Bubbly Bethany enjoys golden moment

When Bethany Firth touched the wall after one minute and 8.93 seconds of the 100m backstroke S14 final shortly before 8pm last night she thought she had done enough to win a bronze.

She was wrong, of course. She had earned the gold instead.

Within 10 minutes, this bubbly 16-year old was being ushered into the mixed zone to share her thoughts and the magnitude of it all was still knocking on the door to be let in. “It’s amazing,” beamed Firth, who has an intellectual disability. “Words can’t describe how I feel.”