Recently, the Paralympics Games in Tokyo has had us all glued to our screens with excitement and pride, and we’ve been cheering on Team GB in every sport in the Games.
This year there is a special connection to one of our competitors, as swimmer Jordan Catchpole – the son of Services’ Pete Brierley – headed to Tokyo to try and add to his already excellent five medals in international competitions, which tallies at one Gold, three Silvers and one Bronze.
Jordan has performed brilliantly in every race to date, but one event was special: the final of the Mixed S14 4x100m Freestyle Relay.
During the relay, Team GB were running in second place going into the final leg of the race when Jordan entered the water. Jordan quickly caught Australia’s Madeleine McTernan during the final leg to give Team GB their second Gold medal of the day in the pool.
The relay saw Jordan and his team produce not just an exquisite performance to achieve the Gold medal, but by doing that they also produced a new World Record with a 3:40.63, smashing the old record that was held by Team GB themselves.
On the amazing win Catchpole said: “I had a good idea where I was. I saw Jess close the gap on the Aussies, as I went to dive in I just heard Reece saying, ‘safe takeover, safe takeover’ – I just watched her touch and then I knew all I had to do was bring it back.”
We at Severn Trent would like to join the whole nation in congratulating Jordan and the team on their exceptional achievements during this year’s games.