The 19-year-old, who was born with cerebral palsy, stopped the clock in his heat at 1min 10.70sec .

Fox, who recently moved to the Manchester High Performance Centre, has enjoyed an excellent season so far with a good swim in the 400m freestyle yesterday and looked on course to break his record again in the final.

He just missed his time after touching in 1:11.36 and he won the gold medal with a total of 1,025 points, which sets him up nicely for the European Championships in Berlin in July.

"I'm really really happy," said Fox, who won the silver medal in the event at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.

"I didn't think I'd go so fast in my heats but my hard training is paying off.

"I've got a lot to do before Europeans so I can go and break the record again.

"At the worlds I had a slow back end so I'm working hard on that."

James Crisp, competing in the S9 division, came back from injury last year and looked on course to prove he was back to form with a strong final swim.

He touched in 1:03.80 and won silver with 911 points.

Bronze went to Ben Procter, S14, with a score of 823 and a time of 1:08.09.

Stephanie Millward, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, won the gold medal in the women's 100m backstroke with a time outside of her best but within the European qualification time.

Millward, the 2008 Paralympic 50m freestyle silver medallist, settled into her usual steady pace at the turn and touched in a time of 1:12.12 and won the gold with 887 points.

Natalie Massey, who competes in the S14, also swam under the qualification time for Berlin after touching in 1:13.19 and took silver with 866 points.

Bronze went to Hannah Russell - who is in the S12 - in 1:14.21 with 800 points.

James Anderson, who swms in the S2, swept to glory in the men's 50m backstroke after touching in a time of 1:09.25 and scored 759 points.


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