2017 Para Swimming World Series – Indianapolis
- June 9th-11th, 2017
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Day 1 finals results
The 4th stop of the 2017 Para Swimming World Series began Friday in Indianapolis, Indiana. The meet has one of the deepest fields so far in the inaugural edition of the event as athletes look at a mid-season marker heading toward the World Championships that begin on September 30th.
In the highlight event of the first day, the women’s 400 free, American Paralympic Champion McKenzie Coan put in a new World Leader in the S7 category, swimming a 5:19.84, which leaves her 25 seconds clear of anybody else in her class this season.
In the S8 and S9 categories, a pair of Paralympic champions also picked up their first wins of the meet. Lakeisha Patterson finished atop the S8 rankings with a 4:44.15 – she’s been 4:40 this year, but nobody else has been as good as her Friday time.
Patterson’s countrymate Ellie Cole won the S9 category in 4:51.06, which ranks her 2nd to only Spanish teenager Nuria Marques Soto this year. Finishing 3rd in that race was Maddison Elliott, 17 seconds behind in 5:08.55. Elliott was 5:02 in this race last summer at the Paralympic Games, which placed her 4th in the S8 category. She swam Friday classified as an S9 after a review earlier this week resulted in a reclassification.
In the visual impairment classes, American Becca Meyers joined her countrymate Coan with a new world leader, finishing in 4:30.95. Meyers broke the World Record in 4:19 to win Paralympic gold in the event last summer.
Other highlights:
- The two best times in the world came out of the women’s SB7 women’s breaststroke. American Ellie Marks led the way in 1:29.45, and Australian 15-year old Tiffany Thomas Kane, newly reclassified from SB6, ranks 2nd in Indy and the world in 1:34.25.
- In the men’s SB7 100 breaststroke, Australia’s Blake Cochrane swam a 1:17.37, which improves his own world leader.
