Spartans swimmers team up for mixed relay silver medal | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

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Spartans swimmers team up for mixed relay silver medal

USC Spartans team-mates Ben Hance and Ruby Storm helped Australia secure a silver medal in the first-ever Paralympic Games S14 mixed 4x100m freestyle relay in Tokyo on Saturday night.

Hance, 20, swam second and put Australia in the lead with a 52.39 second split before handing over to Storm, 17, who maintained the lead with a classy 1:00.92 swim.

Great Britain was too strong in the final leg, however, and finished in 3:40.63 to claim gold, plus the inaugural world record for the event, ahead of Australia (3:46.38) and Brazil (3:51.23).

Storm and Hance now have two medals each from the Games after they won bronze in their respective S14 100m butterfly events last Wednesday.

Also in the pool tonight, USC Spartans swimmer Katja Dedekind was unlucky not to claim her third medal in Tokyo when she finished 4th in the S13 50m freestyle.

Dedekind, 20, completed the race in 27.14 seconds, missing out on the bronze medal by just 0.07 of a second and silver by 0.08 of a second.

Meanwhile, the wheelchair rugby carnival is over for Chris Bond in the Australian team, which lost 60-52 to host nation Japan in the bronze medal match this afternoon.

And USC graduate Hannah Dodd’s campaign with the Australian wheelchair basketball team remains without a win, with the team losing tonight to Canada in the last preliminary round.

On Saturday, USC-based Pro Racing Sunshine Coast cyclist Alistair Donohoe was part of the Australian team that finished last in the team sprint qualifying at the Izu Velodrome.

But Donohoe, 26, is looking forward to competing in the road cycling time trial on Tuesday and the road race on Friday – events for which he is the current world champion.

There are 10 USC-affiliated athletes competing in the Paralympics. Results so far include:

  • Ruby Storm – silver in S14 mixed 4x100m freestyle; bronze in S14 100m butterfly; 7th in 200m freestyle
  • Ben Hance – silver in S14 mixed 4x100m freestyle; bronze in S14 100m butterfly
  • Alistair Donohoe – silver in C5 4km individual pursuit; 9th in team sprint qualifying
  • Katja Dedekind – bronze in S13 100m backstroke; bronze in S13 400m freestyle, 4th in S13 50m freestyle
  • Keira Stephens – bronze in SB9 100m breaststroke; 9th fastest in S9 50m freestyle
  • Braedan Jason – 4th in S13 400m freestyle
  • Ellie Cole – 4th in S9 400m freestyle
  • Chris Bond in Australian wheelchair rugby team that finished 4th

— Terry Walsh

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