Great Britain's Andy Mullen has told Sports Mole that he has "mixed emotions" following his performance in the Paralympic final of the men's 50m freestyle this evening.
Mullen recorded a personal best time of 34.87s, but still only managed a fifth-place finish in Rio, failing to add to the bronze medal he won in the 200m freestyle on Thursday.
Home favourite Daniel Dias stormed to the gold, but Mullen was content with his own personal performance at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
"Kind of mixed emotions after that. It would have been nice to just make a medal, but I can't really be too unhappy with a PB. It's not an event I've been focusing on, so happy with a PB and it sets me up well for my last two events of the competition. That's all you can do when we get to a Paralympic Games," he said.
"That's the squad ethos, to go to the Paralympic Games and deliver lifetime-best performances, and so far I've done that in every event. It sets me up well, as I said, for my backstroke and my 100m freestyle. So I'm looking forward to them. I have my times I want to go. I just want to do some lifetime-best performances under the greatest of pressure. We'll see if medals come with them.
"It's a fantastic atmosphere. It's kind of like an inside joke on the team, we've all been hoping we're going to have a Brazilian in our finals. The atmosphere is phenomenal when there are Brazilians out there, so having two Brazilian guys in mine helped the atmosphere. It's been fantastic. It's obviously my first overseas Games so it's very different. Obviously in London it was a very familiar settings, being in Britain, but I think Brazil have put on a great Paralympic Games and I've thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it so far."
Mullen will be back in the pool for the 50m backstroke on Friday before competing in the 100m freestyle a day later.
Barney Corkhill
