Medals flow at the Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships

Day two of the Pan Pacific Para-Swimming Championships at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Centre in California saw the NZ Para-Swim team win a total of two gold medals and one silver medal.

There were terrific swims by all the NZ Para-Swimmers who competed. The finals session started with the Women’s 400m free and Rebecca Dubber swam a brilliant race to claim the Silver medal in her fastest time of 05:32.07 since the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Next up was Tayla Clement (S9) who recorded a PB time of 05:30.54 placing her 6^th in the final. Mary Fisher (S11) was not to be outdone by her teammates and swam a world’s best and PB of 05:18.12 to claim the Gold Medal.

After a brilliant PB in her heat swim of 0:36.28 in the S7 Women’s 50m Fly this morning Nikita Howarth was the fastest qualifier for the final. She swam a very determined race and led from the start to record a very fast 0:35.35...another terrific PB for Nikita and a Gold Medal.

The Men’s 100m fly was next and Jesse Reynolds and Christopher Arbuthnott kept the NZ flag flying. Jesse swam a great PB to finish 4^th in 01:05.34...dropping 1.74 seconds off his previous best. After establishing a PB in the heats (1:08.47) Christopher made his first international final and was placed 5^th in a smart time of 1:08.76.

Both Christopher (S9) and Daniel Gaualofa (S10) competed in the heats of the Men’s 50m free this morning. Both established PB’s but narrowly missed their respective finals.

So far over 2 days competition the NZ team has amassed 16 PB swims with each swimmer establishing at least one personal best. The medal tally stands at 4 Gold and 1 Silver.

Tomorrow the team have another strong day with the Women’s 100m backstroke, Men’s 100m free, Men’s 100m breaststroke and the Women’s 34 point 4 x 100m Medley relay.

Results for Day 2 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