Connah’s Quay swimmer Rhys Darbey wins Commonwealth Games bronze in Glasgow
Connah’s Quay swimmer Rhys Darbey has won a Commonwealth Games bronze medal in Glasgow after the team-mate who beat him to third place was disqualified.
The 19-year-old touched fourth in the men’s S14 200m freestyle final on Saturday evening in a time of 1:56.24.
Fellow Welsh para-swimmer Dylan Broom, who finished ahead of him, was then disqualified for initiating a start early, and Darbey was promoted to bronze.
BBC Wales reported that Broom is Darbey’s room-mate at the Games.
William Ellard of England won the final in a Commonwealth Games record, with Australia’s Jack Ireland taking silver.
The S14 classification covers swimmers with an intellectual impairment, which can affect reaction time, memory and the ability to hold a race pattern.
Darbey started racing at Connah’s Quay Swimming Club at the age of eight and moved to the Nofio Clwyd performance squad at 11, where he still trains for around 16 hours a week.
The club takes swimmers from Flint, Mold and Connah’s Quay.
He was the youngest Welsh medallist at the Paris Paralympics in 2024, winning gold in the mixed S14 4x100m freestyle relay and silver in the SM14 200m individual medley at 17.
The year before, on his World Championships debut in Manchester, he won silver in the same individual medley event.
Darbey had qualified third fastest for Saturday’s final in 1:58.20 that morning, almost two seconds slower than he swam in the evening.
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