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The start of something extraordinary

Best Ever Performance for Team NZ at 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships

On the final day of the IPC Swimming World Championships the 2013 New Zealand team cemented themselves in NZ swimming history by winning the biggest medal haul by a NZ team ever at an IPC Swimming World Championships. 

The outstanding total of 15 medals with 12 gold brought NZ to 4th place on the medal table.  The staggering dozen gold medals were coupled with 3 World records and 4 Oceania records.  Sophie Pascoe and Mary Fisher once again led the way on the final day with a gold medal each with Pascoe breaking the world record in her event.  Nikita Howarth of Cambridge was the surprise package of the day winning her first world title and adding gold to her bronze from earlier in the championship. 

Jon Shaw (Head Performance Coach, Paralympics New Zealand) says, "This has been a very good meet for the Paralympics New Zealand Swim Team. Outstanding efforts by all our swimmers, team and home coaches together with our support staff.”

He continued, “We have gained a lot from this meet and we will move forward with plenty of momentum. There is work to do and our coaches and swimmers will embrace the challenges ahead on the road to Rio”

Mary Fisher won her fifth world title in Montreal 2013 in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley SM11.  As Paralympic champion in the event she defended her title with a great time of 2 minutes 50.25 seconds.  Silver medallist Daniela Schulte from Germany and bronze medallist Maja Reichard from Sweden joined Fisher on the podium. Fisher has finished the IPC Swimming World Championship with 5 gold and a silver medal.

Sophie Pascoe took to the pool as the fastest qualifier and looking to improve on her silver from London 2012 and Eindhoven 2010 in the Women’s 50m freestyle S10. She did this in style in a world record time of 27.78 seconds, breaking the 28 second mark for the first time. The gold medal bringing her to five gold medals from 5 events at the championship.  Elodie Lorandi of France chased Pascoe home for the silver medal with Canadian Aurelie Rivard collecting the bronze.

Nikita Howarth, delivered in spectacular fashion collecting her first world championship title and second medal in as many days in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley SM7.  She swam a strong race winning gold in 3 minutes 2.70 seconds just 0.34 seconds ahead of Brianna Nelson who had to settle for silver ahead of a home Canadian crowd.  They were followed by Cortney Jordan of USA on the podium for the bronze.


Event replays available at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ParalympicSportTV