Golden glow for Mary Fisher at the Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships

Mary Fisher once again showed the Para-Swimming world that she means business by winning gold in both the 50m Freestyle S11 and 100m Butterfly S11 on the first day of the Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships in California.

Fisher won the 50m Freestyle S11 convincingly and with a personal best time of 0:30.96, only 0.02 off the World record.

The NZ Para-Swim team also set two personal bests in the Men’s 400m Freestyle finals with 2013 World Championships team member Jesse Reynolds placing 4^th in the S9 400m Freestyle with a time of 04:31.18. Followed by Daniel Gaualofa on his international debut placing 6^th in the S10 400m Freestyle in a time of 04:52.23.

Jon Shaw (PNZ Head Swim Coach) said, "It was a solid start for the PNZ Swim Team at the 2014 Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships in Pasadena. All eight swimmers took to the water with six producing PB's.

"It was pleasing to see the four debutants swim well throughout the day which bodes well for them for the rest of the meet...a great experience. The swimmers have had a perfect lead into the meet and from a team perspective have really come together with great support for each other.

"Mary Fishers 50m freestyle was a great PB narrowly missing the world record and producing the fastest swim in the world since 2012. We are looking forward to Day 2."

The rest of the eight strong team took to the pool earlier in the day including London Paralympians Nikita Howarth and Rebecca Dubber. Newcomers Georgia Gray, Tayla Clement and Chris Arbuthnott made their international debut.

There were a number of very good heat swims earlier this morning (NZT) to claim the final’s spots. Some of the highlights were:

Men’s 400m Freestyle heats:

PB’s to Christopher Arbuthnott S9 (05:00.49) and Daniel Gaualofa S10 (04:52.34) in the heats saw Daniel make the S10 400 free Final. Jesse Reynolds S9 time of 04:34.02 saw him qualify for the S9 400 final in 4^th position

Women’s 100m ButterFly heats:

Tayla Clement (S9) qualified for the final after swimming 01:36.21 in the heat. Also swimming in the 100m Fly final as fastest qualifier will be Mary Fisher (S11) after swimming 01:19.02 in the heat.

Women’s 50m Freestyle heats:

Terrific PB’s by Rebecca Dubber S7 (0:36.25) and Georgia Gray S9 (0:31.17) will see both girls swim in their respective finals. They will be joined in the finals of the 50m free by Nikita Howarth S7 (0:37.60) and Mary Fisher S11 (0:32.03).

Tayla Clement S9 finished in 9^th position with a time of 0:33.95.

Results for Day 1 finals:

Note – the 2014 Pan-Pacific Para-Swimming Championships is taking place in Pasadena, California, USA from 6 – 10 August. Swimmers from 19 countries are competing.

For more details please contact:

Melissa Dawson, Media Liaison
Paralympics New Zealand
Ph – 0204 0044 799 or 09 526 0760