Maisie Summers-Newton beats Ellie Simmonds to win ParalympicsGB swimming gold after pep talk from her ‘idol’

MAISIE SUMMERS-NEWTON has won gold in the Tokyo 2020 Women's SM6 200m medley.

And she beat decorated ParalympicsGB star Ellie Simmonds to the title - an athlete Summers-Newton admires greatly.

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And Summers-Newton, 19, revealed that a pep talk from Simmonds gave her the motivation she required to clinch gold.

It was much-needed, as Ukrainian athlete Yelyzaveta Mereshko had broken her world record in the heats.

But Summers-Newton did not let that phase her and responded by posting a new world record time of 2mins 56.68sec.

Simmonds finished sixth but has an eye on other events in the pool, such as the 400m freestyle.

And she still played a part in this gold according to Summers-Newton.

She said after her win: "When I saw my record go Ellie said straight away – you can get it back and that definitely helped.

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"It’s pretty cool to beat your idol. She’s such an amazing swimmer and she’s done so much for para-sport. Having her there is really supportive and comforting in a way, knowing she’s done it for such a long time.

“I watched her in London and that was just insane. I think I first met her fully in 2013, I went to watch her at the nationals and I was just inspired. She’s just become an incredible friend.”

Now she has realised her dream, Summers-Newton is feeling confident about achieving further glory.

There is still the 200m breaststroke to come, which was Summers-Newton's best leg of the medley.

She added: "I’m really excited about the 100m breaststroke on Saturday now.

“I’ve been working so hard on that in training and everything just paid off. I gave it my absolute all and now I’ve got this medal, I’m just lost for words and hopefully I can pull something out the bag again."

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