2019 WORLD PARA SWIMMING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- September 9-15, 2019
- London Aquatics Centre, London, England
- Prelims 10 a.m. local time/finals 6 p.m.
- Full results
Three months after the conclusion of the 2019 World Para Swimming World Series, the organization handed out awards at the 2019 World Championships in London.
Alice Tai, of Great Britain, and Antoni Ponce Bertran, of Spain, were awarded the Best Female and Best Male awards, respectively. They were the winners of the series; overall ranks were calculated by adding up each swimmers’ two best point scores achieved in two different World Series stops.
Tai has been classed down from S10 to S9 to S8 over the past three years, and broke six world records over the course of the final meet of the season alone. Ponce Bertran – SB5 world record holder in the 100 breast – took the top spot based on his scores from the Glasgow and Lignano Sabbiadoro meets.
The United States’ S4 Leanne Smith was named Best Female with High Support Needs, and S3 Alberto Abarza (Chile) the best male in that category.
Great Britain’s 17-year-old Maisie Summers-Newton, who won her first world title in world record fashion Tuesday, was named Best Female Junior, and her GBR teammate Louis Lawlor, 17, the best junior male.
Great Britain also was named the best team in the series.
The IPC should burn the tape of Jessica Long Racing Alice Tai in the 400 free. The flip turns and kick of Alice Tai are insurmountable to Long. You don’t need to be a swim coach or physical therapist to see that. Just watch for the whip of Tai’s legs going over in her flip turn and then the kick. I have no doubt Tai is holding back the kick because she clearly has own. It is a sad day for the Paralympics when the greatest Paralympic swimmer, the poster child for the movement, can’t compete in her own class.