Breaststroke gold for World Champion Tiffany Thomas Kane

Paralympian Tiffany Thomas Kane has claimed Australia’s first gold medal of the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre, with a stunning performance in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke SB7.

After setting a new championship record of 1:30.36 and smashing her personal best by three seconds in the heats on Wednesday morning, Thomas Kane capitalised on her momentum to secure the gold in 1:30.84. Canadian Tess Routliffe touched for silver in 1:32.39 and Russia’s Mariia Pavlova received bronze in 1:33.74.

Speaking moments after her tremendous triumph, the 18-year-old said she was thrilled to win the Dolphins’ maiden gold medal of the meet.

“I’m still just in so much shock, I’m so happy to have brought the first gold medal home for Australia – I can’t believe that just happened,” she exclaimed.

“In that last 25 metres my body was dying but I knew I had to push all the way to get that gold medal and I did.

“My strategy was just to do the best I could do. We’d done all the skills before, so I just needed to make sure I delivered on those skills in the race and that got me in the front.

“I could hear my teammates in the crowd and the cooee and thought ‘the team is behind me’ so I’ve got to race well for them,” she added.