
Boccia European gold win 'huge' for Kidson
Kidson, from Salisbury, made her Paralympic debut last summer for Great Britain in Paris where she was the youngest person on the team. She was introduced to the sport in primary school and made her international competition in 2022, aged 17."The last Europeans [championships] I did in 2023, I literally came dead last and so to go from dead last to first place is absolutely mental," Kidson said.
Honouring former Paralympians
Kidson said the gold medal win was even more poignant following the deaths of her pairs partner Will Arnott and Great Britain team-mate Matt Berry at the end of 2024.Kidson and Arnott's gold medal in the Paralympic Games qualifying event secured Great Britain a place in the BC3 category at last summer's event."It's nothing short of a tragedy to lose both Will and Matt at the tail end of last year," Kidson said.Kidson worked with Arnott's long-time assistant Connor Welfare in Zagreb which she said made the event more special."This one especially, we know it was a big one because me and Connor Welfare, who was [Arnott's] assistant for 11 years, we thought it would be good to do this together and do it for the big guy," Kidson said."To be able to get a gold medal and also Zagreb is where Will had his first international competition and his first gold medal [in 2019]."It was really special to be able to do it."

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
US women set world record in relay at swim worlds, while Summer McIntosh wins fourth gold
Summer McIntosh capped a brilliant world championships with the 400 meters individual medley (IM) title and a fourth individual gold medal, while the United States set a world record in the women's 4x100 medley relay to win the final title in Singapore on Sunday. France's Leon Marchand roared to victory in the men's 400 meters IM, while the United States topped the medals table with nine golds, one more than Australia. France finished third with Canada fourth, all four of their golds won by 18-year-old McIntosh, who missed out on becoming only the third swimmer to win five individual medals at a world championships, joining Michael Phelps (2007) and Sarah Sjostrom (2019). McIntosh blitzed the field in the 400 IM with a time of 4:25.78, the world record-holder coming home more than seven seconds ahead of joint silver medallists Jenna Forrester of Australia and Japan's Mio Narita. China's 12-year-old prodigy Yu Zidi finished just off the podium again having also come fourth in the 200 IM and 200 butterfly. Olympic champion McIntosh's third 400 IM world title added to her 200 IM, 200 butterfly and 400 freestyle golds at the World Aquatics Championships Arena in Singapore, with only the 800 freestyle won by the great Katie Ledecky eluding her. The United States' frustrating championships ended on a high note with a record in the women's 4x100 medley relay in the last event of the eight-day championships. The Americans swam a time of 3 minutes, 49.34 seconds, breaking their own old record mark of 3:49.63. The Americans battled a case of 'acute gastroenteritis' picked up at a training camp in Thailand. The malady clearly affected the team's up-and-down performances in the eight days in Singapore. The Americans had only five gold medals through six days, but won four in the last two as team health seemed to improve. 'This is the best way to end the meet,' Gretchen Walsh said. 'And I feel like we have such a good opportunity when you have this stacked group of women closing it out on a relay like this. 'We're going to put it all in the pool and we're going to leave Singapore with a smile on our faces,' she added. Regan Smith, Kate Douglass and Walsh swam the first three legs with Torri Huske taking the anchor. Marchand, dubbed the 'French Phelps', nearly missed the 400 IM final after a slow heat in the morning but was back to his best in the evening, clocking 4:04.73 to finish well clear of Japan's Tomoyuki Matsushita, the Paris Olympics runner-up behind Marchand. It was a stripped-back program from Paris where Marchand won four individual titles but he made it count with the 200 IM world record on the way to the title earlier in the week. Two years after Tunisia's Ahmed Hafnaoui won the 800 and 1,500 freestyle at the Fukuoka championships, compatriot Ahmed Jaouadi completed the double by winning the 1,500 in 14:34.41 ahead of German Sven Schwarz and American Olympic champion Bobby Finke. Jaouadi shaved nearly nine seconds off his personal best and said it was a struggle. 'I wasn't the only one. My body was in a lot of pain,' he added. 'But through my mind is that I want this medal and I want to win it.' The big names may dominate the headlines but Australian relay stalwart Meg Harris grabbed the spotlight for herself as she won 50 freestyle gold in 24.02 ahead of Chinese duo Wu Qingfeng (24.26) and Cheng Yujie (24.28). The 23-year-old Harris clinched her first individual title on the global stage after sharing two Olympic and five world relay golds in the last four years. No Russian athletes competed at last year's world championships in Doha but the nation's swimmers have racked up medals in Singapore under a neutral flag. Russians were allowed to compete on condition they have not publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine and have no affiliation to the Russian military. Russian Kliment Kolesnikov stormed to the men's 50 backstroke title in 23.68, just 0.13 off his world record, while compatriot Pavel Samusenko took a silver along with South African Pieter Coetze, each finishing in 24.17. Russian swimmers then combined to win a shock gold in the men's 4x100 medley, giving the world record (3:26.78) a huge shake with a time of 3:26.93, a second clear of France.


BBC News
13 minutes ago
- BBC News
McIntosh wins fourth gold, medley double for Marchand
Olympic champions Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand claimed gold medals in the women's and men's 400m individual medley at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in McIntosh won her fourth gold medal of the week as she finished more than seven seconds clear of silver medallist Jenna Forrester on Sunday with a championship record time of 4 minutes 25.78 this week, the 18-year-old took gold in the 400m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 200m medley, as well as bronze in the 800m freestyle on - who holds world records in both the 200m and 400m medley and the 400m freestyle - won three gold medals and a silver at her first Olympics last Britain's Freya Colbert came last after qualifying for the final as the eighth-best swimmer in the heats. Frenchman Marchand scraped through in the men's 400m medley heats with a sluggish performance, but recovered to win gold in 4:04:73 - almost four seconds ahead of silver medallist Tomoyuki 23-year-old Paris Games hero set a new world record in winning gold in the men's 200m individual medley on Thursday, but was two seconds shy of breaking the 400m world record he set at the 2023 World Litchfield finished seventh, capping a disappointing week for Team GB. Marchand later helped France take silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay, as Team GB finished USA set a new world record in the women's 4x100m medley relay with a time of 3:49.34, while Britain came was a gold medal for Tunisia's Ahmed Jaouadi in the men's 1500m freestyle, adding to the 20-year-old's triumph in the 800m freestyle earlier this silver medalist Meg Harris won the women's 50m freestyle, while Lithuania's Ruta Meilutyte retained her 50m breaststroke with a time of Kolesnikov won gold in the men's 50m backstroke with 23:68, though he fell more than a second short of the world record he set three years the final diving event of the week, Britain's Robbie Lee came 12th in the men's 10m platform as Cassiel Rousseau of Australia took gold. Brigh future for GB after tough week Great Britain enjoyed a difficult week in Singapore, winning just five medals, including one illness has caused issues in the camp, GB's performance director Chris Spice does not want that to be an excuse."We don't try to dwell on that. You only have to look at some of our relay selections in the last couple of days to see some of the people who might have been affected by that," he told BBC Sport."We're not staying close to other teams, we've tried to minimise the risk of transferring anything between teams."But of course you're in a heated environment with people all close to each other. It's natural that there is going to be some illness around. That's what it is. We just put our heads down and try and get on with it."There has been a lot of change both in the water and behind the scenes for British Swimming, something Spice felt contributed to an underwhelming week."We've had three British records here as opposed to two last year. Underneath the bonnet, things aren't bad," he added."We think we've got the best crop of juniors we've had in the last four or five years. Hopefully as we get towards LA [2028 Olympic Games], those two things will come together and the results will start to come."We've got a very young team, we've got eight people here at their first World Championships. There are a lot of newbies, there is a lot of learning going on. "There were missed opportunities this week, we left two or three medals on the table."We've got a new head coach, a new team manager. The head of sports science and medicine has gone across to diving. We're all learning about each other and need time to bed in."


Telegraph
43 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Zak Brown: F1 is a better place without Christian Horner
Zak Brown has said that Formula One is 'healthier' without Christian Horner and that the sport will be 'in a better place' without the former Red Bull team principal Horner was axed from his role with the F1 team in July after a turbulent final 18 months with the outfit. He was investigated for inappropriate behaviour last year, though was later cleared after two separate investigations. On the track, Red Bull's results have declined dramatically since mid-2024 and numerous high-profile figures in the team have left during that time. Horner has been replaced by Laurent Mekies, and Brown, the McLaren chief executive and long-time rival of Horner's, said that he felt more comfortable with the Frenchman in charge at the Milton Keynes-based team. McLaren and Red Bull – and Horner and Brown – have had numerous spats over recent years as the two teams battled each other for honours on the track. 'I'm happy Laurent's in the role he is in,' Brown said. 'I like Laurent, that'll be healthy, and maybe we can get back to focusing on competition on the track. 'There's always going to be some political aspects to the sport, but I think it is going to be healthier with Laurent. I'm a fan of Laurent, I have known him for a long time, and it'll be good to go racing against him.' One of the main areas of dispute between the pair was over Red Bull's breach of the cost cap for the 2021 season, when they won the drivers' championship with Max Verstappen. The team were found guilty in 2022 of a 'minor overspend' of the FIA's $145m budget constraint the previous year. They avoided any sporting penalty but were deducted development time from their allocation. There was also a war of words between the pair about alleged breaches of the technical regulations over the last year. One related to McLaren's 'flexi rear wing' that appeared to give them an advantage on the straights and another was about the team allegedly putting water in their tyres to help with cooling. Brown said Red Bull's actions occasionally crossed the line. 'It went too far. There's always going to be politicking in F1 – let's try and shut down their flexi-wings and that stuff, but when you start getting into frivolous allegations, that's just going too far. 'If I look up and down pit lane now, I see us fighting each other hard politically, but the line is not being crossed, and that line got crossed before,' Brown added. 'I think that we'll see a little bit of a change for the better. There's a higher level of trust that now if we sit down and have a conversation on a topic where we think there could be some confidentiality, and it's just not an automatic 'I'm going to use that as a political weapon'. 'We're going to be in a better place, a little bit more unified, and a little bit more trusting that while we're fighting on track, we can have a conversation about what's good for the sport off it. And that won't get manipulated for political reasons and taken out of context.' In an interview with Telegraph Sport earlier this year, Brown – whose rivalry with Horner was captured in the Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive – said the on-screen animosity was not manufactured for the benefit of viewers. 'There's no love lost there. I don't like how he rolls and no doubt he feels the same about me. But I think it's good for the sport. You need different characters. You need these rivalries. Some are friendly, sporting rivalries. Some are a bit more vicious. It's always been like that.'