Cole and Elliott set the Rio pool alight – AGAIN

NSWIS pair Ellie Cole (pictured left) and Maddison Elliott (pictured right) have both won gold for the second day in succession – backing up yesterday’s 4x100m freestyle relay victory with wins in the S9 100m backstroke and S8 50m freestyle respectively.

Cole and Elliott then returned to the pool to add another silver to their collections soon after in Australia’s thrilling 4x100m medley relay runner-up finish to Great Britain.
Cole told News Limited after her backstroke victory over Spain’s Nuria Marques Soto that self-doubt had plagued her Rio Paralympic campaign.

The 24-year-old veteran of three Paralympic Games’, who lost her right leg to cancer when aged just two, shed tears of joy and relief on the dais, after securing her first individual win of these Games with a Paralympic record swim of 1:09.18.

The time was half a second outside her own S9-class world record, but 0.39 better than Soto, with American Hannah Aspden third in 1:10.67.

Cole was one of Australia’s stars of the pool in London 2012, taking home four golds including the 100m backstroke title.

But after silvers in each of the 50m and 400m freestyle in Rio, and bronze for the 100m freestyle in which she was defending Paralympic champion, Cole said she could feel herself being “taken down” by internal doubt at whether she deserved her place on the Paralympics stage.

“It’s day nine of competition, that can be hard for any athlete,” Cole revealed to News Limited.

“I was watching the Olympics and watching the swimmers come out of the pool and saying how much of a rollercoaster the emotions were, and I completely understand what they were talking about now.

“I knew that I was world record holder going into that race. I was still questioning if I was worthy to be there heading in — and I knew that I was, but it’s amazing that even after the amount of psychological sports training that I’ve had, those thoughts still come in and take you down.

“Usually the athletes who win are the ones who can put those thoughts aside, and tell themselves that they’ve got a good crack at winning.”

Cole said while the backstroke victory was sweet, her campaign was a reminder of the work it took to remain at the top level.

“Winning four gold medals from the London games, I had a lot of expectation on myself — and the Australian public did too,” she said.

“You’ve just got to train as hard as you can and hope that you’ll still be No. 1 when you get to the next Games.”

Moments after Cole’s individual gold, Elliott become the first S8 female in history to go under 30 seconds in the 50m freestyle in leading an Australian one-two finish with compatriot Lakeisha Patterson.

Elliott clocked a stunning 29.73 to break her own world record in the event – a record she set two years ago in 2014 at 30.13. Patterson actually tied the old world record as well, but it was in a silver-medal effort.

The win gives Elliott a 3rd gold medal of these Olympics, complimenting her earlier win in the 100m freestyle and as part of Australia’s 34 points 4x100m freestyle relay yesterday.  She was also runner-up in the 100m backstroke and today’s second silver alongside Cole as part of Australia’s medley relay team.

In other events in the pool, NSWIS pair Matt Levy and Tim Hodge both were just outside the medals in finals.

Levy was seventh in the S7 100m freestyle, while Hodge placed sixth in the S9 100m backstroke.

Earlier, Jenna Jones missed the S13 100m freestyle final by just one place, finishing ninth, with Prue Watt 13^th in the same event. Sean Russo was 16^th in the corresponding men’s event.

The Rio Paralympic swimming program ends tomorrow.