Swimmers have 16 reasons to smile

Triple gold medallist Sophie Pascoe receives a warm welcome home. Photo / Jason Oxenham

For New Zealand's para swimmers, the challenge between now and next year's Rio Paralympics is not just maintaining standards but bettering them.

Having returned from the IPC world champs in Glasgow with a bumper 16 medals, New Zealand are looking to further lift themselves before Rio.

"It's certainly stepped up since London," silver medal medley swimmer Cameron Leslie said yesterday of the improved standards since the 2012 Paralympics.

The New Zealand Para-swimming team at Auckland International airport. Back row (from left) Sophie Pascoe, Nikita Howarth, Cameron Leslie and coach John Shaw. Front row: Rebecca Dubber (left) and Jesse Reynolds. Photo / Jason Oxenham

"Some of that is to do with the exposure from London. It showed disabled sport is not participation based, it is a high-performance environment.

"We've seen a lot more fresh athletes coming in with a high-performance mentality from the get go, which is raising the bar for everyone."

As an example, Leslie, unbeaten since 2008, on course for his third Paralympics and world No 1, produced his best time since London, 2min 26.55s in taking silver in his 150m SM4 category final. Russian Roman Zhdanov clocked 2:25.24. It was Leslie's fastest swim since setting that world record three years ago.

He's got no gripes. He'd produced an outstanding time and was simply beaten at the death by a top swim.

"I shouldn't be disappointment with the performance but that's the inner perfectionist coming out," he quipped. "But it looks really good for me in tracking [towards Rio] and there's a lot more work to be done."

Five swimmers bagged medals in Glasgow, star duo Sophie Pascoe and Mary Fisher snaring 11 between them.

Five spots have been secured for New Zealand for Rio with the hope of more to come through improved rankings out of Glasgow.

A detailed programme is being bedded down between now and Rio, according to head performance coach Jon Shaw.

"Competition has got so tight you have to make sure everyone's preparation is top drawer," Shaw said.

"It's getting to the stage where you have to do pbs (personal bests) in the morning (heats) just to make the finals.

"Sophie's class is one of the most competitive. When you're battling four or five girls within half a second of each other over 100m freestyle it's very competitive," Shaw added.
From December to May a stream of competitions are being planned.

There are trips to the Queensland championships in December, tentatively the Australian nationals in Adelaide in April and the Berlin Open in May, alongside two meets in Auckland in January and February.

Down time will be important in a busy schedule but, as Leslie put it, one of the keys is making sure all the stones are overturned to ensure nothing is left to chance come Rio.