IT was the morning after the night before for Natalie Jones on Tuesday – but she insisted her early exit from the 50m freestyle was not a bronze-medal hangover.

Less than 12 hours earlier Jones was celebrating a fifth career Paralympic medal – and first in the Aquatics Centre – after winning 200m medley bronze.

With all the rigmarole that comes with claiming a medal, plus her usual routine of warming down, Jones, 27, didn’t get to bed until the early hours.

She was back in the water before 10am yesterday for the third of her five events in the capital, the 50m freestyle, but failed to make it out of the heats, clocking 38.74 seconds.

As a result Jones is now enjoying a two and half day rest before her next action in the pool but she wasn’t about to offer any excuses for her 50m freestyle failings.

“I wasn’t suffering from the race the night before,” she said. “It wasn’t too bad after that really.

“I got to bed about 1.30am and so it was late but not as late as I thought it would be and I felt OK when I was swimming in the 50m freestyle.

“It was always going to be hard to get into the final of the 50m and it was just good to be back out there swimming.

“I didn’t feel the effects of my 200m medley in the 50m so I don’t think that was the reason why I didn’t qualify.”