British swimmers Tully Kearney and Maisie Summers-Newton stormed to gold medals on the second day of competition at the Paralympics in Paris on Friday.
Kearney and Summers-Newton's efforts briefly brought Britain level with Paralympic heavyweights China in the overall medals table on six golds, but the Chinese then moved back ahead at the top of the standings.
Kearney, 27, who was born with cerebral palsy, defended her title in the 100m freestyle S5, less than 24 hours after also winning the 200m freestyle.
GOLD AGAIN for @TullyKearney!!!!!!
— ParalympicsGB (@ParalympicsGB) August 30, 2024
Two gold medals in two days for Tully. What a swim. What a swimmer. #ParalympicsGB 🥇 pic.twitter.com/dlHAqd9bQH
"To retain my title feels incredible," she said. "It was such a late night and early start and not long to rest in between.
"It was really hard for all of us who swam last night to keep the energy up," she added.
Summers-Newton, who was born with achondroplasia, a condition that affects theh development of bones, also held on to her title from the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago but in the women's 200m individual medley SM6.
STILL PARALYMPIC CHAMPION 👑 🥇
— Swim England (@Swim_England) August 30, 2024
A dominant performance from Maisie Summers-Newton as she successfully defended her title in the Women's 200m Individual Medley SM6!
Grace Harvey just missed out on a podium place after finishing fourth.#Paralympics | #InspiredToTry | #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/E48mmSdeKP
"I was really nervous, it's something that's come from Tokyo," she told reporters.
"There's a lot of pressure being Paralympic champion," the qualified primary teacher added.
In other events in the La Defense Arena pool, Belarusian Ihar Boki, forced to compete as a neutral Paralympic athlete because of his country's role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, clinched an 18th gold medal in the 100m backstroke S13 final.
"It's a little sad that you can't see your own flag," he told reporters.
"But everyone knows us, everyone supports us," he added.
Elsewhere, Hong Yang added a third swimming medal for China as he won the 200m individual medley SM6.
Israel's world record Ami Omer Dadoan followed up his Paralympic record time in the heats of the 100m freestyle S4 with gold in the final.
The biggest cheers of session came for home favourites Hector Denayer and Alex Portal however.
The deafening crowd was at full voice as Denayer, who is missing his left hand, secured silver in the men's 100m breaststroke S9 final and Portal finished third behind Boki.
"I've got a problem with my sight, I'm short-sighted so I can't see my time on the big screen," Denayer said.
"I didn't know what I'd done, to be honest, I just knew I was on the podium because I heard the fans."
The raucous encouragement from the French crowd resembled the scenes at the same venue during the Olympics each time Leon Marchand swam, on his way to four gold medals.
China ended the night on a high with victory in the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay.