GB's Rogers pips team-mate Warrington to butterfly gold

Faye Rogers has won Paralympic gold in a thrilling S10 100m butterfly final, just pipping fellow Briton Callie-Ann Warrington.

Warrington led at halfway but Rogers, 21, fought past her to touch first in one minute 05.84 seconds.

It is a first Paralympic medal for both, with 24-year-old Warrington clocking a personal best of 1:06.41.

Britain's swimming team now have 14 golds in Paris and 20 medals overall.

In 2021, Rogers competed at the Olympic trials but did not qualify for the GB team for Tokyo.

That September, she was injured in a car accident which left her with permanent damage to her right arm.

Rogers was initially told she would not be able to compete again but has since thrived in Para-swimming, winning World Championship gold last year in Manchester.

"It's exactly three years as of now since my accident, so it's a bit emotional," she said.

"It's a big full circle moment and I couldn't be prouder of how far I've come. I couldn't have asked for more from the last three years."

Warrington said: "To be able to race against Faye is just everything. We have been saying to each other the last couple of months, 'come on, we can get the one-two'.

"It was lovely to have her next to me. We are very good friends until we get to the blocks, then we are competitors, and it's nice to be able to separate that."

Just months after competing at the Tokyo Olympic trials, Rogers was preparing to move to Aberdeen and start a biochemistry degree.

On the morning that she was due to travel to Aberdeen, she decided to fit in a training session first, but did not make it to the pool.

A car accident left the Stockton-on-Tees native with several open fractures to her elbow, which was also dislocated, and a severed ulna nerve, all of which resulted in permanent damage.

Three weeks after the accident, her consultant told her she would not swim competitively again. After leaving the room, Rogers told her mum 'watch me'. She was back swimming by Christmas.

"It's been an absolute whirlwind the last three years," she said. "It's been a massive journey and I couldn't be prouder of where I've come from and how I've got here.

"I'm really proud of seeing the positives because at times it was really, really tough. Being told you're never going to swim competitively again, as someone whose life revolved around swimming, was really, really difficult.

"Getting into Para-swimming has honestly been a life-saver for me, I don't think I would have coped with the accident and my impairment without being able to swim."

Of Tuesday's race, and the battle with team-mate Warrington, Rogers said: "I got a bit nervous but I was relatively confident. Callie put up a really good fight down that second 50, it pushed me on a lot. I couldn't be happier with the outcome."

In Tuesday's other races involving Britons, Tully Kearney, who had already won S5 100m and 200m freestyle gold in Paris, finished out of the medals in the 50m backstroke. She came fifth in 43.40 seconds as seven-time Paralympic champion Lu Dong led home a Chinese one-two-three.

Ellie Challis, just 24 hours after securing gold in the S3 50m backstroke, was fourth in the 100m freestyle final, clocking one minute 42.75 seconds as American Leanne Smith won in a Paralympic record time of 1:28.81.

"I would have liked to have been faster than that tonight, but it wasn't the night for me and that's OK," Challis told BBC Sport.

"Fourth is never easy to deal with but after yesterday, dreams come true, gold and gold with my room-mate [Louise Fiddes], I really couldn't have asked for more from this competition."

Twins Scarlett and Eliza Humphrey, 19, finished sixth and seventh respectively in the SM11 200m individual medley, as Daria Lukianenko - a Russian competing as a Neutral Paralympic Athlete - won in a world record time of two minutes 37.77 seconds.

Scarlett Humphrey came home in 2:49.59 and Eliza in 2:59.51.

Elsewhere, Ihar Boki secured his 21st Paralympic title with a world record of two minutes 02.03 in the SM13 200m individual medley final.

Boki, a 30-year-old Belarusian who is classified as a Neutral Paralympic Athlete, won his first at London 2012 and has taken gold in all five events he entered in Paris.

"All the medals show and prove that the hard work was worth it," he said. "Every medal has a special feeling. I never get bored of that."

Ireland's Roisin Ni Riain took bronze in the SM13 200m individual medley, her second medal of the Games, with Carlotta Gilli of Italy taking gold.

Frenchman Ugo Didier, who got the swimming programme off to a thrilling start by winning 400m freestyle gold in the first race of day one, had the crowd roaring again as he took silver in the S9 100m backstroke, behind Yahor Shchalkanau, another Belarusian competing as a Neutral Paralympic Athlete.

American Christie Raleigh Crossley, who claimed to have been targeted and bullied over her classification as a disabled athlete, won an emotional S9 100m backstroke gold.

The 37-year-old claimed to have received negative comments on social media before last week's S10 50m freestyle final, including from an American team member.

Raleigh Crossley, who won in a Paralympic record one minute 07.92 seconds, became tearful on the podium as the crowd at La Defense Arena roared when her gold medal was announced.