Hodge wins precious metal for a golden moment

Turning silver to gold, Tim Hodge’s golden moment arrived on Night 8 of the Paris Paralympic Games, delivering a dominant performance to win the men’s SM9 200m individual medley.  

After taking silver in Tokyo, Hodge immediately turned his sights to winning gold in Paris in his pet event. Not only did he achieve this dream, but he also went one stroke further, claiming top spot in a new Paralympic record of 2:13.31. 

Setting a blistering pace, Hodge led from the outset finishing 2.67 seconds ahead of hometown hero, France’s Ugo Didier. 

Adding to the gold medal he claimed earlier in the week in the Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay (34 points), Hodge admitted he had to refocus to get himself ready for his main event.  

“After the relay earlier in the meet, I knew I had to bring myself back down, bring myself back into the right headspace to race tonight and I was able to do that,” he said. 

“I’m really happy with that result and now it’s time to have a little bit of a celebration with the gold medal…then once the meet is over, my coach and I can really let the feeling sink in.  

“Going into the race, I knew a lot of the guys would go fairly easy in the heats so going into the finals they’d be going a lot harder.   

“I was confident in myself and my race plans that I would be able to execute and get the race I wanted and hopefully the time I wanted as well, so quite happy with how it worked out.” 

After not getting the desired outcome he had hoped for earlier in the week in the men’s S9 400m freestyle, Hodge said he put that race out of his mind and focused on the task at hand.  

“The key thing with good athletes is they can keep getting themselves up race after race no matter the result and keep swimming their best. 

“I’ve had issues like that in the past where I haven’t had the best first race…but I’ve been able to back up and go on to do PBs, even after a bad race,” he said.  

In the women’s SM9 200m individual medley, Lakeisha Patterson wasn’t able to add to her silver medal from earlier in the week, having to settle for fifth place in a time of 2:39.99. 

Jenna Jones wrapped up her Paralympic Games with a PB and Oceania Record in the women’s SB12 100m breaststroke where she finished sixth, clocking 1:22.04. 

Jodie Hawkins, Paralympics Australia