Swimming: Hardcastle splashes out with gold

Saturday 02 December 1995 00:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Swimming

Sarah Hardcastle raced to a 800m freestyle gold medal success at the World Short Course Championships in Rio de Janeiro last night. Hardcastle, who claimed silver and bronze medals at the 1984 Olympics, sprinted home in 8min 26.46sec - 0.57sec ahead of her Dutch rival, Carla Geurts.

After her victory, Hardcastle paid tribute to her husband, Lee, who encouraged her to make a comeback after a six- year lay-off. "Lee and I have been through a lot and this makes up for it," she said.

Karen Pickering, the defending champion, lost her title, but put up a fighting performance to win the B final of the 200m freestyle. She finished in 2:01.13, just 0.01sec ahead of Greece's Antonia Machera. Following the withdrawal of Germany's Franziska van Almsick, Claudia Poll of Costa Rica took gold in a world-record time of 1:55.42.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 27

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in