London golden girl finishes just outside medals in Rio

Maddison Elliott stole the hearts of a nation when she became the youngest Australian to win a Paralympic gold medal in London and now four years later she has finished one place out of the medals in her first swim in Rio.

Elliott clocked 5:02.13 to grab fourth place in the women’s S8 400m freestyle in a final won by fellow Australian Lakeisha Patterson (pictured being congratulated by Elliott) in a world record of 4:40.33.

The 17-year-old, who has Cerebral Palsy, was third in the same event in London on her way to a four medal haul that included her historic gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

In other results on day 1 featuring NSWIS swimmers, Paige Leonhardt clocked 1.20.44 to finish sixth in the women’s S9 100m breaststroke final, while Tiffany Thomas Kane suffered the heartbreak of being disqualified in the final of the women’s S6 100m backstroke after qualifying in sixth position.

Veteran Prue Watt missed the S13 100m butterfly final by one place to wind up ninth, while Sean Russo was 12^th in the corresponding men’s S13 100m butterfly.

Day two will see Mathew Levy hit the water in the 50m freestyle S7 event at his fourth Paralympics. Elliott (S8 100m butterfly) and Thomas Kane (S6 50m butterfly) will be back in the pool, while Tom Hodge and Ellie Cole (both S9 400m freestyle) will swim their first events of the meet.