The ParalympicsGB swimmers were in silver shining form on day seven at La Defense Arena on Wednesday as Alice Tai, Rhys Darbey and Poppy Maskill all boosted Britain's eye-catching medal tally in style.
Darbey and Maskill were two of six GB athletes to compete across the Men's and Women's SM14 200m Individual Medley finals, both putting together brilliant swims to reach the podium, before Tai attacked from the start in the Women's S8 400m Freestyle finale to push for the win and ultimately add a silver to her gold and bronze medals from earlier this Games.
Darbey got the day seven medal count ticking in the Men's SM14 200m Individual Medley to add his first individual Paralympic medal to the Mixed S14 4x100m Freestyle Relay gold from Monday night.
The 17-year-old built into the medley race as it went, sitting fifth at halfway and fourth at the final turn after the breaststroke leg, before launching into an outstanding closing 50m.
Rhys swam the fastest freestyle of the field to claw back and then go past first Dmytro Vanzenko of Ukraine and then Australian Ricky Betar to reach the wall second and claim a superb silver in a personal best time of 2:08.61. Behind him, Will Ellard's strong finish took him to fifth, while Cameron Vearncombe was seventh as three GB competitors played their part in a fantastic showpiece.
"That last 50m, I really had to try my hardest because I could see the Ukrainian next to me and he helped me push that last 50m. I loved that last 50m, I love the back end of a race!" said Rhys afterwards.
"I'm very happy with that, it's my first individual final at a Paralympics so to come second is great, and it's two races out of two that I've won a medal, so I'm really chuffed! I was hoping for a medal, but I definitely didn't think I'd get two and one of them gold. I'm just over the moon, to be honest."
![Rhys Darbey SM14 200m IM podium SILVER Paris 2024](https://www.aquaticsgb.com/media/images/GettyImages-2170222295.width-800.jpg)
Within moments, one medley silver had become two as Maskill notched the fourth medal of her debut Paralympic Games in the Women's SM14 200m Individual Medley.
Looking to make her mark early, Poppy - gold medallist and world-record holder in the 100m Butterfly - established a lead over the opening half of the race, before being steadily pegged back by eventual champion Valeriia Shabalina on the breaststroke to put them virtually level heading into the final turn.
Ultimately, Shabalina would just hold on over the closing strokes of freestyle to win out in a thrilling battle, with Maskill reaching the wall for silver and yet another Paris medal, clocking a new personal best of 2:23.93 in the process.
Behind them, Louise Fiddes launched her race over the second half of the contest, moving through the field across breaststroke and freestyle to finish fourth, with Paralympic debutant Olivia Newman-Baronius placing sixth.
"I was just trying to see what I'd got in there and do my best to see what happened in that race. I know I need to get a good lead otherwise I can get overtaken on the breaststroke leg," said Poppy.
"I couldn't see how close it was, I just knew I had to try hard and see what happened. I could hear the crowd though so I was thinking, 'wow, this must be close!'"
A third ParalympicsGB silver in the space of an hour came courtesy of Tai, who completed her clean sweep of medal colours in Paris with silver in the Women's S8 400m Freestyle.
Having already claimed gold in the S8 100m Backstroke and then bronze in the SM8 200m Individual Medley, Tai's third final of the week saw her take things out hard in lane four after qualifying fastest, in the lane alongside Paralympic legend Jessica Long.
Alice's race plan saw her lead up to and beyond the 300m mark, before Long eventually overtook her with some superior closing speed in the final lengths. Still, this was a medal that meant a lot to Alice, while Brock Whiston - already a double medallist herself this meet - swam well for fifth.
"I knew if I wanted to beat Jess, I was going to have to go out fast and just try to hold on, so that's exactly what I did. But she's such a phenomenal 400m Freestyle swimmer, that's her 30th Paralympic medal, so I knew it was going to be such a hard race," said Tai.
"I'm so happy with my time. I couldn't change that swim and I am really happy with the silver. Now I've got the full collection as well!"
In an astonishingly close Men's S12 100m Freestyle finale, Stephen Clegg agonisingly missed out on adding to his Paralympic medal tally by finishing fourth - by a mere 0.02s.
![Poppy Maskill freestyle stroke Paris 2024](https://www.aquaticsgb.com/media/images/GettyImages-2169552592.width-300.jpg)
Fast off the blocks, Clegg - in the first of two races for him on the night - was second at the 50m turn and involved in a fierce battle in a front pack of five who were eventually separated by only half-a-second. While Yaroslav Denysenko got to the wall first for gold, it was a blanket finish for the next three, with Clegg ultimately coming fourth, two hundredths of a second behind Raman Salei in bronze and three one hundredths off silver, won by Maksym Veraksa.
"I said this morning after the heat that it was going to be a battle, and it was. Three one hundredths separating second to fourth is insane. I'm not disappointed, I went into that final going for the win and I knew I had to try something completely different to get it. I went out 0.4s quicker than I've ever been before, so I'm not sitting here sad about my performance - I tried something new and it didn't quite work out in my favour this time," he said.
Later in the session, Clegg returned to the pool as part of the Mixed 49pt 4x100m Freestyle Relay, teaming up with Scarlett Humphrey, Matt Redfern and Rebecca Redfern as the quartet teamed up to smash the British record.
S11 competitor Humphrey got things going from the blocks, before handing over to Matt on leg two and his sister Rebecca - both S13 racers - in the middle on leg three, leaving the team sixth as Rebecca handed over to Stephen.
A storming anchor leg by the University of Edinburgh man moved GB up to fourth, the time of 4:04.12 inside the previous best British mark and setting an exciting platform for this relay moving forward.
"I saw Rebecca come in almost closer to the medals than I anticipated, which was great to see. It's great that we've jumped that far ahead this quickly, in the space of one year, it's fantastic - these guys have done a tremendous job to really push this relay forward," said Clegg.
"There was a lot of pain for me coming off the back of my individual! We've done a tremendous job, and for the future of visually impaired swimming in Britain, it's great to have this relay going forward. I hope that seeing this team come fourth gets a few more people involved in the sport. It's a great sport for visually impaired athletes, and I think there are a lot of prospects for this going forward into LA and Brisbane after that."
In the last individual race of the night, Toni Shaw placed eighth in the Women's S9 100m Freestyle final, six days on from finishing fifth in the 400m event.