Bethany Firth hopes to finally get round to planning her honeymoon after completing her medal collection by adding a Commonwealth gold to her multiple Paralympic, World Championship and European honours.
It was Team NI’s first gold of the Birmingham Games and the night got even better with Daniel Wiffen winning a silver medal in the 1500m freestyle while heptathlete Kate O’Connor also won silver at Alexander Stadium.
For the first time at the Commonwealth Games Firth’s specialist discipline was included and the Seaforde swimmer started as a heavy favourite and she didn’t disappoint, controlling the race from start to finish and beating England’s Jessica Applegate by over a second.
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The 26-year-old, who got married earlier this year, was understandably ecstatic at her latest achievement.
“I can’t put it into words how much this means," Firth beamed afterwards.
"It has been so hard in my 10 years of swimming the ups and the downs, the coming back, setting records this definitely means the most to me.
“I have represented Great Britain for so many years so it was actually nice to come out here and have the Northern Ireland flag on my hat. I have lived there my whole life and I have trained there my whole life and everyone means so much to me, we are such a small nation but we are mighty.”
To put the icing on the cake, Lady Mary Peters presented Firth with her gold medal.
“I didn’t know she was presenting the medal until I saw her and it made it so so special, she is definitely and inspiration an inspiration for Northern Ireland and she promotes us so much," Firth said.
"From being a young girl she supported me so much and I always looked up to her and now to have a medal presented by her words can’t describe it.”
Firth has topped so many podiums in her career but to do it in Birmingham was the pinnacle.
“This one was extra special as I got to hear our national anthem. I have never stood up with a medal round my neck and heard our anthem so it meant the world to me," she added.
In the race itself Firth led from start to finish.
“I feel a lot of pressure, I just kept me head down," she said.
"I knew my and my team had worked so hard and I knew if I just kept my head down and focus on my own race we’d get it and I touched the wall first and I literally can’t say how much that means to me.”
Firth has to put in a lot of preparation for the two odd minutes in the pool.
“There are a lot of sacrifices and a lot of dedication, my family, my husband they sacrifice so much for me to be able to do this and to do it at such a high level and no one sees the hard grit that goes into getting the medal but it is all definitely worth it in the end.”
Firth won five gold medals at the World Championships and now has a gold in the Commonwealth Games. And she admitted she is going to celebrate by getting away for a while.
She and husband Andrew are due to head off to South East Asia for six weeks for their honeymoon.
“I definitely need a honeymoon,” she joked.
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