An impressive 13 world records beaten and 16 gold medals won were the outcome of the first day of the Swimming competition at the National Aquatics Centre on Sunday.
Dmitry Kokarev of Russia was the first gold medalist of the day, setting new a world and Paralympic record of 4:45.43 in the Men's 200m Freestyle - S2. Jim Anderson of Great Britain got silver in 5:00.03 and Georgios Kapellakis of Greece took bronze in 5:05.91.
Andrey Strokin of Russia swam in 1:00.60 the first Paralympic record of the competition in heat 1 of the Men's 100m Butterfly - S13 on Sunday morning. In Heat 2 though, Dzmitry Salei of Belarus claimed the record for himself, swimming in 1:00.08. Salei kept a good performance in the final, taking the gold medal and improving his time even more to set a new world and Paralympic record in 58.89. Charalampos Taiganidis of Greece won silver in 59.24 and Strokin claimed bronze in 1:00.83.
In the Women's 100m Butterfly - S13, Canada's Valerie Grand Maison won gold swimming in 1:06.49.
Du Jianping of China smashed the world record in the Men's 100m Freestyle - S3, swimming in 1:35.21 to claim the gold medal. Du also improved his own Paralympic record of 1:42.95 set during heats.
In the Men's 100m Freestyle - S4, David Smetanine of France won the gold medal in 1:24.67. Richard Oribe of Spain took silver in 1:26.62 and Jan Povysil of Czech Republic came right after to claim bronze in 1:26.75.
In the Women's 100m Freestyle - S4, Nely Miranda of Mexico claimed gold in 1:44.11. USA's Cheryl Angelelli took silver in 1:50.24 and countrywoman Aimee Bruder won bronze in 1:55.33.
Daniel Dias of Brazil won the first gold medal for Brazil in the Men's 100m Freestyle - S5, setting a new world and Paralympic record of 1:11.05.
World and Paralympic records also came in the Women's 100m Freestyle - S5, with Maria Teresa Perales of Spain taking the gold in 1:16.65.
Sascha Kindred of Great Britain won the gold medal and improved knocked 6.16 seconds off his own world and Paralympic record in the Men's 200m Individual Medley - SM6, swimming in 2:42.19.
In the Women's 200m Individual Medley - SM6, Miranda Uhl of the United States took the world record away from Natalie Jones of Great Britain by winning the gold medal in 3:13.05. Uhl beat her own Paralympic record of 3:16.95 set in the heats. Maria Goetze of Germany got silver in 3:14.59 and Jones took bronze in 3:15.20.
Rudy Garcia Tolson of the United States won the gold medal and beat his own world and Paralympic record by swimming in 2:35.92 the Men's 200m Individual Medley - SM7.
In the Women's 200m Individual Medley - SM7, Erin Popovich of the United States also smashed her world and Paralympic record, claiming gold in 2:54.61.
In the Men's 100m Butterfly - S8, Peter Leek of Australia swam in 1:00.95 to win gold and improve his time by 0.15 seconds breaking his own world and Paralympic record set in the heats.
In the Women's 100m Butterfly - S8, Jessica Long of the United States won the gold medal in 1:11.96. Fellow countrywoman Amanda Everlove, who had set a world and Paralympic record in the heats swimming in 1:11.64, could not maintain the same performance and got silver in 1:12.16. Jin Xiaoqin of China took bronze in 1:15.32.
Tamas Sors of Hungary claimed gold in 59.34, breaking his world and Paralympic record set in the heats by 0.04 seconds, in the Men's 100m Butterfly - S9.
Natalie du Toit of South Africa was the gold medalist and broke the world and Paralympic record in 1:06.74, in the last competition of the day, the Women's 100m Butterfly - S9 final, improving her own Paralympic record set in the heats.
(BOCOG September 7, 2008)