BORDERER Stephen Clegg narrowly missed out on a gold medal by 0.06 seconds in the S12 100m Butterfly final in Tokyo this morning.

Raman Salei from Azerbaijan won the race in a time of 57.81 with Clegg picking up the silver medal with a time of 57.87.

After the race Clegg told C4: “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed. I came here to win and I’m quite far short from where I wanted to be really. I can’t really make any excuses. The prep coming into the meeting was really good. I can’t take anything away from Raman. It was an amazing race and he just held on better than me.

It’s a bit heart-breaking but I know I’m capable of much faster and if I was anywhere close to my best it would have been a gold but it’s whoever’s best on the day and he was better than me tonight. I can’t really say much else.

“I was quite far out on my turn. I had a big long glide in. it was quite frustrating but I lost that race on the back end not on the first fifty which is quite frustrating as that’s what I’ve been working on the most this year.

I have to go away and look at that and make myself better for Paris. That’s all I can really do. I want to thank everyone that’s brought me here. Even though it wasn’t the result that myself and my team and the British Paralympic team wanted. I’ve come so far in the last seven years since I was 18 and I wouldn’t have been here without all the coaches over the years.

There are a couple of people I really want to thank Chris (Jones) and and the university itself. They have gone to the moon for me this last year They gave me all the pool time and got me back in the water. My first coach Bruce who gave me a chance all those years ago.

I wouldn’t be here without those people. When things go south these are the guys that are really there for me and they will be there for me coming out of this. They are like my family.

“I definitely want a gold medal in my career so there is no chance of me retiring any time soon. I’ll go away from this and come back with a vengeance in Paris.

Despite missing out on gold, the Newcastleton swimmer has enjoyed a superb Paralympic Games, winning a bronze medal in the men’s S12 100m backstroke, setting a new British record and a new personal best with a time of 1:01.27 is

He then collected a second bronze after coming third in the S12 100m freestyle final earlier where he lowered his own British record to 53.43.