'Superhuman' Freney wins eighth gold

8 Sep 2012, 10:30 am   -   Source: AAP
Jacqueline Freney wins her eighth gold medal of the London Paralympics. (AAP)

Jacqueline Freney wins her eighth gold medal of the London Paralympics. (AAP)

Jacqueline Freney has delivered an amazing anchor leg in the 4x100m medley relay to win her eighth gold medal of the London Paralympics.

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Jacqueline Freney produced a "superhuman" effort to drag Australia to victory in a heart-stopping finish to the 4x100m medley relay at the London Paralympics.

The swimmer from the NSW north coast collected her eighth gold medal with the gutsiest performance of her unforgettable Games.

She trailed fellow S7 swimmer Oxana Guseva of Russia by 12 metres heading into the final freestyle leg in the knowledge that she would have more able swimmers Louise Watkin of Britain and American Mallory Weggemann snapping at her heels.

In a blanket finish, the Australian willed her way to the finish and touched the wall three hundredths of a second in front of Britain's Watkin.

There was just 0.41 of a second splitting the top four teams.

"I think I swam with superhuman abilities," Freney said.

"I really don't know what happened in that race.

"I had three proud Aussies behind me all the way and the crowd was just amazing."

Her relay teammates Ellie Cole, Katherine Downie and Annabelle Williams were still in shock some time after the race.

Even Cole admitted she thought it might be too much even for Freney.

That result, on top of Matthew Cowdrey and Ellie Cole's S9 100m freestyle triumphs, elevated Australia to 17 gold medals in the pool for the Games with a day of competition still to go.

It is Australia's best haul at the pool since Paralympic sport received a major shake-up for the 1992 Games.

Out of the pool, the gold medal remained elusive for Australia's women's wheelchair basketballer at the north Greenwich Arena.

The Gliders were rolled 58-44 by Germany.

Australia maintained its position at fifth on the medal table with 29 gold, 20 and 26 bronze medals.

Back at the aquatic centre Cowdrey's parents Vivienne and Peter only just found their seats in time to watch him compete internationally for the first time.

Their son had to show all of his fighting spirit to win his 13th title.

The Hungarian duo of Tamas Toth and Tamas Sors pushed him all the way before the South Australian captured his fifth gold medal of the Games.

"It would have been a little bit embarrassing if they came all this way and I hadn't of swum too well," he said with a smile.

His folks only decided to fly from Adelaide to London on Thursday after one of his sponsors Uncle Tobys paid for their airfares.

Cole's win was not so expected.

Even she did not think she was going to win, admitting after the race she had been swimming for silver behind South Africa's Natalie du Toit.

"I was not breathing on Natalie's side, so I had no idea where she was," Cole said.

"I was just trying to beat the Chinese girl and I thought 'Ok I think I am coming second'.

"I had no idea I was in front of Natalie."

At the main stadium, Todd Hodgetts became the first intellectually disabled Australian athlete to win gold since the 2000 Sydney Games.

The big Tasmanian won the F20 shot put with a world record throw of 16.29.

The London Games are the first since Sydney to have intellectually disabled events after the discipline was punted following the bogus gold-medal winning Spanish men's basketball team in 2000.

"That's 14 years of hard work and I've put up with a lot of crap in my life," Hodgetts said.

"Just to prove to a lot of knockers in my life. I was a victim of bullying my whole life.

"I'd try to do things in high school and people were knocking me back."

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