Northland para swimmer Cameron Leslie with his gold medal from the mn's S4 100m freestyle at the World Para Swimming Championships in Portugal. Photos / Supplied
Northland para swimmer Cameron Leslie with his gold medal from the mn's S4 100m freestyle at the World Para Swimming Championships in Portugal. Photos / Supplied
Northland para swimmer Cameron Leslie has enhanced his international reputation with a gold and three silver medals at the World Para Swimming Championships held in Madeira, Portugal.
Leslie's achievements are even more remarkable considering he has not raced competitively for more than two years.
Leslie - a multiple Paralympic goldmedallist - won gold in the men's S4 100m freestyle and silver in the men's S4 50m backstroke, men's 50m freestyle S4 and men's 200m freestyle S4.
And in winning his gold, Leslie further cemented his place in the record books, touching the wall in 1:21.80 to claim another Oceania and New Zealand National Record on day two of the meeting.
"First race for NZ in over 2.5 years brought back a few emotions pre race. Grateful for the opportunity to do what I love again and for all the support after not attending Tokyo 2020. It was very satisfying to win gold in the 100m free with a PB and know there's still room for improvement,'' he said after the race.
Cameron Leslie celebrates another successful swim at the World Para Swimming Championships in Portugal last week.
But his record-breaking efforts didn't stop there - his 36.71 in the men's 50m freestyle S4 - just 0.46 behind first place - and 2:59.71 in the men's 200m freestyle S4 were both Oceania records.
Leslie is a Paralympic swimmer and a Wheel Black. He is the world record holder and three-time Paralympic gold medalist in the men's individual medley 150m SM4.
Born and raised in Whangārei, Leslie took up swimming when he was 11, but after he was soundly beaten on his debut appearance at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships, he admits he "nearly gave the sport away", only to be persuaded to carry on by his parents.
It proved an inspired decision as Leslie relocated to Auckland to hook up with a new coach, Simon Mayne, and the pair opted to try a new event – the men's 150m individual medley SM4.
In their first full year together, Leslie blitzed to "a shock" gold medal in a world-record time in their new event at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics – a feat he was to repeat at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Para swimmer Cameron Leslie on his way to silver in the men's S4 50m backstroke at the World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira.
■ Para swimming is swimming for people with impairments resulting from a health condition (disability). Para athletes can have a physical, visual or intellectual impairment and compete in a variety of classes, depending on their functional ability to perform each stroke. Para swimming competitions include freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and medley events.
The Para swimming events cover the four strokes, the medley and relays, with a range of functional classes for each event.
Para swimming caters for three impairment groups – physical, visual and intellectual. The sport class names in swimming consist of a prefix S, SM or SB and a number. The prefixes stand for the event and the number indicates the sport class the athlete competes in during the respective event.
The prefixes stand for: S: freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events; SM: individual medley; SB: breaststroke.
