Gold and silver for Kiwi duo at world para-swimming champs

Sophie Pascoe. Photo / Simon Watts.

The penultimate day of racing in Glasgow saw the New Zealand Para-Swimming team bring the medal haul to 15 with Sophie Pascoe winning Gold and Rebecca Dubber winning Silver.

Sophie Pascoe qualified second fastest for the Women's S10 100m Freestyle and knew she would have to give the final everything. And that she did. Pascoe swam down Aurelie Rivard (Canada) in the last 25 metres to take Gold (1:00.16) by 0.09 seconds and retain her World Championship title.

Rebecca Dubber returned to the pool in the Women's S7 100m Backstroke hoping to make this her second medal of the Championships. She took pole position in the final after qualifying with the fastest time. Rival Courtney Jordan (USA) took the lead early however Dubber stayed with her all the way. Dubber sprinted hard at the finish only to be beaten to the wall by 0.65 second by Ying Zhang (China) to win Silver. Dubber's time of 1:23.98 was also a significant personal best. Fellow Kiwi Nikita Howarth came in 5th (1:28.09), taking 3.5 seconds off her personal best.

Jesse Reynolds swam a great heat to qualify second fastest for the Men's S9 400m Freestyle. Reynolds finished 5th (4:27.09) in his best ever World Championships performance and personal best time.

The final Kiwi in the water on Day 6 was Mary Fisher in the Women's SB11 100m Breaststroke. This is not Fisher's favoured event and her time of 1:38.25 saw her place 6th.

Jon Shaw (Head Performance Coach, Para-Swimming) said, "Tonight saw outstanding achievements by both Sophie and Rebecca. Sophie swam a great technical race and Rebecca's personal best was fantastic. It was a superb day for the NZ Para-Swimmers with all clocking personal best times and putting themselves in a great position for Rio 2016 Paralympic Games." He continues, "Tomorrow the Championships will cumulate with the Women's 34 point 4 x 100m relay. The team of Sophie Pascoe, Nikita Howarth, Georgia Gray and Rebecca Dubber will give it everything they have."

The final day of racing (Monday morning NZT) will see all eight Kiwi Para-Swimmers in the water including the Women's relay team and Mary Fisher reswimming the Women's S11 50m Freestyle. The New Zealand Para-Swimming team have now won 15 medals including 8 Gold, 5 Silver and 2 Bronze.