronimo de Araujo who took silver and Ishchiulova who won bronze.

Speaking to Channel Four after the race, Tai said: “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.

“My starts have been affected since my amputation, so this was a shot in the dark, normally I go out in 13 point to make 29, but 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.”

“I wasn’t sure, going from 400 yesterday to 50 today is a real change in systems, my whole strength is different when I swim 50 compared to 400.

“I’m in shock – 29!”

Tai said she is nearing her times from before she had her leg amputated to relieve her of pain two years ago. 

This swim was a personal best of 0.6 seconds since her amputation, with Tai telling Sportsbeat that she was still processing her PB. 

(Image: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire)

“This is more than I expected," she said.  

"Every swim has been a PB since my amputation, I’m getting close to my old times.  

“I didn’t think I’d be getting back down to sub-30 for another year, we’ve only been working on my dive for four months.  

“It’s still pretty new and I’m still figuring it out. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome, I have the full set and an extra gold, which is pretty cool, and another race to go - but I’ll have a day off tomorrow.” 

(Image: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire)

This gold medal adds to the gold Tai won in the 100m backstroke on Saturday.

She also took silver in the 400m freestyle on Wednesday, after winning bronze in the 200m individual medley on Sunday.

But Tai’s games are not finished yet – she goes in search of gold again in the 100m butterfly tomorrow [Saturday, September 7].

She will be up against defending world and Paralympic champion Jessica Long, to whom she lost out on gold to in the 400m freestyle but beat into the medals in the 200m medley.

Ishchiulova took silver three years ago in Tokyo, and she will be hoping to go one better in this event, having won two silver medals and two bronze medals so far at these games, but has yet to stand on the top step.

(Image: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire)

The heats for the butterfly get underway at 9.16am on Saturday, with the final at 5.07pm.

On her return since her amputation, Tai told Sportsbeat: “It’s crazy. When I first got back in the pool, I called my coach as I was swimming really slowly, my times were really off.  

“I called him thinking I was going to have to retire. I was 20 seconds off in a 100m - turns out I was swimming in a 33m pool, not a 25m pool, and I hadn’t realised - I was doing 30 per cent more distance than I was meant to.  

“I can’t believe I’m getting back towards those times, my backstroke has dropped almost a whole second, my 50 free I’ve knocked 0.6 seconds off my best time since amputation, my medley I swam faster than when I had two legs.  

(Image: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire)

“Training is clearly going very well. A lot of it has been about getting balance back post-amputation, some strokes came more naturally. We’ve had to figure out different ways to swim it in training.  

“I definitely feel like things have changed from that perspective. The ceiling is getting higher, I’m constantly striving to go faster.  

“Bring it on, I want to keep improving and I’m excited to see what I can do next season.”