Freney (pictured above) led from the start of the 400m freestyle S7 – and having gone 20 seconds faster than any of her rivals during the heats this morning, it was no surprise she sustained her commanding lead.

The 20-year-old cruised to the end, winning by almost 25 metres in a world record time of 4min 59.02sec.

She has now won more gold medals at a single Paralympics than any other Australian in history, beating the record of six set by Freney's idol and fellow swimmer Siobhan Paton when Sydney hosted the Games in 2000.

"Seven I'm in heaven," said Freney.

"I knew I had a good chance in some events but never seven golds, that is just unbelievable.

"I cannot comprehend what I have just achieved, it is beyond words.

"I have worked on my 400 for a long time and everything is falling into place at the right time.

"It is just unbelievable how good this week has been.

"I'm really proud of myself and the crowd definitely got me going faster.


"I dove in and wanted to get as far away from the other competitors as I could and basically raced the clock the whole way.

"Let's just say I have another goal in mind for Rio, I'm not saying what it is."

Freney could win an eighth gold medal tomorrow night when she leads the Australian 4x100m medley relay team.

She is five gold medals behind Matthew Cowdrey (pictured above), who is Australia's most successful ever Paralympian, claiming his 12th gold medal in the individual 200m medley here tonight.

Freney, who won three bronze medals at Beijing 2008, appears to be reaping the benefts of being reclassified from the S8 category last year.

More performances like this and it may not be long until Freney catches up with legendary South African swimming star Natalie du Toit (pictured below, right).

Du Toit tonight won the 13th Paralympic gold medal of her illustrious career in the 200m individual medley, holding off the challenge from Britain's Stephanie Millward (pictured below, left) to claim victory.

The South African, the first female amputee to compete at the Olympics in Beijing four years ago, competes in her last ever race before retirement tomorrow, the S9 100m freestyle, in which she holds the world record.


"[I'm] sad, relieved and I think scared because I have no idea what I'm going to do but also scared because those girls are swimming well," she said.

"To walk away with a medal will be very special with it being the last competition.

"Hopefully afterwards I won't cry, I'm going to give it everything."

Jessica Long of the United States stormed to 100m freestyle S8 victory, winning her fourth gold of these Games and her 11th Paralympic title in all.

New Zealand's Sophie Pascoe added to the trio of titles she won in Beijing in the 100m freestyle S10, picking up her third gold of these Games as she edged out France's Élodie Lorandi.

Elsewhere in the men's events, Brazil's Daniel Dias won his third gold of these Games in the 50m backstroke S5, setting a world record of 34.99 as he won his seventh Paralympic gold.

The remarkable athlete has won a total of 19 Parapan gold medals and has 11 world titles during his career already, and the 24-year-old looks likely to be one of Brazil's leading hopes for glory when Rio de Janeiro hosts the next Paralympic Games in 2016.


Dias' compatriot André Brasil took his third gold of the Games in the 100m freestyle S10.

The other notable performance of the evening was a stunning display from Britain's 15-year-old Josef Craig (pictured above), who won the S7 400m freestyle gold after overhauling Shiyun Pan of China, who had to settle for silver.

He produced a stunning swim to break the world record for a second time today in 4:42.81, on what was his international debut.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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