‘Fighter’ Taylor adds relay silver to her individual gold

Yorkshire’s Sophie Taylor completed a breakthrough senior international meet with a second medal of the Commonwealth Games last night.
England's Sophie Taylor during the women's 4x100m medley final.England's Sophie Taylor during the women's 4x100m medley final.
England's Sophie Taylor during the women's 4x100m medley final.

The 18-year-old, who was born in Sheffield and lives in Harrogate, helped England to a silver medal in the 4x100m medley relay behind Australia in the Tolcross Swimming Centre.

Coming the night after she claimed the Commonwealth 100m title, Taylor put England in a commanding position after the second leg of four.

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She picked up the baton from backstroke swimmer Lauren Quigley with England out of the medals, but by the time she handed over to Siobhan Marie O’Connor she had turned that deficit into an advantage of over a second.

Taylor, who cites City of Sheffield, Doncaster Dartes, Harrogate and City of Leeds as clubs that were pivotal in her development, said: “My mum always said I was a fighter in a relay and I was just glad I was able to help the team.”

Beverley’s Lizzie Simmonds completed her meet with a third final appearance.

The 23-year-old two-time Olympian, who lost her motivation and funding in 2013, finished sixth in the 50m backstroke final behind Wales’s Georgia Davies.

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Simmonds – a silver medallist in Delhi – had earlier finished fourth in the 200m backstroke final, and fifth in the 100m.

Davies followed the example set by Welsh compatriot Jazz Carlin to edge home in 27.56 seconds, breaking the Games record for a third time in 36 hours and beating her own British record in the process. Quigley took silver, 0.13 seconds behind Davies.

English teenager Ben Proud earlier claimed his second gold medal of Glasgow 2014 after edging out a strong Australian challenge in the 50m freestyle final, while Carlin began the last night of Tolcross action by taking silver in the 400m freestyle, ahead of Sheffield’s Ellie Faulkner, 21, who finished seventh.

It was Faulkner’s best individual performance of the Games, after winning a bronze as part of England’s 4x200m relay team on the opening night.

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Rotherham’s Joe Roebuck, 29, played his part in a thrilling 200m individual medley final.

He was the closest challenger to butterfly superstar Chad Le Clos after the first 50 metres, but could not hold on and eventually finished sixth, Le Clos touching the wall third behind champion Daniel Tranter of Australia.

England’s men brought the action to a close in fittingly dramatic style when Chris Walker-Hebborn, Adam Peaty, Adam Barrett and Adam Brown dominated against the Australians, who had won seven of the last eight 4x100m medley relays, to win gold. Le Clos helped South Africa to a bronze to claim his record-breaking seventh medal of the Games.