Kiwis light up the pool on Day 3 of IPC Swimming World Championships

The New Zealand Para-Swimming team set the pool alight in Glasgow this morning winning four medals from four finals and taking the number of Rio 2016 Paralympic Games slots confirmed for the nation to four.

Mary Fisher continued on her golden way winning the Women’s S11 100m Backstroke in style.  The 22 year old swam her way to a Championships record time of 1:19.77 ahead of Germany's Daniela Schulte (1:21.33) and Ukraine's Maryna Piddubna (1:25.18)..  Ensuring she holds onto her number 1 world ranking in this event. 

Next in the pool was London 2012 Paralympian Rebecca Dubber who swam the race of her life to win Silver and a personal best time in the Women’s S7 400m Freestyle.  Her time of 5:25.34 putting memories of years of injury well behind her.  This was Rebecca’s first World Championships medal and the fastest time she has swam since London 2012.

Rebecca Dubber said, “Tonight I put four years of injury struggles behind me, trusted in my process and swam beyond what I thought I was physically and mentally capable of. The result? A new personal best time and a Silver medal. So incredibly excited and proud of what I have ach ievedtonight and always it would not have been possible without the support of my incredible coach Gary and my parents who were here [in Glasgow] in person to watch me swim tonight.”

Sophie Pascoe continued to grow her medal haul winning Bronze in the Women’s SB9 100m Breaststroke (1:19.74).  Dutch 14-year-old Chantalle Zijderveld (1:17.96) stormed to her first career world title, ahead of Silver medallist China's Meng Zhang (1:18.81).  This was an outstanding swim in one of the most competitive classes at the World Championships.  She will now look focus on her key events throughout the rest of the Championships.

In a blistering final Cameron Leslie won Silver in the Men’s SM4 150m Individual Medley (2:26.55). Cameron has dominated this event since the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and it took Russian Roman Zhdanov to swim a new world record time of 2:25.24 to beat him. This was Cameron’s fastest time since London 2012 Paralympic Games and bodes well for 2016.

The New Zealand Para-swimming team have now won 8 medals including 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze.

Watch finals action live on www.attitudelive.com/glasgow

Notes:

• Watch finals action live on www.attitudelive.com/glasgow
• The IPC Swimming World Championships will attract around 580 swimmers from 70 countries for the biggest Para-Swimming international competition ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games
• The event is taking place on 13 – 19 July 2015 in Glasgow, Scotland.